On the Table

Oh the weekend recap post?! Don't you love them?! It pains me sometimes that I cannot seem to find something more original or even entertaining to kick off the start of a brand new week, but alas it seems a post detailing the comings and goings of our weekend seems to fit the bill perfectly. And that is not to say that our lives are not superbly original AND equally entertaining, of course...

This weekend was a FUN one on so many levels. First off, DADDY left for the weekend which left the Chade-man and I to our own defenses and a house that didn't necessarily have to be picked up before we went to bed each night... SCORE! Daddy enjoyed a nice dude weekend with some friends... varmint hunting, paint balling, ATVing, you know the normal boy weekend type stuff. Campfires... cigars... not showering ALL weekend...YES and double YES... a dude weekend at its best.

Now before you go and feel all sorry for Caden and I and thinking to yourself, "Who in the world did they have to entertain them ALL weekend long?" Well... we are never short on that... remember we live extremely original and entertaining lives. Caden and I had a house guest for the ENTIRE weekend... my sweet cousin Chatty drove in from A&M to spend the weekend with us... which we take as a VERY big compliment seeing as she is definitely in the who's who of Aggieland. Chatty is one of a kind and in case you are wondering no her mother DOES not hate her and really named her Kathleen, but through some twists and turns down the bumpy older cousin road ... Chatty Kathy got shortened to Chatty and I REFUSE to let it die! It fits her... if you know her you KNOW that Chatty works! AND extra bonus... Caden is GREAT at saying CHA-TTY! So cute...

So Chatty arrived Friday night with Pei Wei in hand and FUN finally began! Caden, Chatty and I partied a bit past his bed time that night fueled with the excitement of what the next day had in store... and we knew it would be BIG because guess who was coming to town???!!

SANTA??!! We'll get to Santa in a minute, but first we received a visit from KK and Albi who drove in for the day to see their boy and of course their favorite niece! :) OH and FAVORITE daughter... of course! AND double bonus their pesky son-in-law was G-O-N-E! :)

We had been anticipating KK and Albi's arrival ALL week because we were planning on going to visit Santa and hang out at the Domain... Caden was so excited to visit Santa. WE practiced ALL week saying his name and what he would say when he got to sit in his lap. All things were pointing to a spectacular visit with Santa. SO I dressed him in his cutest Christmas shirt and made sure his hair was nice and combed and off we went to visit the big guy in the red coat! We arrived at the Domain and took our place in line with the many other eager toddlers and parents outside of Santa's Workshop. Caden peered through the window and caught a glimpse of the jolly ol' guy and seemed solid... like rock solid... like I'm not gonna let that silly beard and those goofy glass scare me from getting my Christmas wish... no way!

I was so proud... he was being so brave! When it was our turn, I picked Caden up and headed up to meet Santa... and then suddenly... the switch FLIPPED! I felt an UNUSUALLY strong arm clinging to me, I hear wimpers, I heard NO, No, NO! I felt a head nuzzled in my necklace. I felt my 30+lb child wrap both arms and legs around me. I heard ALL DONE! What happened? Where did my brave boy go?! It was the beard... it was too much... or the glasses... or that shiny gold button on his coat... or the BIG black boots. It was ALL of it. So I graciously thanked the kind man who has to put up, with in my opinion, WAY more than any kind soul should have to and said we'd try again next year! AND with that... we took our sad Santa-phobic boy out to Gloria's... there is NOTHING that a little black bean dip and a Sprite can't cure... NOTHING!

And after Gloria's we tried to make up for the lack of Christmas-photo-op-enthusiasm with Santa (which I keep misspelling as Satan every time I type... eeek) and took a few pics by the BIG Christmas tree... I say few... because Caden was in banshee mode and Albi was in "I must protect the Banshee mode." He is in the scene of almost every picture... silly Albi!

After another failed Christmas-spirit-photo-op we decided that it REALLY is better to GIVE than RECEIVE, which come to think of it has nothing to do with the fact that I didn't get any good pictures... or RECEIVE any good pictures... okay so maybe it kind of works... Regardless, we went into a few stores and helped KK and Chatty pick out a few last minute gifts for people. While in Sur la Table which up until this weekend I have been butchering the pronunciation of... I started at Sur la Table, like Table... like go set the table, but then realized that Sur la Table sounded so blatantly unrefined that it could never be pronounced in such a way, so I modified my pronunciation to Sur la Tab-le, like tab-le, like tob-le not tab-le like TAB the drink. And that seemed right enough... Sur la Tab-le. But alas, my French would prove me stupid yet again when I was greeted by a lovely employee of the establishment with the following, "Welcome to Sur la Tab... " The le is apparently silent... of course it is! Those french... So for your future shopping reference you now know the correct pronunciation of Sur la Table, unless of course the woman who greeted me was new and she too was a little rusty in her French. Ha... So all of that to say that while we were in that fancy kitchen place, Caden picked out two special gifts for TWO very special girls in his life. Chatty already got hers but Aunt Emily... you've got something comin'... picked out especially by Caden. KK and I thought it was so darned cute that we just couldn't resist buying whatever it was he wanted to give ... tis the season after all!

On Sunday morning Caden, Chatty and I bundled up in our warmest jammies and hung out around the house. Caden LOVED having Chatty there to entertain all weekend. And he even learned a few new tricks from his college co-ed cousin... how do you like that alliteration?!! He learned how to be a CONEHEAD...

And he learned that people make great tackle dummies... okay so he already knew that but I sure was happy to have someone else to pass the punch to! :) Thanks for coming to stay with us Chatty and good luck on that last final!! We love you!

And there it is folks... a weekend recap with WAY more details than you were bargaining for and I applaud you if you made it this far!! I'm not even sure if KK will make it to the end of this one!! :)

We've got lots 'on the table' or for you Frenchies out there 'sur la table' (don't forget about that silent le) this week... most posts coming up!!

11 Days until Christmas!!!