Are we there yet…

Car and I heard that Santa was going to be in Richmond last weekend, so we packed up MR and hit the road. Of course, the man from the North Pole wasn’t the only reason we made the trip. We were also craving some of the finest food from the Far East — P.F. Chang’s. After our standard meal of Lettuce Wraps, Mongolian Beef, and Pork Fried Rice, we were on a mission to find Santa.

The first challenge was finding a parking spot. After circling for 10 minutes, it was clear I was going to have to make the sacrifice. I dropped Car and MR off at the mall entrance and told them I’d catch up. I found a spot on the other side of the mall and hustled to find my girls.

We finally found Santa around 3:45pm. Unfortunately, he was minutes away from his afternoon break. One of his elves assured us that he would be back in action by 4:15. Just after 4:00, we heard a rumor that he would be gone until at least 4:45. Car confirmed this with the elves. We were in a fix. As most of you know, timing is everything with a baby. Especially a breast-fed baby.

We had a decision to make. Mary Reese was due to eat at 4:30. This meant that Car had to either whip it out in the Food Court or go to the car to pump. She chose the latter. Now remember that I dropped her off and she didn’t know where I ended up parking. It’s common knowledge that my dear wife is directionally challenged. However, her mission was clear and there was no way we were abandoning our position at the front of the line. She had 30 minutes to find the car, do the deed, and get back in time to introduce MR to Santa.

With some excellent directions from me, Car found the Honda in 5 minutes flat. While she was doing her thing, MR and I watched the line grow longer by the minute. I knew we had made the right decision when I saw the line was over 150 feet long. The holiday spirit was clearly in the air as kids became rambunctious and parents began to lose their patience. Mary Reese, who was starving at this point, was a ticking time bomb. I knew she could unleash her fury at any minute. Fortunately for her and everyone else in the Food Court, Car showed up just in time. We still had 10 minutes to spare.

I fed Mary Reese and listened to Car’s adventures running through the mall with a bottle of breast milk. You know Car, and you know she was kickin’ some heels. As if running in heels isn’t hard enough, she was also wearing a pair of stretch jeans that by this point, were quite stretched. Needless to say, when they came down, they almost brought her down with them. Huffing and puffing, she managed to jerk them up with her free hand and barely broke stride.

All in all, MR’s first encounter with Santa was a success! He was quite patient while we did our best to direct MR’s attention to the camera. Despite the “deer in the headlights” expression, she was comfortable in his lap, and perhaps even a little fond of the man in red.

c & g

The infamous stretch jeans

In case you wanted to know what your
first grade teacher looked like as a kid.

Getting ready for a bath

It was just a matter of time before the real world appeared and made us climb down from our cloud. Car had to return to the classroom as part of her masters program and complete 70 hours (2 full school weeks) of observation. While exploring childcare options, we learned a few things that they should tell all new parents — to summarize, finding good childcare is hard. We always thought it was tough to find a nice place to board Sadie, but that’s nothing compared to this. Did you know that most places require contracts these days? Evidently day care and cell phone providers have something in common. None of them are even close to perfect and they resort to legal instruments and financial penalties to keep you from going to their competitor every time you’re dissatisfied with their service.

Lucky for us, our family stepped in to help us out. Mom and Wiby flew up the Sunday after Thanksgiving to look after MR the first week. Unfortunately, Wiby was sick as a dog all week and wound up spending more time in our guest bedroom than he would care to remember. The next week, MR was off to “Building Blocks” under the watchful eye of Aunt Julie. In typical Harrell fashion, Car coined the nickname “Building Blocks” for Julie’s babysitting service. Julie had her hands full with the cousins, but I think everyone enjoyed the week together.

Thanks to our family, Car was able to enjoy her time back in the classroom. Now we just have to figure out the plan for spring semester. Car will be doing her student teaching for 12 weeks in a first grade classroom. Any volunteers?

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We had a good trip home for Thanksgiving. Mary Reese made it down to Eastman and Waycross for the first time and had a chance to meet a lot of you. Looking back on the pictures, it’s obvious that we need to take more pictures during gatherings, especially family shots. Below is a summary of our Thanksgiving by the numbers, along with a few pictures.

1467…..Miles driven
132…….Hours away from home
33………Nearest I-85 exit in Charlotte when we passed Lauren and her family headed to D.C.
28………Hours in the car
27………Family members Mary Reese met (almost one per hour driven)
6………..Days on the road
4………..States traveled

Three weary travelers

One cute little pilgrim

Three generations…MR meets Mema

Two bushels of oysters roasted

One doting cousin

Two oyster shuckers

One proud grandfather

One tired, but still cute, little girl

As you get older, it’s easy to let a holiday become just another day. The exceptions to this are definitely Christmas, and probably Thanksgiving for most of us. Everything else is subject to the “it’s just another day” mentality. Car and I have managed to make our birthdays, special days this fall. It always helps to have family and friends join in the celebration. Whether it’s Chicken Parm with cake, or a night out at the Japanese steakhouse, it’s always a party when the Bouceks and Harveys get together.

Car leveraged her craftiness to create the best poster-sized birthday cards ever. As if their personalities werent’ big enough, Car made Mary Reese and Sadie larger than life.

Hendley enjoyed the show

Best hibachi chef ever…there was a little mix-up on the sign to flash.

Christmas is just around the corner, which means I should probably post our November blogs. Expect a flurry of activity this afternoon as we reflect on November in words as well as in pictures.

We overhauled our blog layout to freshen things up a bit. Let us know if something doesn’t look quite right. We’re tweaking it as we go.

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