Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Stinking Christmas

I'm not one of those moms who continually comes up with fun and exciting activities for her kids to do. There is a lot of down time around here. I could justify that this down time gives my kids time to be creative and learn to entertain themselves. In reality, the down time is probably more for me to get in my daily allowance of reading and writing.

So when I told the boys we were going downtown to see Santa this morning, I naturally thought the boys would be thrilled they didn't have to face another day of sitting around the house.

They weren't.

Ethan said he was too old to see Santa, Jonah said he was afraid, but Isaac seemed excited. My approval rating was 33.3%. That's worse than Obama!

I made an executive order: Everyone was going downtown to see Santa and they'd like it. Now get in the car you lousy, ungrateful kids!

Well, Ethan did stand for a picture with Santa thanks to Santa's helper who said all the right things. This isn't my favorite Santa from the old Meier and Frank days, before Macy's turned the 10th floor from Santa Land to Consumer Land. True to the radio advertisement, Macy's did bring back the monorail, but it was parked, on the floor. Not running around the ceiling like it should have been. Sigh.

I should mention now that Jonah can not smile naturally for photographs. I'm not sure why this is. I should also mention that I was happy to see Donder's name spelled correctly. I recently found out it is indeed "Donder" and not "Donner." Who knew!

Ethan was determined to be bored and miserable.

After our visit with Santa, we wandered across the street to Pioneer Courthouse Square to see the giant Christmas Tree. I know it doesn't look that big in this shot, but it's 75 feet tall. I had to take several pictures of the boys standing in front of it to get one I liked. After this one I said, "That's the money shot." Jonah quickly replied, "We get money?!"

Then we walked a couple blocks to the mall where Ethan found Game Stop. Finally, he could admit the trip was not a complete waste of time.

As for me, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time: Drink a cup of Moonstruck hot chocolate. I chose the Mayan Chocolate. It was delicious.

On the way home I asked the kids: Did you have fun this morning?

Jonah: Yeah!

Isaac: Yes!

Ethan: Kind of.

3 comments:

A. Hunter said...

hello??? Did you forget to tell the kids that "santa" was watching?!?! Leave those rotten snots at home next year and take me instead. we would have had more fun downtown anyway. Hey! That's a great idea...we're coming to your house next year. Done and done!

Marah said...

We watched the tree being constructed in Pioneer Square a few years ago. The tree is delimbed for shipping, and then all the limbs have to be reattached when the tree is erected. I asked one of the workers how they know where to put the limbs, and he said that there is a color code that generally helps them put the limbs in the correct place on the tree.

I didn't know the monorail was back! Well, I guess not all the way back, but maybe I will stop hating Macy's now for taking it away in the first place.

Debbie said...

Too bad obama's ratings can't improve 33% with a one day trip to santa! ;)