Christmas present exchange

Yesterday was special day for this old fat gramma. Will, Susan , Matthew and I travelled to Watertown to met Josh, Jackie and the girls at the mall. The temperatures were very cold but the roads were bare and combined with the new portable DVD player Susan brought along for Matt, the trip could not have been better. Actually, we managed to get there early. Now as many times as we have met in Watertown, we have never been there first. (OK, there was an accident so J&J had a 25 minute unplanned detour)

Josh made some rules:
a) no family pictures in Target
b) no opening gifts at the mall or restaurant

I was not a happy camper but did abide by his decision. I had some gifts I wanted to see their reaction to.
We visited Santa so I could have a picture of the kids together, (Santa was in the mall, not Target) Lauren was in the store with her mother, not that Santa had a big enough lap anyway. As you can see by the picture, the kids were reluctant to sit on his lap with the exception of Alyssa. Lael said at least his beard was not a fake one! From there we went to Applebees for lunch. It was not easy to keep 4 hungry kids entertained until they brought our lunch. These restaurants are not designed for large parties with little kids, especially during the very busy lunch hour with all the shoppers wanting a sit down meal opposed to fast food in the mall.

While we were waiting for J&J and the girls, Susan and I went into Steve and Barry's (I actually thought was were we would find Jackie anyway as it was not only at the entrance where we were supposed to meet them but also her very favorite store. They were having a great sale......everything and I do mean everything was $8.98. I bought a leather (yes, real leather) jacket for Josh and Susan got the same one for Tom. I gave Josh what I thought was his jacket at Applebees so he could try it before he went home. It was a perfect fit. However, when I got home I realized I had given him the jacket Susan got for Tom and it was a size smaller than what I had gotten for Josh. I have felt horrid ever since I realized what I had done. But, Josh and the jacket are in Canton and we are here with the larger one. Hopefully they will have one at the Steve and Barry's here that she can exchange for the right size.


All in all, it was a great day. Oh, I do love being a gramma!