Galleria trip

A week before Christmas, we made our annual pilgrimage up to the Galleria. I go into town more often during the year (although that will be harder with two kids!), but Dean usually just comes with us at Christmas time. I love seeing Houston decorated for Christmas......ideally we'd go for an entire day/evening and drive around to look at some of the lights after dark, but I guess that will have to be put on hold until the kids are a little older!

So we went on a Thursday morning and thankfully Drew took a nap on the way there. That was such a relief.....he doesn't care for his carseat much, but he is getting better if you hold a pacifier in his mouth until he goes to sleep!

We walked through Nordstrom (they always have wonderful Christmas decorations), and then we looked in a few expensive childrens stores that we don't have in the suburbs! Those places have such sweet clothes, but they make me feel so poor (or cheap!)......the sale price on a cute little shirt might be $15 or $16 (down from $28), and I start getting tempted until I remind myself that I would almost never spend that much money on a single shirt for one of the boys at any normal store. So why should I do it there??!

Anyway, we had a good time, and Grant actually behaved very well. A year ago (when he was 13 months old), we started seeing our first signs of the terrible twos on our Galleria trip....he wanted to get down and practice his walking, and started throwing a fit in front of everyone! This time he was much better! Here we are in front of the giant Christmas tree at the ice skating rink (he was much more interested in the M&Ms he was eating.....which we had to give him to distract him from a Little Einsteins ornament he wanted from the Disney Store):
What a big boy! We got pizza for lunch and he ate it like a big kid!
Then Dean took him over to watch the Zamboni on the skating rink. He had a blast watching it! Things like this are "cool" and "awesome" to him now!
Probably my favorite place to go in the Galleria is Dylan's Candy Bar. It's magical.....so many fun things to look at. We bought some bulk candy (this was a healthy day of eating!), then I sat on a bench to feed a bottle to Drew. Grant had fun playing hide and seek behind this flower pot. We took about a dozen pictures of him before a security guard came and told us that pictures were not allowed in the Galleria. What?!!
The fun stopped after leaving the Galleria.....we pushed our luck and tried to go over to Highland Village (another shopping center close by). Grant got in trouble for not staying close to Dean in Pottery Barn, so they sat in the car while I quickly ran through another store or two. I hate to make a trip and not be able to see everything I want to see. But again, I guess that's another fact of life right now!

More next time on the rest of our Christmas.....