Christmas take two....

It was Christmas "take-two" for us as it wouldn't have been complete until we celebrated with Jocie. Our night started with Jocie opening presents. And surprisingly that went very well considering Isabel was handing Jocie her gifts, but didn't get any gifts herself. I had contemplated earlier about picking up something small for Isabel, so she wouldn't feel left out, but I forgot, so we just hoped Isabel wouldn't noticed. And she didn't!! But I'm sure it also helped that we had announced that we were going to go shopping that night so Isabel could pick out something special for Jocie and Jocie would pick something special for Isabel.

After presents it was time to go bowling. We first headed the the Grand Forks bowling alley, but were not able to bowl since the lanes were all full....note for future, call ahead and reserve a lane. So we then headed to the East Grand Forks bowling alley. We had no problem finding a lane there, as it was completely empty. And it didn't take us long to see why it was so empty....grumpy workers, dumpy bowling alley, no food!! Oh well, we were determined to make the best out of it...and we did. We quickly hit up the vending machines and were set with chips, candy,and pop. Now it was time to bowl. We got Isabel her own lane so she could have bumpers and a ramp. While Jocie, Jason, and I bowled on our own lane for some major bragging rights. Unfortunately we all were having an off night at bowling, so needless to say there was lots of gutter balls. Isabel's game ended much earlier than ours so she ended up entertaining herself by dancing on the bowling lanes. It was so funny watching her shake her hips and jump up and down...she's become quite the show-off.


After bowling, we headed to Applebees for a quick dinner and then it was shopping time. We had decided that we would go to Walmart to shop since it was 9pm and they are opened the latest....this way the kiddos could take their time to shop. Once we got to the toy department we split up, Jason and Jocie went off to pick out a few things Jocie wanted (Isabel would then pick out what she wanted to get Jocie out of Jocie's choices and Jocie would do the same for Isabel). Isabel and I went off wondering around the store because it only took Isabel a few minutes to pick 3 toys (big surprise)for Jocie to chose from. But then Jason and Jocie came running around the corner concerned that Jocie couldn't find anything at Walmart and wanted to head to Target!! What?? Its 9:30pm, they close at 10pm!! We were never going to pull that off,but neither Jason or I were about to say no. So we quickly explained to Isabel that she wasn't getting a toy here, but she would get one at the next store and off we went. Now although this all sounds a little crazy..it was hilarious. We jumped in the car and Jason drove as quickly as he could to Target (which by the way, was extremely slow). Then Jason continued to waste more time by slowly trying to find a close parking spot...if you only could of seen me jumping up and down in the car yelling for Jason to hurry up...too funny:-) We finally got to Target with 25 minutes to spare. I announced that the girls would no longer be picking gifts for each other, but rather they'd just pick out something they wanted, which of course they didn't mind. We then ran,yes we literally ran, to the toy department and I yelled to Jocie "okay, find a toy, whatever you want" and I looked down at Isabel and said, "now focus Isabel, we need to find a toy...now hurry". So Isabel who is only 3, who lives to make my life complicated, says "mom, I gotta go potty!!" I couldn't believe it. The potty is located on the other side of the store...you're kidding me, right?? Well she wasn't. I did stand there for half a second and thought, "would it really be that terrible if she peed her pants??" And yes, I realize that was a terrible thought, but I thought it, and then thankfully came back to reality and realized I couldn't do that. So I quickly threw Isabel in the cart and said "hold on" and I ran to the bathroom while Isabel laughed at all the excitement (or craziness). Isabel's potty break took all of 3 minutes and we were back in the toy department, only to find Jocie and Jason weren't...what the heck?? Isabel found a baby set right away and as we headed out of toys there came Jason and Jocie. Jocie had found exactly what she wanted and we were good to go. As we waited to check-out we heard an announcement that the store would be closing in 15 minutes!!! 15 minutes....too bad no one thought to look at the time, we totally had time to look around and could of avoided all the crazy, panicky nonsense. But to be honest, it probably wouldn't have been as much fun without all the madness. My only regret is that I so concerned about getting toys before the store closed, that I forget to take pictures of the girls shopping....I promise had I taken pictures you would be laughing....if you're not already.

The night was perfect and was full of lots of laughs. We always enjoy our visits with Jocie....who just happens to be the most beautiful, smartest, nicest girl ever. And watching Isabel and Jocie bond and share special moments together is always wonderful. Our visit with Jocie was a perfect way to end our Christmas celebrations. We hope yours was as Merry as Ours:-)