Fabulously normal Tuesday

Stayed up way too late on the couch last night - well I fell asleep on the couch and had to go up when I got too cold. The kiddos nicely let me sleep in a bit later than they did this morning. I got them breakfast when I came down and then got clothes out for the rather chilly day. For the past few years we've gone downtown with Mom and Dad to look at the windows at Macy's and have lunch in the Walnut room - today was the day and it felt (dare I say?) normal. I wish I warmed the car up but we were on our way to Mom and Dad's.
Dad drove down and we got to enjoy the sights - Nick liked looking out a different side of the car - he is usually behind the drivers seat and today he was behind the passengers. We parked and decided to go for lunch first and try to beat the crowds - and we did - no wait at all and a beautiful table right by the tree. On our way to the restaurant we stopped by the giant red "believe" mailbox and Ellie mailed off her wish list to Santa. It was cozy and warm and the tree was spark-tacular. I love how the wait staff always treat the kids to majestically. We ordered - I always get the chicken salad but cannot because of Scarlett doesn't do so well with the pecans and celery. I tried their pasta special which was a delicious pesto penne with parmesan cream - yummy. We all enjoyed their pretzel rolls - Nick and Ellie requested seconds. Ellie and Nick were very much on their best little lady and gentlemen behavior. Ellie took pictures with Dad's camera and Nick took pictures with mine - I have to say both of them are really getting good - digital cameras make picture taking so much easier.
We finished lunch and ordered dessert - the kids got these snowman sundaes that were adorable and they had such fun eating them. I tried the ice water and it still feels like I am swallowing razor blades - I guess a couple more days of tea. We finished and went up a floor to look at the tree from the next level and got a couple pictures and then were on our way to the toy department which is seriously the biggest rip off ever. Mom wanted to treat the kids to something (and toys were definitely not happening) so we ended up in the clothing department. We had such a fun time trying on these knit animal hats - Nick ended up with a monkey and Tony got a bear. We found a t-shirt with knit hat combo for Ellie.
All the signs show that Santa is arriving on the 26th, however, when we were walking through the clothing department Ellie saw an elf and asked about Santa and sure enough he was there. I asked about the wait time and the elf said it wasn't bad - probably no longer than 25 minutes. I had a full tummy and the store was hot and I couldn't stand in a line I couldn't get out of but Dad volunteered to take the kids while Mom and I shopped. Mom and I looked around and found a couple other things and got in line - the slowest line ever. It was pretty cute, in front of us was a Grandpa with two Granddaughters and he was treating them to dresses and coats but both girls had purses and the littler one pulled out her wallet to try and pay. Seriously, this cashier was the model for in-efficiency. We finally got to the counter and she rang through 1 item and then stopped to collect her hangers off the back counter and then answered the ringing phone, then organized another area and then finally came back to us and it took almost 5 minutes to ring through our 6 remaining items.
We found Dad and the kids coming through the aisle as we were leaving the counter. Apparently, Nick freaked out as they made it through Santaland and to Santa - a la the screaming, shreaky kid from Christmas Story. We made our way out to State Street to look at the windows - even though the sun was shining today it was freezing out and the windows were remarkably - unremarkable. Dad ran ahead to pick up some Garretts brown and yellow (Chicago mix) popcorn because we made it about 5 feet from the parking garage and Nick smelled the popcorn in the air - that boy has an incredible sense of smell. We made it back to the car and I tried to convince everyone the popcorn would be a better snack at home but it made its way into the car and the cheese popcorn instantly dyed the kids fingers yellow.
We went back to Mom and Dad's and Mom and I put our feet up while Dad and the kids started to assemble the Christmas train layout - the Hogwarts express. I fell asleep for a while - I got all nice and warm with the blanket on top of me and awoke to warm cinnamon rolls. We stayed for a bit longer and then headed home - what a great, normal day. Interjecting the history of the day to say - Bristol and Mark just got kicked off - woohoo - finally.
We arrived home the same time as Rob and we talked about doing a movie night tonight with the sofa bed and found that Ratatouille was on tv - just worked out perfectly. We did an a la carte dinner - we had just had the cinnamon rolls so we weren't too hungry. We all snuggled together on the bed and watched the movie together. Rob got Ellie to sleep and I had nick duty. We are flipping back and forth between Parenthood and the finale of Dancing and Rob just brought me a new cup of tea. Rob is off of work tomorrow and we are trying to figure out something to do with our day together. Visualising my healthy and continually recovering body, more "normal" days and the new normal me - whomever that shall be - I think I might be on my way, Tree