Santa

 We took Emily to see Santa today. Last year, she wasn't sure at all what to think (as shown by the picture from last year).

I had hoped that she would be more into meeting Santa this year, but alas, she got really shy once we got there and went to get pictures taken.

Plus she really wanted to get her candy cane open. Which she did end up doing on the way home. She was sticky all over!

I am thankful that she didn't scream - I've seen a lot of screaming child pictures with Santa. Of course, we aren't going to make Emily sit on Santa's lap (or sit next to him) until she feels comfortable with it.

I'm just glad we have these pictures, even if this year's wasn't the best. And I'm super glad that Walmart has Santa so you can get pictures for free! The mall Santas are so expensive and we just wouldn't be able to afford it.

Christmas Time!

I love Christmas! And it's even more awesome now that Emily is a little older.

We got our tree on Sunday (and yes, we did straighten it out after I took this picture). We also decorated it on Sunday as well.

This was the first year that Emily was old enough to help decorate the tree. Though she spent a lot of decorating time finding ornaments and asking her Daddy to put them on the tree for her.

Tomorrow we are taking Emily to see Santa, and I'm pretty excited about that too! Plus we'll be able to do Christmas cookies this year as well!

LARPing and being out of shape

I went down to GA to LARP last weekend. I love LARPing, though this LARP is a boffer weapon LARP so it's a lot of running, attacking and since I play an NPC,a lot of falling down and dying.

On Friday night, I was in a module where I and two other NPC's were playing shark monsters. I lunged forward to attack, when I slipped. When I slipped, I did the splits further than I have ever done before. Needless to say, I was really sore for the rest of the weekend.

Even if I hadn't hurt myself, the running around really got to me after awhile, and I was just sore and wiped out by the time I got home on Sunday. Because of this, I've vowed I'm going to make time to work on getting in shape before the next LARP, which isn't until April.

Are Happy Meals Evil?

San Francisco has banned toys in unhealthy kids meals (you can read the article here), and many people I know think this is super great and whatnot.

So I'm feeling like I'm not the best parent because my child has ingested a few Happy Meals. But, I don't think a happy meal once in a while is bad, and I don't think McDonald's food is as awful as people think it is.

I worked at McDonald's for two years when I was in college, and while it isn't the best food, it's not that horrible either.

Of course, it could also be because I don't really believe that organic is the way to go. I'm not a very crunchy person, and even if I was, with me being out of work, it's just not affordable for us to buy all organic. And both Todd and I are not convinced that organic is worth the huge market as compared to regular food.

But I could just be a bad mom for giving my kid processed food every once in a while, but I don't really think I am.

Halloween 2010

The Saturday before Halloween, I took Emily to a local Halloween Carnival. There were games to play where she got treats, and a bouncy house that she loved.

When we first got there, I got approached by a reported and I was interviewed for an article about the carnival. I was mentioned in the article as well as my shout-out to my local mommies group!

On the actual day of Halloween, we took Emily to the mall for trick or treating. We met up with our local mommies group and we trick and treated together for a while, but we ended up getting separated.

We had a good time, though by the end, Emmy wanted her candy and melted down a bit when we said she couldn't have anymore. But she's 2, so I think that is pretty normal.

All in all, it was a good Halloween!

Browncoat Ball - Sunday

Sunday dawned bright and early, and I got packed up pretty quickly. I loaded my car up, and went to the hospitality room to help out. I sold the table centerpieces from the night before and last minute raffle tickets.

The raffle happened, and it went really fast! It was done in the similar way as the CSTS raffle is done every year, but we made it through a ton of prizes in about 40 minutes, which I think is a record!

I didn't win anything but I was allowed to take the giant dinosaur balloon home for Emily. I didn't stick around for the Shepard Book Words of Wisdom that took place after the raffle because I was tired and wanted to get home.

The weekend was really fun! I hope to get to another Ball someday, and I'm sure that will be a different experience because I won't be on the planning committee for any future Balls (though I would love to build up Asheville Browncoats and put in a Ball proposal someday).

Browncoat Ball - Saturday (Part 2)

After resting for a while, I got ready for the Ball. I wore my Kaylee Layer Cake dress, which got a lot of compliments. I didn't take my camera down to the Ball, so I didn't get a picture that I could attach to this blog post.

There was a cocktail hour where we mingled and where Pher, who is a Greenville 'Coat and a professional photographer, took Prom-style pictures of everyone in their finery.

Once the Ball started, people who wanted to be announced were - I was announced as "Chaos Mandy, Lady of the Layer Cake" which got me big cheers.

After everyone was in, a group of cloggers entertained us until the buffet was open. The food was amazing, lots of options and a huge dessert table as well.

The band, Gael Warning, started their first set while we were eating dinner. They started out with their version of the Firefly theme song which everyone sang along to.

At the band's first break, the cloggers came back, and this time they asked for people to come up. I was one of the people, and I had a great time learning how to do some of the called dancing (it was kind of like square dancing).

The rest of the night had more of the band, who played 3 or 4 more sets. One of those sets was all of waltzes which I didn't dance to. I did dance a lot for the other sets.

There was a costume contest, and I would have probably been one of the winners, but since I was on the committee I wasn't allowed to. There was some really great costumes, including one girl who's mom had made her Inara's dress from the Shindig episode!

After the costume contest winners were announced, all the committee members were called up so we could be acknowledged. And right after that, was a marriage proposal between two of the committee members, Dawson and Katie. It was so sweet!

I stayed almost the entire time, but at the end, my head was starting to ache from the loud music and from all the dancing so I headed upstairs. I changed into my pj's, though I did want to go to the after party. I ended up just falling asleep!