Thursday: Pictures with Santa

Today, I was up and at 'em at an appropriate time. It was cold, but I was still able to get in a comfortable run, before coming home to begin the whirlwind of getting ready to tote myself, my husband and my child to the Green Hills Mall for pictures with Santa. Now today, I put my foot down and took a shower alone. It was briefly sad, but infinitely blissful. I had to shut the bathroom door in Ivan's face, and he sobbed pitifully outside, until his father came to collect him. I conditioned my hair for an extensive amount of time and shaved thoroughly. It was just lovely.

Anyway, about the time I was getting to the hairstyling portion of my getting ready process, Ivan forced himself through the bathroom door and hugged my legs as if he were Moses and I were Jochebed and we had been parted for years. After much running around and much angry shouting to one another "ARE YOU READY" "DID YOU REMEMBER THE CAMERA/ SIPPY CUP/ EXTRA WIPES/ A BIB/ YOUR SELF-RESPECT/ BASIC HUMAN DIGNITY/ ENJOYMENT OF LIFE".

Once all these things were loaded into the car, we headed into Green Hills. Now, I am a huge fan of the Green Hills Santa. He is personable, knowledgeable about how to stop a fleeing baby, and very good natured about all the screaming and crying. All things that are INTEGRAL to a mall Santa.

Ivan is totally fine with being handed to a mall Santa as if it were our last goodbye and he was going to live at the North Pole with he and Mrs. Clause. He does not even look at me twice. He just cuddled right up in Santa's lap and let the cares of the world fall away. There was a blissful smile and a lot of snuggling. Now the children that went before Ivan screamed as if being murdered in a heinous and public fashion and the child who went after Ivan, wailed until he was sobbing so hard he couldn't breath. Ivan was loathe to leave Santa and gave him several parting hi-fives. After the picture, we wandered about the mall purposelessly. While I had much that needed to be accomplished at the mall, you can accomplish NOTHING while shopping with a 20 month old. I used every ounce of purpose left in my body to try to keep Ivan from pushing his stroller into other other people walking around the mall.

At home, Ivan watched The Wiggles and I straightened the house. In the evening, I got myself together and met my fabulous running friends at the Crow's Nest in Green Hills for some dinner. We had great talks about last night's running party and delicious tuna ahi salads. Such a surprise for sports bar fare.

Now, I don't know if you remember that last week I was in Birmingham and made two trips to Yogurt Mountain. I said that we had a similar yogurt venue that had just opened in Franklin and tonight I tried it out. Yogurt World is the name and it is truly spectacular. It was equally as good as Yogurt Mountain and maybe even offered more fresh fruit options. I loved the self-serve option and got to try several flavors including triple chocolate and pomegranate. before I decided on pistachio and chocolate with fresh strawberries and Andes mints. Oh it was a lovely night indeed. 5:45 AM bike class. I am crawling into bed with a crossword puzzle!!

Pics are the 2008 Santa pic and the 2009 Santa Pic!!!!