Our New NON-TRADITION...

This was a nice, quiet weekend. I had a chance to finish all my hand-made cards, but I still have to send some more, since I came up short. Brian was invited to make a little extra money by being the Santa at this year's Christmas shop. He has such a charisma and is so much fun, that he was a HUGE success. HOWEVER, because of those precise qualities, I had to stay home with Coco! We just knew that she would immediately know that underneath that suit was daddy, and we couldn't take the chance to blow this magical persona... So, this is the only picture that I got of him (my friend Amy sent it to me), and you can't really see him!!! :(

Now, our weekend would've been peaceful and quiet, just watching Christmas movies and drinking hot cocoa. But of course, since Coco didn't get to see Santa, Daddy and I were thinking of something fun for her to do. And where can we see Santa on a nice Sunday afternoon? THE MALL, of course!!!

Ok, this is our new NON-TRADITION. What a bad idea that was!!! For some reason, we haven't been to the mall for at least a couple of years during the Christmas Season, and we absolutely forgot the MADHOUSE that place is! AND, the kids were so tired, they were craby, which made us crabby... pretty frustrating. To begin, coco insisted in taking a cowboy hat that I bought in Mexico when I was visiting last year. I asked her to NOT take it, but she really insisted so much, so I figured she'd forget about it before we got to the mall. WRONG! Of course, she wants to take it. And of course, she gets tired of the darn thing two minutes into our walking in. So, I get stuck with carrying the rest of the day.

When we got there, Santa was at lunch, but even then, there was a huge line to go and see him. So, we took Coco and Connor to the playground they have inside. BIG mistake! All sorts of kids pushing, shoving, just plain simply running over the younger ones. I'm kidding you not, I saw two kids (a little older than Connor) being stepped on. The parents??? Very fine, thank you! Not one adult telling their kids to behave. I saw Coco trying to be polite, and saying her "I'm sorries" when she was in somebody's way, but the only thing she got in return was pushing and shoving. What is wrong with parents these days???

So, we just took them to the Merry go Round and got out of there as soon as we could... the whole ordeal has been such an unpleasant experience, we certainly marked as a NON-TRADITION for the holidays... NEVER again. Santa's pictures will be now taken in the middle of the week, when the children come back from school and the mall is not the madhouse it was today...