Thursday, December 20, 2012

Advent Days 19 & 20 - Ice Cream and Neiman Marcus

I had big plans to make this Advent more centered around giving, but there have been several days that it just didn't happen.  Yesterday was one of those days.  This pregnancy has been much more uncomfortable than my other two, so I'm just doing what I can do.  I think God's giving me a tiny glimpse of how crazy life is going to get with 3 kids.  I figure it's good to practice feeling like a failure now, so that when I don't get everything accomplished with 3 kids, I'll be used to the feeling and (hopefully!) won't be so hard on myself:)
 
The plan for yesterday was to go buy peppermint ice cream at Target after school and leave some money with a note in the toy aisle for someone to find and use...hopefully a little someone, but we weren't going to be that picky:)  I was just so uncomfortable and tired after working all day, and knew we had a long night ahead of us at church, so I opted to drive through Braums and buy 3 peppermint ice cream cones, instead.  We were also supposed to sing Christmas carols, which ended up consisting of Charlotte belting out her rendition of Jingle Bells in the car.  Hunter reminded me today that we didn't sing the Christmas carols yesterday, so I tried to explain that Jingle Bells was the singing for the day.  His face said it all - lame.
 
Today made up for it, though!  Both kids had their Christmas parties around the same time, so I went to Hunter's and James went to Charlotte's.  Here are the kids making the snack...Christmas trees out of sugar cones... 

Hunter, Greyson, and I...


After school, we came home, unpacked all of the goodies, and picked up the house a little before heading out to our acvitity for today...the tunnel display at Neiman's downtown!  I just knew the kids - especially Hunter - would love it!  The entire experience ended up being myriad of blunders...pretty good symbolism for this whole month so far.  We hit traffic on the way down - which ended up being a blessing because the kids got to snooze in the car.  Then, we had a very stressful drive around downtown because my iphone pulled up the address of the corporate office downtown and not the actual store.  We didn't realize that, though until we parked and walked into the building...we were really confused.  After we figured it out, we decided to walk to Neiman's because my phone said it would only take 5 minutes.  The wind was crazy cold, but this also turned out to be a blessing because as cold as it was, it was fun to walk the kids around downtown and give Hunter a refresher in pedestrian safety:)

We finally made it to the tunnels...yay!  We were a little confused because they seemed empty....aaaaand then we saw the sign.  They closed at 4, and it was 4:47.  My kids handled it so well, though.  We went in the little in between doors to wait in the warmth while James walked back to the car to drive it over and pick us up.  About 5 minutes later, the sweet workers saw us standing there and came over to tell us that adult crawl was going to open at 5:00 (completely different event....you pay $20, crawl through, and get a free cocktail).  She said the kids looked so sad that she'd let them crawl through first once it opened.  I was so thankful to her!  God really used that frustrating trip to show us ow He can bless us in all situations...big or small. 

So I called James, and he headed back over just in time to see the kids crawl in...

Hunter was so speedy that I could never get a picture of him.  Here's his back though:)...

Got a little more of him here!

He was going so quickly that Charlotte was way behind him.  We saw her get to this area which is right before a twisty, covered slide.  She started to turn around, but we yelled up that she had to go forward...
She quickly started crying and just sat there banging on the window, yelling, "mommy!" with tears running down her face.  I just kept shouting, "You can do it!  It's just like the playground!  You'll have so much fun!!"  It was at this point that James asked where Hunter was...I'm so thankful he was on top of that because our son was around the corner, standing alone.  On a busy street in downtown Dallas.  Safe.  Luckily, he wasn't upset and came skipping around the corner just in time for Charlotte to reluctantly slide down the slide.  It turns out my encouraging shouts didn't motivate her as much as the adult that was coming up behind her.  I guess he was more scary than the slide.

She went the rest of the way without stopping, but every time she'd look at me, her bottom lip was pooched out.



Until she finally escaped and gave me this face...

We cheered her up with a trip inside of Neiman's to play in the kids area and look at all of their beautiful decorations.  No pictures, though, because she was definitely not in the mood for that!

Our verses over the last three nights have been all about the Magi and King Herod...

"When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.'"
Matthew 2:3-8
 
Dun dun dun!  What a cliff hanger.  I told Charlotte and Hunter that I think King Herod was trying to trick the Magi, and Hunter said, "Yeah!  He's saying he wants to find Jesus to worship him, but he really wants to kill him!"  Smart boy:)

1 comment:

The Hunter Family said...

Oh my gosh! That is hilarious! Mostly because it sounds like something one of my girls would have done. We did Christmas trees like that at Isaac's party- guess everybody's on Pinterest these days. Love you. Call you soon!