Our first Santa encounter.

This her WTF look. But it is better then crying!

We met Ryan's cousin at a local pub that advertised this jolly guy was going to be there. It definitely beat standing in line at the hot, stinky mall for an hour with a bunch of screaming brats.

We had a nice lunch (honest-to-goodness Irish fare) and Santa sat upstairs and the servers let you know when it was your turn to go up and visit him.

Ryan and I both thought she was going to lose it but our girl proved us wrong (something I am sure we have to get used to sooner or later)

I plopped her down on his knee and she gave us a look at first:

She liked his beard and Irish brogue and when he came downstairs to walk around, she could not take her eyes off of him.









The rest of our weekend was the usual running around and never stopping and then it is Monday before you know it!

Friday was a trip to the peditrician for our 2nd round of flu shot (don't judge, like everything else in life, it is our choice as parents to protect our children in the best way possible.I won't judge you for NOT vaccinating your child) some running around and back to make and eat dinner then an exciting Friday night filling out Christmas card addresses and watching the Hangover II.  (Zach Galifanakis - you ROCK).

Saturday was a relaxed morning and then my sister and I took Avery and our cousin's kids (our 2nd cousins?) to Ikea. I could spend hours in Ikea, maybe live there if I had to. We had a cheap lunch, got some stuff we needed and probably even more of what we didn't need.

Mason, Avery, and Ana!

Avery and I had a few slices of pizza with Dada at a local pizza place then we went to see my best friend's son's ice hockey game. Avery LOVES sports - I am sure it all the action but I think it makes her Daddy proud. Then we went home and Avery stayed home with Ryan while my sister and I went to a Christmas party at my cousin's home. It snowed Saturday night, a light dusting but it made the roads pretty slick and any overpass was frozen so there were accidents  all over. My sister stayed over and we watched the Help. I love sister time. And I love my sister. I don't know what I would do without her. That is a whole other post to write.

That is our not-so-exciting weekend in a nutshell (or a long blog post). This is a short work week then I am off until January 3rd! Cannot wait! Not ready for Christmas but I am realizing I never am. It is always such a let down anyway....hoping Avery changes that for us!

Happy Monday!

xoxo