Crown Center, Fritz's and Crayola Cafe Christmas

Aron was supposed to be off work today but had to go in to work in the afternoon. We were supposed to go to Crown Center the week before at night, but – you guessed it – he also had to work every single night that week.

So we set off for Fritz’s restaurant at Crown Center. Your food comes to you via a little train! So cool! But once we got there, it was clear we would have to change our plans if Daddy was going to get to work. The line was at least a 45-minute wait (I’m a little annoyed as I write this, as I just discovered Aron deleted my precious pix of the HUGE line at Fritz’s).

We forgot it was the first day of Christmas break and that every good parent had taken the day off to take their kid to Fritz’s, not to mention all the tourists and out-of-town visitors. (Yes, smart-alleck people NOT from KC … we have tourists!!!).

Okay, so on to Plan B. I had Aron run up to see if Crayola Café had a line. He came back down and said no line. So we ate there … yummy! The kids didn’t whine, and I promised them we’d come back to Fritz’s in 2009. Here’s a pic, with the building where I used to work in the background (ah, soul-sucking Fleishman-Hillard Public Relations). That lady needs to get out of my shot.


Then on to see Santa and play leisurely at CrayolaLand (a big play area made up of huge plastic and rubber crayons).

No dice.

The line for THAT was about an hour or so, and the kids would only get ONCE around the obstacle course of CrayolaLand.

My kids are awesome. I told them anyone standing in that line was insane and they could play on the escalators instead and that we’d go see Santa at the mall close to our house sometime before Christmas. Then Aron bought us Sheridan’s, and we were good to go. Have you ever had a Sheridan’s mocha wowiechino??? Heaven.

Once home, Aron went to work and I took Joel to Ellen’s to play with her kids since he was dying for some social time. Later I hit the Red Box ALONE and got 5 movies and went to the grocery store for a few things. I forgot I could walk so fast through a store!

We usually go see Santa in early December. Last year we waited until Eva was born to go. This year lethargy set in. What can I say? We discovered the pool, Aron had to work a lot, we did lots of other fun things.

When do/did you go see Santa? Where? Gimme a link back to your blog in the Comments section if you have a photo or post to share.

When Is the Santa Jig Up? Part Deux

More on the farce that is Santa.

I personally pretended to believe in him until I was about 13 years old, but I was an only child.

WRAPPING
A few years ago Joel noticed that Santa had wrapped presents in the same wrapping paper that Mommy and Daddy have. Crap! So I told him Santa sometimes has to wrap things when he gets to a kid’s house.

Now we TRY to have separate “Santa” paper from regular paper, but it gets confusing dealing with THAT while also trying to keep 4 kids fed, watered, alive, occupied, educated and clean (my mom will argue with me on the “clean” point).

We usually frantically wrap gifts the night before Christmas. It stinks. Or else I hand off duties to my husband and assume he knows what’s up even though he hasn’t been around. Poor guy. This year I got my crap together and snuck downstairs and wrapped stuff BEFORE the 24th … yeah, me!

How about some humorous stories or tips?

When Is the Santa Jig Up?

I live in fear of my kids finding out the real deal about Santa. I know a family who never did the Santa thing with their oldest kid, but now they ARE doing it with their 3-year-old. I know a man who told his son the real deal about Santa WITHOUT discussing it with his wife first! We’ve always tried to do the Santa thing, and it is exhausting.

SHOPPING
Ever try to shop for your kids when your husband is out of town or working all the time? I used to be able to sneak stuff in the cart under my coat, but Security always looked at me funny. Most of the time I have to run out with only a baby in tow while my mom looks after the kids. Without my mom, I swear there would be no Christmas at my house some years.

After Eva was born I had to go to Toys R Us … Sweet Baby Jesus!!! I took Callie because she was still attached to me and didn’t grasp the concept of Christmas yet, and I took Eva because she was nursing. Yeah, NURSING. As in, (make sure you get the visual on this one) I’m walking through the Toys R Us pushing Callie in a cart full of stuff, holding a list to make sure I get the right stuff, navigating through throngs of stupid people acting like they’ve never seen a damn toy before, and I’m NURSING the baby one-armed while trying not to show too much of my back fat (never mind my boob … back fat is way more embarrassing).

STORING
My house is not a mansion. And I have kids who love to play hide and seek. Whatever will fit on top of our commercial freezer in the basement gets stuck there. The rest … well, I’d have to refer you to my husband on that one because I don’t know.

Mom, where did you hide my gifts? And tell the nice people in Blog World about that concept of non-instant gratification called LAYAWAY!

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the wrapping of said gifts.