"Excuse Ma'am, You have Toilet Paper Stuck to Your Shoe..."

Friday morning started out with good intentions. We put Sydney in the cutest dress and shoes she received for her birthday and headed to Northpark to have her picture taken with Santa Claus. Let me explain to those of you who have never seen the Santa Claus that comes to Northpark. This Santa Claus really is Santa Claus. You don't have to see to believe, but trust me if you have seen this Santa Claus you would honestly believe that Santa Claus is in fact real. I think I wanted to have my picture taken with this particular Santa more than Sydney did after seeing his authentic Santa characteristics. Pictures began at 11am. It was 11:45 a.m. There were just a few people standing in line so I ran up to grab my ticket. 182. That was our number to see Santa. 182. I was informed that it would be after 5:30 p.m. before we, I mean Sydney, would get a chance to tell Santa what a good girl she has been all year and what she would like for Christmas. Apparently you can get a ticket to see Santa starting at 9 a.m. I was not aware of this because 1)Jason was in charge of looking up Santa's hours on Northpark's website and 2) Last year, Holly and I took Sydney to the Dallas Arboretum to have her picture made with Santa outside. Jason did not want to go back to the Arboretum this year since we were just there a few weeks ago for their annual pumpkin festival. So Northpark it was. Needless to say, we did not wait it out. We have a better plan for this week and our attempt to see Santa.

Instead we just went and saw the train display. Sydney somewhat seemed to enjoy it, but I think she was having more fun watching all the kids running around.

And then our sweet Sydney turned into a "Terrible Twos going on Three" child. We headed to Maggiano's for lunch and that is where her massive breakdown began. We were seated and Sydney refused to sit down in her booth and threw her shoes into the floor. She proceeded to tell Jason and I several times in the loudest and most authoritative voice, "I don't want to do that." So I decided we need a "potty break." She refused to come out of the booth with me and I had no choice but to physically drag her out of the booth as she tried her best to cling to the table. When I picked her up she hit me. Let me just emphasize what a long potty break we had as there were a lot of things to "talk" about. After this "talk" I took Sydney into the bathroom stall. We were in the downstairs bathroom that two restaurants share and there are only two stalls. By this time, there were about ten women crammed into the restroom, all listening to what was going on in our stall. Other than my voice you could hear a pin drop it was so silent. As if our talk wasn't enough, Sydney refused to use the restroom and threw her body onto the floor. She has the most amazing ability for her legs to somehow go completely limp, and she is unable to do anything at these times. So now my daughter is lying in a bathroom stall absorbing all types of wonderful germs. She continued to scream and refused to use the bathroom. I told her in my "nicest" voice if she used the bathroom in her panties she was going to be in so much trouble. We walked out of the stall and a woman said to me, "It's okay. I am going through the same thing with my son as well." She must have seen the overwhelming amount of distress on my face. The worst part happens right about now. I am carrying Sydney across the entire restaurant back to our booth since her legs don't work anymore. You know the feeling you get when you know someone is staring at you? I had that times 100, and there was a huge party sitting in front of us that really seemed to be interested in our table. I assumed they were just looking at Sydney, until I sat down. No it wasn't toilet paper stuck to my shoes, it was much worse. I felt something stuffed into my pants. Well, I had gone to the restroom when I took Sydney and somehow out of Sydney's massive breakdown and my distress, I had yes, stuffed my sweater into my underwear and my underwear was sticking out about half way up my back for anyone with eyes to notice. Of course I was wearing one of my many black shirts and no my underwear was not black. It stood out nice and loud, great contrast if I must say so myself. I guess that is why some people tend to match their underwear color with their shirt, just in case they have an experience like mine. I profusely apologize to those strangers who had to witness such an event. To top it off, as if showing my underwear to complete strangers was not enough, we had calamari for our appetizer. Sydney really liked it. She thought they were chicken rings. Well, I guess she had enough "chicken rings" for one day when she decided to regurgitate the food back onto the calamari plate. We decided to wrap up our Northpark experience and left.


That same evening we headed to go aboard the Polar Express. If the tickets were refundable I would have gotten my money back based on Sydney's behavior but they are not, and I was not about to waste our money. We put her in her PJ's and headed to the train station. Santa Claus did make an appearance on the train, that was the highlight of the Polar Express for Sydney.

Clapping to Christmas Music

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas

Saturday, Mom came up and we headed to the Church Christmas Play. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. There are some incredibly talented people and it was more than obvious how much time and dedication was put into the play.

Sydney sure does love her Mawmaw

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Pinto's and while the guys watched the Cowboys loose, Holly and I took Sydney to mail a letter to Santa. If you put the return address on the letter Santa is suppose to mail you a letter back. Sydney asked Santa for ABC Princess Ravioli and a Barbie Race Car. Let’s hope Santa’s Elves are friends with Chef Boyardee.

Aunt Holly Ann helping Miss Sydney Ann

Sydney is terrified of Polar Bears right now.  She will wake up in the middle of the night to get in bed with us, because the "polar bears" are going to get her. We haven't figured out if it was the Polar Bear episode she saw on Diego or she is mistaken Patton for a polar bear in the dark.  Regardless, I was pretty suprised she took her picture with the polar bear.

We had another great, fun filled weekend and a busy one ahead of us!