Eddie and I packed up The Boy on Friday and headed north to Atlanta. Let me just say that I used to laugh at how much *ahem* crap people felt they needed to take for their babies to survive. Eating my words, folks. Eating them. We had a PACKED full vehicle. And we still needed to have room for the artificial Christmas tree that we bought from Lowe's in Buford because ours ran out of it.
On the way up we stopped at my Dad's office to let Papa show off his grandson. James has a tendency not to go to the bathroom while in his carseat. My mom and I have speculated that it's because he's squished up. However, upon leaving his carseat you'd better stand back because within ten minutes he's going to go. And my child does not do it quietly. Oh no. He is embarrassingly loud about it. (When he's a teenager he is going to loathe me for this post, huh?) So Dad's showing him off and all the ladies in the office are oohing and ahhing over him and all of a sudden...he clears the room. Literally. People made faces and vanished. I was so embarrassed.
We ate lunch with Dad and Laura at a place in Dekalb County (I think? We were right on the border of Dekalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. Please don't just my geographical skills...) called Blue Ribbon Grill. I'd eaten there years ago and it was fantastic. Dad and Laura were able to marvel at my champion eating skills when I polished off a huge club sandwich and plate full of fries. Seriously. Best. Diet. Ever. (I have noticed that the scale seems to be stuck these days. Stupid Thanksgiving and Christmas foods....)
We left Blue Ribbon and ventured up to Lowe's for our Christmas tree. I fed James in the backseat (always a feat...) while Eddie went inside to pick up our tree. Praise the Lord - it fit in our car. I was SO worried we were going to have to rent a U-Haul to get our 9-foot tree home. Ha!
After Lowe's we headed to The Mall of Georgia because I wanted The Boy to see Santa Claus. After finding out that the minimum purchase for Santa pictures was $22, I decided we might stick with the Bass Pro Santa (free!!!) until The Boy can actually talk to the man in red. Or at least show some sort of interest. So that's on the to-do list this week.
We decided to go ahead and get to Chateau' Elan after The Mall of Georgia because it was right around 4 o'clock and the gathering began at 6. We checked in, unloaded our car (it only took ONE trolley-thing...I was impressed) and went to the room to get ready. My parents were coming to stay with James while we went to Eddie's Christmas party and we decided to wait until Jelks and Amy were ready before we headed to the ballroom.
Dinner and dancing was fun. I enjoyed getting to see the few people that I do know and we had a great time watching someone dance. We're terrible for it, but he made it hard not to watch. Ha! My only regret was my choice of dress. Everyone, everyone had on a party dress this year. I've worn a dress the past two years and have been one of the only ones to do so. This year I wore pants and apparently they all got together and decided to leave me out of their decision to change the dress code. I looked fine, mind you, I just would've worn a dress had I known we were stepping it up a notch. Next year.
On Saturday morning we went to the lobby and took our Christmas pictures. For those of you receiving a card from me, please pardon the sleeping child in the pictures. He wouldn't cooperate. And I would much rather have him sleeping than screaming. He was so peaceful.
Sidenote on the Christmas cards this year. I was adamant that I wanted to have a Bible verse on our Christmas card. It just felt right to me. But do you know how difficult it is to FIND a Bible verse about Christmas when "Unto us a Son was born" this year?!?! I searched EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I spent hours perusing the Bible in search of the perfect verse. Ok, that's a lie. But we didn't want to use something about the birth of Jesus (even though that's what it's all about!) for fear that people might misconstrue our intentions. Even though they wouldn't have. Ha!
We decided to head back over to the Mall of Georgia Saturday for lunch. I wanted fake Mexican food in the form of On the Border. Until I saw the sign for P.F. Chang's. Oh how I wish one would be built in Macon. I love that place. Even when it gives me monster MSG-induced headaches. (Not this time, though!)
Mom and Sonny ventured on without us after lunch and we headed into the mall. Eddie was in search of the perfect socks for a Christmas present. The first department store we came to was Nordstrom's. We should never have set foot in there. The only good thing about that place is that the aisles are wide enough to manuever the monster stroller through them. Other than that, it is not the place for folks on a budget! We wound up back at Belk but still had no luck in the sock department.
About this time it had been over three hours since the last time James had eaten. During the day he sometimes cannot even go three hours, so I was shocked that he hadn't begun screaming already. I'd pumped a bottle for him the night before because it is so much easier to bottle feed him in the car than try to stop and nurse so I plugged in the car bottle warmer (that takes fifteen forevers to heat a bottle) and we set off. We decided we needed to stop for gas south of Atlanta and we prayed that Mr. James could make it that far. That little angel began screaming at precisely the same time Eddie was exiting. Perfect harmony. I hopped in the back to feed him while Eddie pumped gas. We then ran across the street to Chik-Fil-A for a peppermint milkshake and I finished feeding him and got him out of his seat to burp him. I was hoping that I could wait the hour for us to get home to change his diaper since it was 44* outside and I didn't think he'd appreciate being half-naked in the cold but as I burped him he had a blow out. I hauled him up to the front seat and began to undress him when we realized we had a major situation. Little boy had not just gone to the bathroom. He had exploded. All the way up to his neck. So...we stripped him down in the 44* weather, wiped him off as best we could, and put his extra outfit on him. Meanwhile, he was screaming that it was too cold for all that nonsense and he'd rather just stay in his soiled clothes. If there had been a police officer there, we'd have been locked up. The scene was just that bad. Eddie and I were laughing, I was holding James up -naked - under his armpits, and Eddie was wiping him down. There are three scenarios that could've made it worse. I bet you can guess all three.
We finally got home around 4:30 to watch Alabama whoop Florida (WOOHOO! ROLL TIDE!) and put up the Christmas tree. You know, after James had a bath. Poor little smelly man.
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