Stressed to Tears, Almost

As is our family's tradition, Ryan and I went to the Gaylord Texan for dinner and to look at the lights as part of our anniversary/Christmas celebration.  We did not do the Ice! exhibit this year, though.  Instead, I wasted two hours of our time following the kids around trying to take a decent picture for our Christmas cards.

I was reminded of a story that my sister had just told me.  We were talking about how hard it is to paint our nails on our right hand.  I said that I even have trouble with my right foot for some odd reason.  She went on to tell me about a time when she went through almost an entire bottle of nail polish trying to paint her toes.  She was so extremely frustrated that all she could do was cry.  Her boyfriend asked her to please just give up.

I couldn't relate to ever being that frustrated...  until the day at Gaylord. 

First, we took the kids to see Santa.  He was 15 minutes late and we had already been waiting for 15 minutes.  Standing in line with 2 young kids for 30 minutes is NOT fun.  Especially while trying to keep them off the ground and clean, at least until after the pictures.  When Santa finally arrived, he did not apologize and actually seemed a bit bothered to even be there.  Since Tay was cranky, she didn't want to see him.  I put her in his lap, thinking he would be friendly with her and make her feel better.  Instead,  he seemed very irritated with her and it made her angier.  She threw a fit.  My secret candy stash wouldn't even cure her fit. I asked them to hurry up and take a picture, but the lady wanted to play photgrapher and capture that perfect shot.  I said "No, its fine.  Please, just take one picture so we can get out of your way."  She kept trying to get Tay to look at the camera, not even using any kind of technique.  I grabbed Tay up and walked over to the register.  The girl with the big Bump-It working behind the register was clearly new and extremely impersonable.  We waited for another 15 minutes for her to get the computer program working, but it never did happen.  We left and came back an hour later... when they were still having trouble locating our pictures.  When one was finally found, I said "That one is fine.  We really need to go."  She proceeded to scan through all the day's photos looking for more of our awful pictures.  I had to walk off.  I was way beyond frustrated.

During our hour break between the Santa photo scavenger hunt, I followed the kids around like paparazzi and gathered over 200 photos.  I turned into an evil stage mom after about 45 minutes, demanding poses and smiles.  How crazy I must've looked yelling "SMILE LIKE YOU'RE HAPPY, DANGIT!".  Tay would NOT sit still and kept fussing about everything.  She was throwing fits and just being unpleasant.  Christian was trying hard to fake smile, but it showed.  Oddly enough, the kids were very affectionate towards eachother.  I have lots of them kissing... which melted away some of my funk.  A short walk later, they ended up having a good time at the giant gingerbread house but this is only because I let them lick the walls.  I know!  I bet a hundred other kids have done it, too.  I know, I know.  But, its no worse than them touching it and then putting their hands in their mouth.  Plus, they have great immune systems.  No harm done.  They were happy and that made me happy.  Of course, I forgot to adjust my camera so the pictures didn't turn out.  But, I had already accepted my defeat.

They were so sweet on the way in.

 Sadly, we let this ruin the mood for first half of the night.

 They were both amazed with all the beautiful trees.  So was I!

 Wow!

 The entire place looked fabulous, as always.

 Waiting on Santa.

 I had my camera's settings all off again.

 But, oh well.

 Tay loved the fluffy fake snow.

 Kisses

 

and more kisses.

 Right after I took this, the train drove by.  They both loved watching that!

 "Tay, I think this is REAL candy!!"

 "Wait.  Look!  I think we can eat it."

 "Yep, its real."

 "Wanna try?" 

 Sweet sugary kisses

 Goodnight Gaylord.  Whew!

Yesterday, we took the kids to the Parks to let them give Santa another shot.  I didn't want Tay have a bad taste in her mouth left over from The Gaylord.  This Santa and Mrs. Claus were so super nice!  The kids loved them both!  Tay loved all of their stuffed animals, especially the Hello Kitty she is holding.  (I guess we will be making a trip to Build a Bear for that Hello Kitty soon.)