Day 323

 

November 19th, 2010

  

November 19th, 2011

We had a really busy (and stressful) day today. I won't go into a lot of specifics, but emotions are running REALLY high around here. :-(

Gus took a very short nap this morning and while he napped, I finished bagging my clothes and went through my shoes. In all, I bagged up 15 bags of clothes and bagged up about 40 pairs of shoes. Granted, a lot of the clothes and shoes that I purged have been in my possession since college. Yes... I have a bit of a hoarder inside me. I keep things because I never know when I'll wish I had kept them (never) and as a result, I end up with a lot of STUFF.

What pisses me off more than anything is that I could have (and should have) taken the time to list my stuff on eBay and maybe made some money. I could have participated in my neighborhood yard sale and tried to sell stuff through that. I guess I know for the future. 

After Gus was up and had lunch, we dropped off our items to the Good Will (GCF). The entire back of the Edge was piled high (to the ceiling) with bags and the entire back seat (next to Gus) was stuffed full as well. They had to come out with three grocery carts to get all the stuff and even that wasn't enough. Steve had to carry in the HUGE bag of shoes.

We went to the mall for Gus's picture with Santa. Last year (on November 19th), my parents and I needed to get out of the house because Suzanne was here cleaning, so we went to Once Upon a Child so I could use my Groupon, then we went and had breakfast, and then we went to the mall. I didn't anticipate going for pictures with Santa, but there wasn't a line (this was a Friday afternoon) and I figured "why not?" 

This year was a much different story. The mall was CRAZY... but before we even got to the mall, we sat in traffic for the stupid NC State/Clemson football game. Grrrr... I already hate NC State... so to sit in traffic for their stupid game was almost too much.

Then we got to the Santa spot and there wasn't a line (thankfully) and there were two families in front of us. No problem-o....

BUT THEN... all these people kept coming over to the side and cutting into the line, which pushed us further and further back. I was so pissed. Apparently, if you go to see Santa and he's not there (on a break), you can come back at any time and cut into the line and they'll let you get to the front. What a freaking joke.

So we waited in line for about an hour... which was TOO LONG for Gus. He was happy for a while and then started to get squirmy, irritable, and he was done. As a result, the visit with Santa SUCKED. He sat on Santa's lap for about a minute and then he started crying and wanted off.

The pictures make me laugh... because if I don't laugh,I'll want to cry. I was so annoyed at the whole process and really pissed that there were SO MANY people allowed to cut in line. Fair is fair and I felt it was highly unfair. 

 

Totally happy while waiting in line

Then it was FINALLY our turn to see Santa... 

 

This is the one we went with

We were given a computer to look at the pictures and then the guy walked off... we decided to whip out our iPhones and take as many pictures of the screen as we could. The pictures were priceless... poor little Gustafer.  :(

We picked out our picture, paid for it and left the mall. Gus was tired, hungry, teething, and had a bit of Santa anxiety. I kinda had a feeling that it'd go this way, simply because he's in the stranger anxiety phase right now. He's only a year and a half... it's pretty common for little ones to be scared of a stranger in a beard.

So we left the mall and came home. I'm exhausted and ready for bed. 

Here are some pictures from a year ago. After we saw Santa, we had lunch in the food court and then went to Apex for some awesome pictures of me and Gus. My dad took them for me because I had been the only one taking pictures of Gus and there weren't any of him and I together (just him and Steve).

 

Snuggles with Gram

 

Snuggles with Pap

 

Ridin' the rails in Apex

See you tomorrow...