My parents come to our house on Thanksgiving morning. Mama helps me finish whatever I'm cooking for the meal, then Daddy, Jeff and Biscuit hang out while Mama and I go to a craft store near our house that has a big sale Thanksgiving night.
Then Friday, Mama and I get up and hit a store or two early Friday morning, then she goes to work with me for a few hours. I get my work done while Mama plays on the Internet.
As soon as I'm done, we meet Daddy, Jeff and Biscuit for lunch, then we go to a local mall to see Santa Claus.
We've done this every year since Biscuit got here.
Except this year, our routine didn't quite work.
First of all, I found out that my brother and his family were coming for Thanksgiving Day. That was a good change in our routine. It was fun having everybody here together. And the kids played so well together, my nephew ended up staying with us for the rest of the weekend.
But as my parents were driving up here, Mama called to say she had forgotten to put the dressing fixings in the car to bring it up here. She always makes the cornbread and biscuits the night before, then crumbles them up with onions and lets is set in a covered bowl on the kitchen counter overnight. And on the way here, she realized that the bowl was still sitting on the kitchen counter.
Jeff and I had eaten at a fancy pants grocery store one night while Biscuit was at Mama's house, and we had some really tasty dressing. It obviously wasn't Mama's dressing, but since we weren't going to have Mama's dressing, Jeff suggested we get enough of that for everybody. There wasn't a price sign, but in a bad assumption, Jeff thought that the price couldn't be that bad. Oh, he was wrong. If I had any idea how much it was going to cost, I would've smacked it out of his hands.
The meal was good, and everyone had plenty to eat. The weather was really nice, and the kids played in the leaves for the rest of the afternoon. Then after my brother and his family went home, Mama and I still caught our craft store sale.
The next morning, we hit one store then went to work.
There were several unexpected "putting out fires" kinds of things I had to do at work. Then the pages I was supposed to get about 10:30 didn't come until 11:45. That basically meant that I was going to be at work an hour and 15 minutes longer than I had planned to. And of course, because I was worried about how late we were going to be for lunch, I was fumbling.
We finally met Daddy, Jeff, Biscuit and my nephew for lunch at the pancake restaurant, then we drove over to where Santa was going to be.
Jeff pulled right into a parking spot, and I was going to park in one of two spots next to him because they were the only spots left. There was a curb in my way, so I had to pull farther into the parking lot and turn around. When I got back to the spot, this car was parked diagonally across both of the two parking places left. For some reason, it flew all over me, and I threw my hands up in the air. I'm sure the lady driving the car saw me.
A car next to the building started backing out of a reserved space, then I realized that's what the woman was waiting for. She was one of the gift wrappers. And she was old. And she had a cane. And I was rude to her. I was pretty embarrassed.
We made our way to the door only to realize that Santa had changed his hours this year. He wasn't even going to be there until 5 p.m. that evening. Everyone else took it in stride, but after the morning I'd had at work and the parking spot incident, I had lost my patience.
Daddy, Jeff, Biscuit and my nephew went to a playground, then went back home. Mama and I went and did some more shopping. And my mood improved.
The next morning, we got up and went to see Santa. We were the first ones there, so we walked right up to see him. He waved at Biscuit, and Biscuit waved back. Then I got ready to give my speech about how Biscuit could go sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. I had turned around to see where Jeff was, and by the time I turned back around, Biscuit was climbing up on Santa's lap. No speech needed.
Surprise, surprise. He told Santa he'd like more firefighters and cowboys.
My nephew was hesitant to sit on Santa's lap. He is 8 after all, and I guess he has to protect his reputation as a cool dude. But he came over and said he was going to visit with Santa Claus because he thought Biscuit would want him to. And I'm glad he did.
Here's Biscuit's picture with Santa:
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| Santa asked Biscuit what he wanted for Christmas, and Biscuit said, "Hmmmmm," and put his finger against his temple. |
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