Friday night was a lot of fun. I was at the mall. Bet you never thought you would see those two sentences side by side, did you?
Actually, I was sort of tricked into the venue location. Matt's IYC choir was performing an early Christmas concert. Since the weekend was busy, i.e. filled with swim meet, choir concerts, etc., I didn't pay close attention to the "who, what, where, and whys" of any of it beyond where and when, figuring I would just show up and go with the flow of whatever it was I was supposed to be doing.
So, Friday Matt had indicated there was an IYC concert and Mark and I decided we would include that in date night.
Off we went, Mark instructing me to just "take 146th Street east until you can't go anymore." I knew what was out there...cows and fields, or at least I had known for the past 33 years what was out there. "Where are they performing?" Mark: "Oh, a mall." Me: "A MALL??? We are going to a mall?" (Photo: About three-fourths of Matt's IYC choir turned up to sing for the Grand Opening. Matt is still the tallest one in the choir, so he is easy to spot in the back row, green sweater, white shirt, red tie, right arm in the air.)
Turns out, not only were we going to a mall, we were going to the Grand Opening of a MAJOR mall with approximately 5,000 other people.
As we came over the little rise in the road and I saw hundreds and hundreds of lights...I said, "WHAT IS THAT???" Mark just grinned and said, "Why, I think it must be the mall!" Good golly...no parking, I kid you not.
Word had circled quickly: "Grand Opening and Santa!" OMW...I should have gotten way more information about this gig beforehand.
As luck would have it, we had gotten the time wrong by an hour, and when we arrived, there was a nice empty park bench right beside the big stage they had erected for the choir and Santa...so, I sat happily chatting with various choir moms, etc. It was rather enjoyable. And, I didn't have to shop. As matter of fact, I did no shopping whatsoever. The choir was really good, singing Christmas carols, having fun together, and gearing up the little ones for Santa's arrival.
Santa arrived to streamers, some lightening bolts, fireworks, and what was supposed to be a gentle puff of smoke...as you can see from the photo, that part didn't go off quite as expected as there was a whole lotta smoke, but the choir kids rolled with it and the choir director danced with Santa (this last photo) to the cheers of everyone...a fun time.
It was great...I had a wonderful time at the mall...who knew?
(Oh, and for those of you trying to find Ali in the photo: she is behind Santa, so not visible in either of these shots.)