Christmas Break re-cap

2 Hour Adventure at the Mall of America
The girls really wanted to get more clothes for the new American Girl Dolls. I made the mistake of telling them that there is a store at the Mall of America. . . so that's all I heard about for days. "When are we going to GO!" They are smart and know that the Mall is only about an hour from our house. A drive they were more than willing to make. I decided that Monday would be the best day and found a place for the boys to go play. I knew they wouldn't really want to go to the doll store.
We arrived at the HUGE mall at about 11 a.m. For some strange reason I thought there wouldn't be that many people at the mall that day. Man was I WRONG! There were WAY too many people there to make it a pleasant experience for me. I hate crowds and waiting in line and that was pretty much what we were in for.
We immediately found the much sought after store and joined about a million other people in that smallish store. The lines were HUGE and the layout was weird. BUT being the good mom I am, I swallowed my irritation at the whole thing and helped the girls shop for what they wanted. They FINALLY made their decision and we then waited in the long line. It actually went faster than I thought it would. YEA!
There were a few other stores I wanted to check out quickly have lunch and leave. The girls were very patient and played with their dolls while I did some shopping. We then decided we were VERY hungry and hunted for a place to eat. The restaurant they wanted to go to had a wait of just over and hour, too long for our hungry stomachs. Kambrie however found two stuffed animals she wanted to buy (like she NEEDS any more) and we continued our search for food. We went up to the food court and quickly realized that we wouldn't be eating any time soon if we stayed there. I told the girls we could just leave and hit the McDonald's that was on the way. . . it would probably take us just as long to find food and find a seat there. Thankfully they were all for that idea so we left. Whew. . . I was pretty happy to be out of there. And I must say that is the shortest amount of time I have EVER spent at the Mall of America. It is usually an all day event. There were just too many people there and the girls were pretty much done after they had been to the American Girl Doll store.

The New Year Activities
Every year I have grand plans about New Years. . . and like most, I decided I don't want to do much. The Johnstons (just Shelly and the kids)were going to come down and that was party enough for me. I knew the kids would be entertained and Shelly and I don't have to try too hard to find something to do. We also had a friend that was going to be alone that night, so I suggested that Phil go do something with him and Shelly and I would hang out at the house. I dropped the 13 year olds off at a party at a local church and then spent the rest of the evening watching movies and eating chocolate with Shelly. The rest of the kids were having fun playing, Kyson and Logan went to bed about 11 p.m. and the girls made until just after midnight.
The next day Shelly and I decided the hit the local and much smaller mall and we had a great time shopping and having lunch. We had to end our day a little early when Kaden decided to lop part of his pinkie off with a sharp knife while cutting bread. Thankfully we have a friend (thanks Aric)that was home and he took care of him so we didn't have to waste tons of time in the ER on a Holiday! I really don't know what we will do if we ever move from here, we are so spoiled to have so many friends in the medical profession that can help us out instead of the ER.
I think that most of the time Shelly was here we pretty much shopped, watched movies, ate and played on the computer. You can check out her post here. We continued to eat and play our way through the time they were here including breakfast with more friends. It was a great time and it was bitter sweet to see our lovely break from our normally crazy routine come to an end.
Now it is just time to play catch up after taking so much time of my normal duties. I had a great time playing with the kids and spending more time with Phil. Also, I had a chance to spend some time with friends that I don't normally see a lot of.