Santa Claus Expedition 2007

Well, it's that time of year again! Time to visit the man in the red suit...at the mall. Seriously, though, we have a lot of fun getting together with our best friends, Christina and Marcus, and their kids for our annual trip to visit with Santa. We get a few weird looks from the elves when they realize that the ten of us actually think we are going to visit Santa all together. In the end, we give Santa a break and split up into our respective families for the actual "gift Q&A" and subsequent picture. If you ask me, there's still an overwhelmed look in Santa's eyes when all four of my kids start coming at him fighting for a knee! It's the best spot you know! Honestly, this year, Tayler and Liam were very gracious and relinquished both Santa knees to their younger siblings without incident. Needless to say, I was very proud of them for giving up the best seat in the house without causing a scene! Santa was great too, though, and made sure that despite the distance between them, he leaned over to Tay and Lee and still had a private "talk" with each of them as well. All of the kids enjoyed their trip to Santa this year...even our Godson who sternly "opted out" of sitting with Santa, had a good time just looking at the big guy from afar!

Santa Expedition 2007 was a success (complete with a picture that we can actually share with others)! After, we just spent the rest of the day (and evening) at our friends' house playing games and laughing until the wee hours of the morning (warming up for New Year's Eve). It was a great way to spend a day of our Christmas season...having a great time with the best of friends!

Viva Las Vegas!

Howdy! Scotty and I went to Las Vegas for one of his conferences December 3-8. We had a pretty good time, but unfortunately, my feet were killing me all week long so I declined to walk up and down the strip too much! I mostly spent my time in my hotel room (which was incredible really...aside from a host of small problems with customer service at our hotel, The Wynn).

Other than spending some "me" time taking bubble baths (complete with flat screen television in the bathroom), having leisurely breakfasts (which included things like banana pancakes and smoothies, french toast and cocoa) while overlooking a breathtaking view of the strip, I only made a few jaunts to the Fashion Show Mall directly across the street to pass the time while Scott was in conference. There were a couple of hopping events while we were there including a party hosted by Microsoft, but my favorite evening there was simple and quiet...kicking back watching License to Wed after raiding the mini bar of its entire stock of Diet Coke and snacks!

Although it was very relaxing having nothing to HAVE to do, or no where I HAD to go, I missed the kids so much! I found myself sitting in my luxurious bubble baths (which were special treats that I never have time to indulge in at home) watching, of all things, Nickelodeon! All day long I'd find I was most comforted just having our television "staples" playing in the background (i.e. Dora/Diego, Backyardigans, Spongebob, etc.).

Here are a couple of pics from our trip...enjoy!