Perky Pops In

We had a nice visit with an old (not referring to age) friend Don Perkins (aka, Perky) who popped in while on a trip to Alabama to visit his son. Okay, so we aren't right around the corner from Alabama per se, but Perky decided to take a trip down here to see a bunch of friends. He came on Tuesday evening after visiting with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dick. Aunt Shirley came with him over here and Calleigh did her best to wear her out. Every time Aunt Shirley would sit down on the couch, Calleigh would walk over, grab her hand, and try to get her to go and look at something on the tree. This kept repeating itself until poor Aunt Shirley was tired out and needed a break. Anyway, we had a nice visit as Uncle Terry, Aunt Toni, David, and Shannon also came over and we ordered in pizza. Perky left around 8:30 to continue his trip down to Avon Park.

On Wednesday morning, Cal and I headed over to the Altamonte Mall. We got a JcPenney coupon, like we periodically do, for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more. It got us into the store like it was intended to do. I found a really nice outfit for Calleigh for the Pops that ending up costing $5 (sidebar - - we're going to the Boston Pops on Sunday night 12/21. It's starts at 7:30 and Calleigh's bedtime is 7:45 so it may be an interesting experience. We shall see!) While we walked through the mall, Calleigh started talking about Santa so I asked her if she wanted to go see him. She said "Yes." So I took her down and as we waited for the child on his lap to leave, she sat there staring at him from her stroller. As I started to unbuckle her I asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap and she gave an emphatic "No!" So I said, "Why don't we just walk by and you can shake his hand." I rolled her by and as we got close, she started bawling. I gave a hasty apology to Santa as we continued on by as I said "It's okay. It's okay. You don't have to sit with Santa." Fortunately she stopped crying after about a minute as I thought to myself that clearly, the Santa thing wasn't going to work this year. But what was so funny is that a few minutes later she started talking again about Santa and then she started saying "It's okay, it's okay." It was as if she was trying to reassure herself that it was okay that she didn't want to sit on his lap!

Today we did our grocery shopping at Walmart. As I was at the register, I noticed that the cashier seemed to be very distracted and half the time was looking over my shoulder at something else. She then said to me, "They found the girl." I looked where she was looking and it turned out she was trying to watch the TV in the nail salon. As you probably know by now, it was the breaking story about finding the skeletal remains of a small child - - most likely missing Caylee Anthony. If it's her, I'll be relived that some closure can take place but it's such a terribly disheartening thing to think that most likely her mother did this to her. As a mother, it is unfathomable to me to comprehend such an act. As I watched some coverage this evening, they were showing the last video footage of little Caylee taken back in June and I couldn't help but tear up as I thought of my little Calleigh - - with a name so similar too.

But on to happier thoughts. A week from tomorrow morning we fly up for Christmas. We can hardly wait! Nothing beats Boston during Christmas. We will be there until Saturday night, 12/27 so we'll be there for just about nine days. This is the first time we've flown in who knows how long. Usually we leave on Christmas night to return because we try to beat the traffic and we need to get back to work. So it will be especially nice to not have to be rushed to leave. It sounds like Ricky (who I talked with at length this evening) will also be arriving next Friday and Shawn and Camille will be there for the weekend and then will come back on Tuesday. Good times at the Brace house, for sure!

Tomorrow evening Aunt Wanda is coming over to go look at Christmas lights with Ron and Elaine and us. I think David and Yully and possibly Shannon may come too so we will look forward to the outing, especially from a Calleigh perspective.