Caught in the act, and I don't care!

You know those celebrity tabloids that show photos of your favorite stars looking schlubby or doing something embarrassing, like walking around with a wedgie or dripping mustard all over their clothes?

I feel a little bit like a celebrity today.

Last night, we dragged the whole family to Target to buy a few things we needed for the house and for a cookie-decorating thing we're doing Saturday with our friends Mark and Kelly and their kids.

It was right after work, so the kids were hungry for dinner. Lester bought hot dogs and grilled cheese and popcorn (dinner of champions!) and set up in the store's little dining area, while I power-shopped. I couldn't find one item I needed, but my check-out lady told me where to find it, so after paying for all my other things, I lugged Clair back with me to the far end of the store to get it. When I came back to the dining area (still without my item), Cary and Dean were spastically rolling the shopping cart into empty tables, spilling popcorn everywhere and just generally bouncing off the walls. There was NO settling them, so I just ditched the hope of finding chocolate-covered pretzels and said, "Let's go!"

We hustled out of there (to get our tree, yay! Which Dean picked out. Of course.) and got home so late that it was all we could do to wrangle the three over-tired crazies into bed and CONK out. No Scandal. No Game of Thrones. Just sleep. (Well, Lester folded two baskets of laundry, awesome husband that he is, but *I* fell flat on my face.)

Anyway -- it was all just another day in the Davis household. Until I got a message this morning from a colleague on Facebook who said she thought she'd seen us at Target and wanted to know if we'd been there the night before.Why, yes. That was us! Awww, we could have stopped and chatted. Aww.

But as the morning wore on, I started thinking: What exactly did she see?? Did she see Clair pick up that stray chunk of hot dog from under the table across from us, and me do the TV-slow-motion dive to knock it out of her chubby little hands just before she chewed on it?

Did she tsk tsk at how I had lazily clapped Clair's hair into a frizzy 'fro on the top of her head - and that she had "runch" all over her shirt? (That's what she said when I asked her what on Earth she spilled all over her clothes. "Runch.")

Did she judge me about the veritable carpet of popcorn we left for some probably-pissed-off employee to clean up? (I did whisper "Sorry about the mess!" to the random Target employee who was sitting there taking her break, but she just glowered, so I don't know if that means "You're forgiven, poor harried mother of three" or "Eff you and happy new year!" But I digress.)

Could she hear  -- all the way from back in the section with the Christmas trees -- my boys' complete and total inability to use anything close to an inside voice? Ever?  [Seriously. WHY are they so LOUD? Dang.]


I thought we had been anonymous in Target -- the ragtag bunch of us, all hastily bundled in mismatched hats and gloves, ketchup-stained, loud, hungry and unable to find chocolate-covered pretzels or mini M&Ms, despite two trips to the back of the store! DAMMIT.

But we had been spied. By someone who knew us! This must be how Oprah feels!

If I had written this blog post in my 20s, the moral would have been, "And this is why you must always look your best when out in public!"

Thank GOD I'm no longer in my 20s.  Because I didn't care one bit. This is the blessing of getting older and less concerned about what the world thinks of you.

And I know that my colleague truly wouldn't have judged -- she's a cool person, and a Mom herself, who was running late to pick up her own kid.

But even if she did judge, it wouldn't have mattered. My kids are not always magazine-ready; they don't always behave well in public. Hot dogs are messy; popcorn even moreso. The gloves that match the hats sometimes get lost.

And so what?

As a mother in my 40s, the moral of THIS blog post is: If you want chocolate-covered pretzels from Target, to make reindeer cookies for your crazy, messy kids, you'd better get 'em early, because they sell out.

Post-Christmas photo post

Merry Christmas all!!!!

I just ran into work to fill out and fax my Flex spending forms (yes, I am still old school and use the fax machine). So I thought -- while I wait to get the confirmation that my forms have been received -- I'll catch up on reading friends' blogs and post a few pics from our lovely, lovely holiday.

Christmas Eve was so, so great. Lester took the boys to the Symphony of Lights (which they LOVED), and when they got home, they got into their PJs and had hot cocoa and cookies. 

