on the eighth day of christmas, these are the people in my neighbourhood

Today my to-do list apparently took steroids. I kept staring at it hoping I was drunk, rabid, or in Wonderland, but it only grew and grew. The worst is dreaded returns. Christ. After waiting in line for almost a half an hour at Fred Meyer because the darling tween ahead of me paid for a $400-something money order in ... and this is not hyperbole, pre-counted pennies, I made my swift return, fought off mean thoughts, and set out to get last minute things for Reilly and my mom. Only, when I turned around, I saw this little Who head staring up at me, with an even littler face staring out of her coat. Yep, it was Reilly. She and Todd were shopping. I asked her if she was supposed to have Bella in the store, and she shrugged mischievously. I told her to say she was in training to be a seeing eye dog if anyone asked, lol. She decided to come with me, so my plans to finish up her shopping were dashed. No worries, we'd just round out my ma's loot right? Right. Until my mom came around the corner. She wasn't holiday shopping. No. She just needed some Benadryl, one random item, to slay my plans and render me with an un-crossed-off list. It was totally surreal. I kept expecting to see Quinn, who was home alone, pop around the corner, having hopped a bus, just in time to see the horrific rubber chicken with a squeezable prolapsed rectum Mom and
Reilly insisted on getting for his stocking. So with Fred Meyer being of no use to me, we went to dinner. With Bella. She stayed in Rei's coat but then I got slack in my sneakery and asked Rei to go to up and order something to take something home for Quinn. That's when we got the boot. We were only halfway through our dinner, so that was totally awkward. Thankfully, they were slammed so we just stayed put and finished eating, which I realize is not the holiest of virtues to teach my daughter, who got a wicked case of the giggles, but neither is commemorating the Baby Jesus with a rubber chicken whose innards you squeeze out.

(Disclaimer: I'm no pro, so for now, video footage posts wherever the hell it wants to post, regardless of how I set it.)