Breakfast with Santa...minus the breakfast.

I almost felt back to normal this weekend as we hurried and hustled from place to place. Our normally busy routine has quite dramatically turned into a very monotonous one since Lauren's birth, and it felt good to be out and about for a bit this weekend. If only I hadn't been sick, I might have really enjoyed myself! But a girl can't get greedy I suppose.

Our Kiwanis Club works with the Country Cupboard each year to sponsor one of the area's Breakfast with Santa events. We decided to make an appearance so that Joshua could make his wishes known to Santa and we could introduce Lauren to a few of our club members who haven't met her yet. And to get me out of the house. Have I mentioned how thrilled I was with that? The "breakfast" part of the event was out of the question there due to the peanut issue--- Joshua's chances of ever eating off of a buffet are slim to none. So we filled his belly with breakfast from home before heading off to see Santa. On the way in the door, Josh wondered where Santa's sleigh was. I'm not entirely sure that Jason and I were prepared to answer that one. Jason quickly piped in that it was probably parked out back, and Joshua seemed satisfied with the information. Phew.

Among his requests this year were Chuck My Talking Truck (check), the Play-Doh spaghetti shop (check) and the robot truck (what?). I'm quickly learning that it's pretty important for mom and dad to be standing close by when the kids talk to Santa. We were unprepared for that request. And just when I thought my Christmas shopping was done, I begin again on a search for a toy that is apparently out of stock many places. Great.

Joshua even got to meet an elf! How cool was that?

And here's what Lauren had to say about the morning's adventure. No pictures with Santa this year. There's no sense traumatizing her by passing her off to a big man in a red suit and a very long beard. So she snoozed away after returning home. I documented this because it is one of the only times that this baby has ever fallen asleep in her car seat during a trip. Long or short trips don't seem to make a difference. She prefers NOT to be in the car seat, and certainly doesn't get comfy enough to close her peepers while we're going from place to place. I keep hoping she'll get used to it. This weekend's upcoming trip to Lewistown would be a super time for her to get it figured out. What do you suppose are the chances of that?

Saturday night we went to our church's Christmas dinner. It was such a nice evening with a great dinner, lots of good company, and then a concert from a local singing/theater group (very show choir-y...I know that's not a word). We figured that Joshua would make it through one, maybe two, songs and then would want to come home, but he was mesmerized. There were lots of costume changes and fun Christmas songs that he recognized. There were even characters, like Santa, a reindeer, elves, penguins and the grinch. After an hour and a half of the show, and Lauren's insistence upon eating (again), we decided to head home. It was already 8:30 (gasp!) and we needed to be back to church again on Sunday morning, so we gathered our troops and headed home, much to the dismay of Mr. Music. God was smiling on us, however, because after his meltdown in the bath, we were blessed to find The Polar Express on TV and that quieted him right down until he peacefully drifted off to sleep.

Sunday morning brought a whole bunch of ice to us....unbeknowst to us until we slid making the turn into the church parking lot and I nearly went you-know-what over tin cups when I stepped from the car to get Lauren out. Even if we had known of the weather, we would have had to go out anyway because we had been asked to handle the lighting of the advent candle this week. Oh dear. We weren't so sure that it was a good idea to mix fire, a three year old, a Mommy with no voice who was supposed to do the reading, and a baby who can break out into hysterics at any moment, but we took a walk on the wild side and agreed to do it. Everything was fine. Jason handled the actual lighting of the candles while keeping Joshua where he was supposed to be. He had the hardest job by far. But when all was said and done, the church was not set on fire and we celebrated the "joy" candle just like we should have.

After church, Joshua asked Pastor Dave to play the drums again, and he was gracious enough to allow him. Oh how I wish I had my camera with me, because at some point it turned from Joshua's drum session into a little jam session between the two of them. Joshua played the drums while Pastor Dave played the guitar along with him. It was precious. People who were standing around talking started taking pictures of them. I'm going to have to see if I might be able to get one of them to share their photos. Getting him to come home was our biggest challenge. I honestly think he would have stayed there all day playing music if Pastor Dave had been up for it.

I wonder what this week will bring?