Jammies Plus

And just like that Thanksgiving is over.

Thomas and I did brave a trip to the mall yesterday. *Gasp!* I have never shopped the day after Thanksgiving, for several reasons that I won't go into, but yesterday I wanted to make it to Old Navy for their sale, so I picked the mall I hoped would be least crowded and took a chance. You laugh, but it worked; we have three malls in our general area, and in addition to timing it right (not too early), I weighed the differences as follows:

1) The biggest mall is in Albany, but not only is that the farthest away, there is never a time when that mall is not insanely crowded. Plus, the ramp to the mall is infamous for car accidents, and while I realize you might think I get a thrill from car accidents since I do handle them every day, all day, and continue to talk about them at home, the cold hard truth is that I really don't want to be involved in one.

2) The second mall is really close and is great because it's never busy or crowded, but of course there is a reason for that; the mall lacks a lot of stores for which people specifically go to malls. One of those, unfortunately for me, is Old Navy.

3) The third mall is somewhere in between, size-wise, but it is usually very quiet, and while it doesn't have everything, it does have *you guessed it* Old Navy.

Hopefully you figured out that I picked Mall #3. #3 was definitely the busiest I have ever seen it, but it really was just like any other mall on the average day, and everyone was in a good mood, so I was happy.

We didn't buy gifts, but I did buy Thomas some winter boots and two pair of jammies. I even snuck in a pair of very cozy jammies for myself. Unfortunately when we came home and searched through our bag of goodies I realized that one pair of jammies was size 6-12 months. (It was busy, and I had to search for a 4T. I thought I had grabbed the right one... Apparently I didn't double check.) Now I know Thomas is small, but I didn't think that would quite do it, and I'd say they might look cute on me but, well, no. Needless to say, we took a second trip to Old Navy today to exchange them, and it was, once again, the quiet mall that I have always known it to be, so we were able to pick up a couple of additional clothing items that we needed. It was a very successful trip. (It helped that we followed up with lunch at the 99. Our bank account might regret it, but at least we enjoyed it.)

As you can see from the photo, we also decorated our tree tonight. Thomas kept hanging ornaments on the same three branches, all very close together, and I kept moving them to make room for the next, which was actually more amusing than anything else. Picture somewhat of a production line. ...No, it wasn't that bad, but it was funny. I suppose I should explain that I am sort-of design picky, if that makes sense (or if it doesn't, for that matter). What I mean by that is that I like to have everything set up a certain way. I just like my surroundings to be comfortable, and part of that, for me, is having some sort of balance. Yes, basically, I'm weird. In any case, what that meant for tonight was that I knew my silly need for balance was not important, and that Tommy should hang the ornaments wherever he wanted (or else what kind of parent would I be), so I let him hang them where he wanted and *ssshhhh* moved a few later... just a few, really! The funny thing is that Thomas saw me doing it a little while he was decorating, so during dinner he kept getting up to move ornaments, and all I could do was laugh and think, "Oh no! What have I done to my poor child?!" He was, as always, very cute. Brian tried to take some video, but as luck would have it, the battery needed charging. (That's another story.)

*Sigh* So much more to write, but I don't want to miss out on any more time with Brian (we are both hopeless computer addicts), so I'll just leave you with this dancing penguin. More soon!

(If he's not dancing refresh the page and he'll start again; he gets tired.)