I'm just glad it's not November

Greetings from the other side of a straight month of illness and infection of various sorts! My own personal malaise began at the end of October and continued until sometime late last week and I've never been happier to be free from carrying tissues in every pocket, purse, and various available portable receptacle. There were a few weeks there when I actually wondered if it was possible to contract a lifelong cold. But it appears that my despair was for naught, thankfully. Will was also sick for a good bit of this period (cold/ear infection followed by not one but two (!) stomach bugs) and we made what I believe to be three (maybe four?) trips to the doctor during November for a few rounds of antibiotics. Aaaaand, to wrap all that up, Laura now has an awful runny nose after remaining relatively healthy during our marathon germfest.

So, with all the fun that December usually brings in addition to a more desirable general level of wellness and being able to function more normally, we're embracing all the new month has to offer. I've been slowly getting the house Griswold-ified (or not, since my tastes do run on the boring side of things), addressing Christmas cards, and receiving and wrapping presents (almost finished!). We've got a few fun items on the agenda for this weekend but our first chance for official merry-making occurred this past weekend as we took the kids to the zoo for the Festival of Lights.

First and foremost, let me begin with an illustration of my complete lack of common sense. Since we're zoo members, we tend to avoid weekends and other crowded times because it's so much more pleasant when it's not packed. If we do happen to go on just such a crowded day, we stay for an hour or so and head out since we don't feel the need to stay all day to make it worth our money. (The zoo is surprisingly not cheap, especially considering the $10 they charge for parking in addition to fairly pricey admission.) That said, on the days when we normally go, parking isn't an issue, we don't have to wait in line for tickets and we waltz through the "members only" line and go through the zoo at our leisure, stopping here and there to ride the train and carousel with minimal wait, if any.

In my mind, this is what I had envisioned when planning our Festival of Lights outing. When we were sitting three blocks away in standstill traffic, however, I realized my silliness. The final four blocks or so to get to overflow parking took around half an hour. When we first encountered the traffic, I told Jamison that I thought I saw red and blue flashing lights and that there was probably a wreck. Yeah, no. Everyone and their brother and great-aunt and second cousin once-removed decided to go to the Festival of Lights Saturday night at 6:00. We'd been planning on catching the 6:30 puppet show but I don't think we were even parked by 6:30.  We did make it in in time to watch the second one, though. (It was a blacklight puppet show and it was pretty nifty. Will and Laura both cracked up the whole time and as an added comedy bonus, the little boy sitting on his mom's lap next to me sneezed on another older boy who was sitting in front of him and totally grossed him out.)

To say that it was packed is an understatement of huge proportions. It was one of the most stressful situations I've been in with both kids in a long while. I was terrified that Will would let go of us and be lost in a sea of people and Laura wasn't exactly happy with being bundled up and stuffed unceremoniously into the stroller.  There were no less than four million strollers present, too. And lots and lots of people who just stopped right in the middle of the path, causing mayhem and near-collisions every few seconds. I didn't even really get to look around at the zillions of lights since I was focused on keeping our family together. Will, however, was so excited to be there and was unfazed by the crowd, for the most part. The only downside for him was that the line for the train was too long and he didn't get to ride it. I'm still not quite over just how insanely crowded it was.

But there was a nice little moment tucked in there unexpectedly, which I captured in one of three or so pictures I took all evening (phone pictures, so not of the best quality).

There was a giant lit-up Christmas tree in the middle of the pond (Will of course asked how they got it out there) and some Vince Guaraldi Trio was playing and there wasn't a crowd around and we had a nice little Zen moment amid the chaos that kind of made it worth it.

I didn't take any good(ish) pictures of Laura but here's one from last week after a Target run. We had a little Starbucks date and we actually sat at a table for a little while, which we never do, so she was so excited. The atmosphere left a bit to be desired, though, since this particular Starbucks is inside of a Meijer, which Jamison says reminds him of Kmart. And that's not exactly a good thing.

I still find her completely irresistible, Robert-Palmer-style. (Also, check out her TOMS. I also find them completely irresistible.)

And seeing as it's 9:23, my bed is looking pretty irresistible itself. Night, night. (Or "ni, ni," as Laura so sweetly says as she waves at me after I put her in bed and leave the room.)