Busy Saturday

I am totally ignoring my Christmas knitting to do this. Funny, I love knitting, I love knitting for other people. Slap a deadline on it, it reeks of "you must do this" and suddenly...I don't want to knit another stitch. I really have to get over that. Same thing used to happen to me in school, I love reading. But if I had to read a book for a report, or when I was taking my Canadian Lit class at MSVU, ugh, I could not be bothered. I've read every single book on that list since leaving the mount, and enjoyed most of them. I imagine that after Christmas I'll be knitting joyfully.

Anyway...

Saturday I spent the morning taking my kids pictures. Cam's school photos were terrible (in one he looked angry, the other intoxicated) and I had to cancel the family appointment at Superstore because not all the family could make it. Plus I am a terrible mother who has not sat Grace down to do a portrait since last year. So I did it Saturday, and now have a greater appreciation for those folks who do this for a living, because by the end I so frustrated I was ready to pitch the camera out the window. Any idea how hard it is to get a toddler to sit still and smile at the same time?
Here are a few from the "shoot"

He's so handsome!

They are so cute!!

Yup...I've got real good lookin kids!

This one is going out with out Christmas cards!
And this one illustrates my point about toddler photo-taking...

Her brother was behind me making faces at her, but instead of the desired laugh we got a monkey-see, monkey-do response. Sigh.
After the pics we trotted out to see Santa, stopping on the way to see Steph at the yarn shop. I think Steph is going to lock the door next time she sees us coming;


Grace ran about, positively squealing with laughter as she tossed ball after ball. I managed to wrestle her to the ground and once she was on her back she could not get up due to her winter gear. Lisa was quick to say "Hey, she's only doing what we all wish we could do!" Yep, the wee girl likes her yarn. There's a reason my stash is in rubber maid totes. I helped tidy and hurried my children out the door. Grace oh-so-casually says "Bye now!" and blew them a kiss. Sigh.
At the busstop Grace discovered that snow is cold, but still did not make the connection to keeping her mittens on to keep her hands warm. She'll figure that one out eventually.
We got to the mayhem that is Mic Mac Mall on a Saturday in the Christmas season. I walked in and had two thoughts 1) I must be freakin crazy to come here 2)Thank god for courtesy strollers (my stroller is crap in snow, crap in the mall...basically, it's just crap, unless you are on dry sidewalk).
First stop: Woody the Talking Christmas Tree. Cam enjoyed it, but Grace had no idea what the heck was going on

Then we went to see Santa. Grace was not impressed

Although she really enjoyed that box of smarties he gave her.
After this we hopped on the bus to head to Penhorn so I could get the portraits printed. By this time it was dinner...and Grace had enough fun:

However, a quick nap and some chicken nuggets she was raring to go again. We ran into my mom and my brother near the playground and Grace's fav uncle took over and played with her on the playground while I took a much needed rest on the bench.
Once we finally got home...I passed the kids to Daddy, and crashed. I will never EVER go to the mall on a Saturday during Christmas. NEVER!!!!