Movies, Magicians & Chinese Food

I had the day off from work today. There's usually one company holiday a year that I have off and the kids don't, and today was it. It's not even a full day either because the kids got out a little early, but I took full advantage of it. After doing a couple of errands in the morning, I headed over to the bookstore for some coffee and browsing. Joel was able to get off early, so he met me for a quick lunch and then we headed to the movies to see Up In The Air. (Two thumbs up).

After the movie we headed to the JCC where I dropped Joel off for a quick workout, collected Rebecca from preschool, and met Ben's camp group at the magic show that they had scheduled. Ben was happy to see me and I was happy to get to see the magic show with him, but Rebecca for some reason was petrified for the first 10 minutes of the show, which involved some lights and music, flowers into birds and bunnies out of hats, typical magic show stuff. At one point when she was upset Ben leaned over and gave her a kiss and a hug and she said tearfully, "thank you, Ben!" Always minding her manners, even during a meltdown.... She finally calmed down and was fine but didn't pay too much attention to the magician. Instead she ate a lollipop and climbed on and off the auditorium seats. But at least she stopped screaming her head off so I considered it a success.

After the show finished we retrieved Joel from the fitness center, made a quick pit stop at home, and then headed out to meet Joel's parents for Chinese food. Apparently a lot of other people participate in the Christmas Eve Chinese food tradition because the restaurant was packed even though we got there shortly after 5pm.

Tomorrow I'll have a busy morning of packing/ getting ready for our "mini vacation" and then we'll head up to Great Wolf Lodge around noon and returning Saturday night... Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!