It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So we did the Black Friday thing last week. Pure insanity at 5:00 at "The Wal-Mart" but a lot of fun, too. Scott, my cousin Lorrie, and I got up early and did the trek. My goal was to get Maggie a personal DVD player and pick up a Cabbage Patch for Addie. (Both of which were accomplished.) We headed over to Target afterwards and Scott enjoyed watching a few people fight at the door. I'm pretty ambivilent to it these days because I've done Black Friday for a while now. This was Scott's second time venturing out with me (the last time being about 9 years ago).

That evening we took the girls to the mall just to see what was going on. I wanted to stop by and say "hi" to a friend working at the Disney Store and Scott needed to pick up some cologne. The weird part was - the mall was empty. There were not a lot of shoppers and hardly anyone out with kids which meant Santa was free with NO line. This is where reality sets in - I'm attaching the photo of my two kids with Santa last Friday. They're not dressed up and they pretty much look like two poor little rugrats, but I love this photo. You can't tell but Addie has sweet potatoes on her shirt because she ate at dinner and I didn't have a bib with me. Maggie's shirt is riding up in the back because she's on a growth spurt and most of her shirts ride up these days. Both needed a comb because we'd been out all day and Maggie's hair was windblown and Addie just has crazy hair right now. It's so funny because most people dress their kids up for their photo with Santa. Nope - not me this year. Just plopped them on Santa's lap and snap the photo!



Santa was a great guy, though! He laughed with the kids, held Addie and talked to her and asked Maggie what she wanted. Of course, Maggie does like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" and she sort of freezes and shrugs. I had to remind her that she had asked for an American Girl Doll. (Which has also arrived and is sitting at my brother's house since the box says "American Girl" on the outside! Didn't want UPS dropping that off with Maggie home!)

Scott wanted to put this photo on the Christmas cards but I told him "no". I at least need to dress them up for SOMETHING so it might as well be the Christmas card photo. My plan was to dress us all in Bengals attire and take it but I can't get the husband to go for it. Maybe I could just dress me and the girls up and then photoshop Nick Lachey in there. LOL! Just kidding Scott!

One more day until December. Geesh - where did the year go?