Totally. Worth. It.

(I apologize in advance for the camera phone pictures. I had no idea any of this was coming.)

We never leave this house.

Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration. We go to school and the market and the video store. We don't get out out a whole lot, though.

Yesterday, I needed to go get Christmas cards. I am one of those people that has to have the Christmas cards, and I am willing to go to great lengths to get them. I thought I was going to have to make a trip to my country of origin to get the ones that I wanted, but I lucked out and found a store that carries them 10 whole blocks from Josh's work. So, we headed out for a downtown Vancouver day of fabulous fun. Well, I did. The boys headed out for a downtown day of sitting in the conference room at dad's work eating cherries and watching Harry Potter.

While I was out, I heard on the radio that the 2010 mascots were making an appearance at somewhere or the other downtown. 1of3 just so happens to be crazy obsessed with them. He knows their names, their stories, the whole thing. He prints pictures of them off the internet and hangs them in his room. He lurves them. Of course, I had to take them. So, I picked them up from dad and we headed down for the best surprise ever.This is Miga. She is 1of3's favorite. This is Sumi. He is a guardian spirit, and 2of3 like him the best. This is Quatchi. Apparently, Quatchi is a very good hugger and every family that tried to take a picture with him got a little, curly, blond blur of a head in their photo. She wasn't giving him up for anything.

I was officially named Best Mom Ever and after the purchase of stuffed animals, lapel pins, baseball caps and other assorted schwag, we headed home just in time to not miss Gymnastics class. This was turning out to the the greatest day ever for my kids. 1of3 actually said, on the way to gymnastics, "Mom, this is the best day of my whole life."

Mine, too. Gymnastics is 3 hours long, and, like, 3 blocks from Toys R Us. 3of3 and I dropped them off and then started Christmas shopping. Yes, we're just starting. Shut up. About 45 minutes into shopping, the phone rings. A squeaky teenager, either in the throws of puberty of very, very nervous, asks if I am 2of3's mom.

I am.

Well, she asks, could I maybe come back by the gym because it's not like he's unconscious or anything but he did hit his head pretty hard and and she's not the one putting pressure on it but wow is there a lot of blood and maybe I should come by and see it?

OK.

Yeah, 'he hit his head pretty hard' may be the understatement if the year. He landed a totally sweet double flip on the tramp, bounced off the mat and landed on the corner of an oddly located speaker cabinet.
After a complete freakout, a shit-load of blood, and a not at all unpleasant 2 hour wait at the ER, Frankenstein here is all better and feeling quite tough, indeed.And we totally got to go out for ice cream after, which seriously rocks. If that's not a day out on the town, I don't know what is.