Ho Ho Ho!

No holiday is complete with a visit to see the big guy! We took the kids to the smaller, swankier mall in the hopes that it would be less crowded and we were right. No one was there! It was our least stressful Santa visit to date. He was very realistic with a real beard and ruddy complexion. Only Hadley was slightly apprehensive. Wyatt started announcing his request for Skylander Giants from about 10 feet away but repeated it once he got closer. I had to nudge Hadley along but she finally got close enough to talk to him. She couldn't think of anything to ask for, but she did ask where his reindeer were. He couldn't understand either of them at all (hard of hearing?) so I had to repeat and translate, but no one seemed to mind. Tate was fascinated and just stared and laughed. The kids totally bought it and talked about it the whole way home. We bought the one overpriced obligatory photo, then ignored the sign and took a bunch with our phones.

Another one bites the dust here. Hadley has it now. She started throwing up yesterday afternoon. Sadly for her the last thing she ate was 4 pickles at lunch. She was a mess, crouched over the toilet crying "I don't want to be sick! I don't want to frow up PICKLES!" I assured her no one does. It probably ranks right up there with Chinese food and oysters in terms of things you don't want to taste twice. Poor thing. I think all the green in the toilet was quite alarming and it's sparked a whole new discussion on the various colors of vomit depending on what you eat. Please Lord, let us just GET WELL! Just ONE illness free week is all we want! Is that too much to ask?