December 21st, 2010

Kirk is getting heart surgery this morning and Trent is in Kansas City with his family for a couple days.  The girls and I planned to go to Riverview in the morning to visit my Aunt Maryann and hand out cookies to the residents there.  The girls wanted to dress up for the event in one of their Christmas outfits too.  Cathy called the day before and her, Debbie, and Grandpa Coco were going to go to and hand out some gifts to the staff, so it was going to be a nice family morning.  The girls went to every floor handing out cookies and then we gave Maryann some Christmas gifts.  It was a nice morning.  I never leave Riverview feeling happy, mostly I’m frustrated, sad, and confused, but for the first time I left feeling not awful, I’ll take that.  I have a little Christmas list left with a couple errands on it and decided to tackle some since I wasn’t on any schedule.  We went to Trader Joe’s, the girls LOVE their little grocery carts and push one around feeling very adultish.  We got good news from KC that Kirk’s surgery went well, which was a relief.  I decided to stop by Macy’s at the Galleria and it was 12:30, so the girls and I had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.

Oddly enough, none of us ordered pizza.  The girls wanted pasta and I had a salad.  The manager came by our table to ask if everything was okay and saw the girls were dressed up and asked if we were going to see Santa.  Thanks manager lady, that wasn’t on my list, but once the girls got wind the big guy was there, it was all that was on their minds.  Even worse, they wanted to edit what they asked for….3 days before Christmas.  But I was in a mellow mood and decided to skip Syndey’s nap and to spend a nice afternoon at the mall.  We had a great time and it was the first time I was in a mall for hours and didn’t have a stroller or go back to the car to get it.  Huge.

 

    

Sydney was actually frightened at first, which was surprising because she happily sat on Santa’s lap at the Sappington Nursery when we picked up our Christmas tree.  Lauren hopped up and Sydney wanted me to pick her up.  I didn’t want to push the issue, why force her to sit on a stranger’s lap, kinda the exact opposite thing I want her to think is okay.  But the minute Lauren got off Santa’s lap and had a solo picture, Sydney changed her tune and wanted to chat with Santa about adding a Buzz Lightyear to her list and not wanting the Toy Story 3 Barbie.  She knew Lauren already had this exact chat and wanted in on that action.  (damage is officially done, but after some KC store checking by Trent and Sally and Jenny internet surfing this morning…and a fun shipping charge, situation is corrected).  Again, so loving that manager at CPK.  The rest of the afternoon we wandered the mall, scoped the sales, and watched all the shoppers.  We didn’t get home until almost 5 pm and left the house at 9:15 am, I think that’s a personal record. 

The girls had the leftovers from lunch, yogurt, and fruit. 

We had Ryan and Kevin over the night before for dinner and then we all went and saw The Fighter (highly recommend, so good!).  Ryan emailed me this recipe for Tyler Florence’s Green Goddess Dressing awhile back and I decided to make that with a mixed green and shrimp salad with a ricotta, artichoke, and spinach pizza.  There are so many times when I entertain I have every intention on using it on the blog, but then once guests arrive, I completely forget.  This was one of those times.  The only picture I have is of the dressing, which I took in the afternoon.  So long story shortish, I had leftover dressing from that and made a salad for myself.

Great day, Kirk’s surgery is behind us, and the girls and I had fun out and about with the people.