One of my LONGEST days...

This past Friday, was one of those days, that just seemed to go on and on...Yes, a big part of that was due to the craziness of my decision to partake in "Black Friday's" Christmas shopping extravaganza. As Erik and I looked through the adds on Thursday night, the vacuum cleaners caught our attention. Our vacuum cleaner has been smoking and we decided that when a vacuum cleaner leaves the carpets dirtier than when you begin that it is probably time for a new one. Erik researched all the vacuums in the ads and we decided on one that was being sold at Kohl's. When I flipped to the front to see the timing, my heart sank when it said 4 am. Oh dear, a short night. So, we made a plan that I would get up early and then later get to nap as Erik drove to Spring Grove. I was at Kohl's at 4:20am, which apparently was late. I could barely find a parking place and was greeted with mass confusion when I walked inside. The line wrapped all the way around the circumference of the store. I got the last vacuum on the shelf and went to get in line...an hour and a half I was out of there. I had so many things on my list, but had to settle for the most necessary. Then I made a relatively quick stop at Target and Sears and made it home by 7:10. As I walked in the house, I was greeted by a pale looking husband who had gotten the flu while I was out. He convinced me that he was ok and could manage to watch the kids while I did my 4 hour shift rating the English proficiency exams. It turned out to be quite the difficult shift. Erik could hardly stay awake, so the kids kept wandering in to my work space. I was trying to do various arts and crafts and listen to the examinees on the computer at the same time. I sometimes had to listen to them 3-4 times, but I eventually got the job done. After I finished working, I fed the kids lunch and packed the suitcases. Erik had progressively gotten worse and decided to just stay home. So, the kids and I drove up to my parents' house in Spring Grove to leave him to a quiet house to rest and heal. The car ride was nice and quiet with two sleeping kids in the back. A few hours after we had arrived in SG, my mom wanted to go and check out the Festival of Trees. This was simply a marvelous event. They had all these adorable store fronts that made you feel like you were walking in this quaint village with places to buy candy, cards, decorate sugar cookies, watch Christmas movies, and visit Santa. In the past, Santa has not been one of Olivia's most loved people. But I had hopes for perhaps just one tiny photo this year with her standing maybe within 5 feet of him. As Santa came in she waved and said, "Hi Santa!" But she had a death grip on my jacket. Soren turned around and was frightened by him and his cries were just enough to feed Olivia's fear. She screamed and clung onto me so tight. I reassured him that we wouldn't go and talk to him and was finally able to get her settled down by going over to watch a movie. She checked Santa every few seconds just to make sure he was still sitting in his chair. She was ok with him now, because she knew he was going to stay there. But then, out came Frosty! Frosty, unfortunately had the misfortune of not having a predictable location and was walking around greeting children. As he approached the movie area, Olivia stood on her chair and began screaming at Frosty at the top of her lungs (I can't emphasize that enough) while wagging her finger. "NO, NO, FROSTY, YOU GO AWAY, BYE, BYE, NO, NO!" I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment. She was wrapped so tightly around my head and body. Her fear had been just enough to send Soren into a huge screaming fit as well. They were both wrapped around me so tightly and screaming so loud that I had the attention of the whole Fest Building. As I was walking out, Soren was screaming so loud that his pacifier fell to the ground. So now I know I was quite the sight as I had to try to pick up the pacifier with 2 screaming kids wrapped around my body. Oh dear. I was so relieved to get outside. All the tiredness of the week and the day engulfed me and soon we had the Ouimette, party of 3 crying outside. I was so thankful to get back to my parents, feed the kids supper and put them to bed, so that I too could hit the hay. Sleep cures so much, as I woke up the next morning with a refreshed view of the prior day's events, I could hardly stop laughing thinking about what a spectacle we must have been. Rest assured Santa, we won't be making any visits to you this Christmas. That's ok, this gives us another opportunity to focus on the true reason for the season.