Thankful for Family

The week before Thanksgiving is always a week of dress up days at school to fill the food bank bins. We have crazy hair day, spirit day, mismatch day, etc. Grayson has aged out of it (what, he's only in fourth and already it's not cool to do twin day?) but Matalley was all about every day. Crazy hair day (which G did participate in) included 5 different colors in her hair...

She cried and cried on mismatch day because she had 'no idea' how to dress mismatch. "I just can't mismatch Mom, I don't know how to do it, I must be stupid." (Seriously the drama she elicits). Tell me after looking again at the crazy hair day picture that the girl doesn't understand how to mismatch. I kindly picked out an outfit for her in which she cried and got mad because the pants do match the shirt...

So I gave her the vest and she was okay with it. If you are onto the theme of Matalley drama, this next picture will make perfect sense. It was taken in the car on the way down to Waco/Dallas for Thanksgiving.
 

 

 
 
 

 Because writing it and passing it to me was so much more efficient than just telling me.

We made it to Dallas with no major issues except that we forgot some gifts and Grayson's suit case (so yes, it was a little problem). We got to the hotel and headed down to happy hour before deciding a shopping trip was in order. I told Grayson it was his Christmas present and he was a little bummed. I also had no idea that the kids could survive with much satisfaction on nachos and ranch dip with a few carrots...the things you learn at happy hour.

We opted to view the "12 days of Christmas" exhibit at the Botanical Gardens in Dallas.

Millie was in awe of the lights and music. She's quite the dancer and gets her hips moving to the music.

The best thing about staying in hotels (besides someone else picking up after us...they REALLY earn their wages after cleaning our room), is how excited the kids are to be in the room. They open every drawer, point out all the amenities, and giggle in anticipation of who gets to push the elevator button or open the door. It cracks me up every time. The pool is the highlight always and sweet Lola tried in her cast but the darn cast cover has a hole and so the cast got wet. I spent the next half-hour trying to dry it with a hairdryer, gagging at the thought of the smell when her cast comes off.

We watched the Macy's day parade at our hotel breakfast, grabbed a Thanksgiving meal at the local grocery store and headed to Tia's for lunch and then onto see Mimi.

Friday was not spent shopping. Instead we drove to Aunt Jackie's for lunch and tried to stay out of the rain. (I stayed out of the rain, the kids couldn't help but play in it).

We had a lesson in bird carving

And Lola made friends with Paxton...seems she dropped a lot of goodies for him.

Football viewing before heading to see the Baylor game

Only Matt, Grayson and I were crazy enough to attempt the very wet and cold game. We were warm enough except for the areas  not protected by rain gear (feet and legs). If only we had our snow pants and boots. At one point the ref added 6 seconds back on the game clock and the entire crowd groaned. IT WAS SO COLD and very reminiscent of the December light parade in Denver and my not warming moon boots.



Then it was off to another hotel with more excitement about beds, drawers, and shampoo bottles. We planned to leave the next morning but roads in Amarillo were sketchy so we decided to stay and visit Santa. The wait at Northpark if you don't arrive for an 8am ticket, is about 4 hours. We attempted a family movie "The Good Dinosaur." Matalley cried through most of it but said it was because she was so happy at the end. Millie didn't last long. Since I had Millie and we were not doing the end of the movie, I decided to do a little shopping for clean shirts for the next day and happened upon matching shirts for all the kids. The timing was perfect. We all met up at the Santa line covered in breakfast syrup and whatever else the kids had eaten that day. Now you know that I am constantly repeating, "Use your napkin not your shirt! Blow your nose with a Kleenex! Stop laying on the floor! How are you so messy?" And this day was no different but with a four hour wait to see THE SANTA, there is absolutely no reason to look so messy if you are snapping a picture that your grandkids, grandkids may see. However by the time we met up, we were so close to the front of the line and time was the enemy. I am so incredibly embarrassed by my behavior for the next 2 minutes of this story and it is by my love of "The Middle" that I am even repeating this to you but y'all I had a freak out moment and told them to change. Right there in the middle of upperclass snobbery NorthPark Mall, I made my kids strip down and put on shirts with tags. Lola was crying in the wheelchair because the new shirt was itchy. Millie's stroller rolled over the Santa ticket and I was trying desperately to find the ticket for the elf so we wouldn't be kicked out of line, while trying to calm Lola down. Matalley is bare chested searching for the front of her shirt. Matt is changing Millie's diaper right there on the floor in front of Santa's doorframe and Grayson is giving me grief because his shirt has a collar and what was wrong with his other shirt? I can only imagine how pitiful we looked to all those shoppers and I just hope nobody caught it on camera. I did capture this sweet moment (before noticing that Millie still had a sticker on the front of her shirt). Thank you NorthPark for not kicking us out.

We went to Babes for dinner and although they are known for chicken, Matalley requested the catfish because she had never had it before. She liked it so much, she asked if I would cook if for dinner. The meal was probably my favorite moment of the weekend. And even though I had grand plans to get home Saturday so that Sunday could be spent putting up Christmas décor, we had a really fun Saturday instead.

Our hotel that night included a trip to the pool, excitement over amenities and free breakfast...all the Sadler children need in order to claim a fantastic trip. I am grateful that we had a good time with family and made it back home safely.