Then we left cookies out for Santa (who is lactose intolerant, apparently).

Even though Clair fell asleep while the boys and Lester were on their way home from the Symphony of Lights, I managed to coax a sleepy pic out of her under the tree. I didn't get a Christmas Eve pic of all three of them, though, so that's a bummer.

She was SO tired, but she gave me a tiny little smile.

Handsome boys! Can you believe this is Christmas No. 3 for them?

In the morning, when the boys woke up, they came toddling into our room. We asked them, with great excitement: "Did Santa come?!" And they both shrugged and said, "No. He didn't." LOL.

So we had to tell them that you actually have to go downstairs and look under the tree. So off they scampered, and when they got to the middle of the stairs, Dean yelled, "Yes he did! He did come! Santa did come and he brought presents!" It was the cutest thing.

The boys got a kick out of Santa's bitemark.

Santa brought the boys Lincoln Logs and "professional people" for them to play with, lots of books, tin drums and stethoscopes. They really loved everything, but the drums were a huge hit. They marched around the house saying, "Marching band! Marching band!"

Dean is so serious about his music, yo.

Mommy and Daddy brought them cute little bath towels -- a green Dino for Cary and a blue sea creature for Dean. These were also a big hit. They clamor for bathtime so they can use them!

Clair's first ever Christmas present: Nesting blocks. She preferred the paper.

These two are twins, I swear.

We spent the morning reading and playing ...

Elephant and Piggie! Big hits! Also favorites: "A Sick Day for Amos McGee" and "Leonardo the Terrible Monster."  I think the book in my hands, though, is "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words."

And then it was time for a nap, because Mommy and Daddy had to cook and get the house ready for dinner. Somehow, we talked ourselves into hosting Christmas dinner at our house for 11 people (16 if you count us!) Aye-yi-yi!

It actually turned out really nice. My sisters and their kids came, and so did my fabulous parents. Dad fell asleep on my floor. LOL.

Santa White and Mrs. Santa White

Clair was absolutely picture-perfect adorable in the dress that Lester picked out for her.

Seriously, doesn't she look like a Sugar Plum fairy?

And the boys had a blast running around with their cousins and performing a Christmas medley (Jingle Bells and We Miss You a Merry Christmas) for Nana and Granddad.

Nana built them a log cabin, and thank God she did, because Lester and I have no clue how to make those danged Lincoln logs work. How did Ma and Pa and Laura Ingalls do it?? Forreals. I could not have been a pioneer. We'd have been homeless.

These are two of the 12 "professional people" -- a farmer and a construction worker. The construction worker's a woman! And the doctor is too. And she's black! Love this set!!

Aunt Kadija bought Cary and Dean $2 Pez dispensers and they were hands-down the thing they were most excited about!  Everyone browbeat me into letting them eat two packs of that darn candy, so they were WIRED. I honestly have never seen them that bounce-off-the-walls energetic.

Dean was gregarious as ever, cracking everyone up, and Cary was right behind him, but we noticed that he was not quite himself. Both boys stayed up until 11 p.m.!! Craziness!

The next day, it snowed. It was freezing, but so beautiful, the boys just had to get out in it. So out they went to explore. Despite being frozen from head to toe, Lester had to drag them inside for a nap. They absolutely love, loved, loved playing in the snow.

"And after breakfast they went out together into the deep, deep snow." OK, the snow is not that deep. But this picture reminds me of Ezra Jack Keats' "The Snowy Day."

Back inside, though, Cary continued to be lethargic and cranky, and extremely moody. We both noted that he had been saying, on occasion, "I can't hear you," or "I can't hear Dean." So we made a doctor's appointment.

Turns out, my poor Carykins had a double ear infection! And a popped eardrum! No wonder he wasn't himself. Awwww. But he's on his meds now and is healing up well. I feel so bad for my sweetie. We had no idea.

We've got a few more days left of vacation and we're heading to New York for a few days a week from today. So I don't know when I'll get the chance to blog again.

Soooo -- happy holidays to all!! What a glorious time of the year!  LOVE it!