Christmas in the park

Last Friday the girls and I left for San Jose so that we could visit Great Grandma and Sticker Grandma as well as our dear friend Terry. (This is one of the reasons I have not blogged for the past few days) I had our weekend all planned out as I always like to have concrete plans. That's me, the planner! I should have been a wedding planner I am telling you! Anyway, our Friday plans were to go pick up Great Grandma, Sticker Grandma, and Sticker Grandma's friend Barbara. First I would bring KFC to Great Grandma's house and we would all eat there. This was to happen around 5. I figured we would be leaving at 5:30 to pick up Barbara's grand kids, Sammy and Johnny. However, plans do always work on time so I think we didn't end up leaving until 6:15.

We drove from Sunnyvale to South San Jose where Sammy and Johnny live. We added another car seat in the car and for the first time my car was at its full capacity with 8 people! Quite a squishy ride but only for Sticker Grandma who sat in the third row seat between two car seats. By the time we picked up Johnny and Sammy it was around 7. We headed to downtown San Jose in hopes of finding parking at a parking garage. We drove around for over 45 minutes trying to find parking. I was nervous with it being almost 8:00 that the girls would be getting tired soon. So our new plan was to drop everyone off, give them my cellphone, and I would call them from my car phone once I found parking.

Lucky for me shortly after dropping them off I found a parking lot that was accepting a few vehicles. The bummer part was it cost $8.00 but at this point I was desperate. I open up my wallet and only have $3.00. I am digging in my wallet and car for quarters to try and make up the difference. Lucky for me the guy is willing to take a check! So I park and start trying to call the Grandma's to see where I can meet them.

To my horror the phone just rings and rings. No one is answering. I am assuming at this point that it is too loud for them to hear the phone ringing. My biggest problem is that once I leave my car I have no way to get a hold of them. So in a panic I call hubby and tell him to call them over and over until they answer the phone. I tell him to tell them to meet me at the Merry Go Round.

I start to head over to Christmas in the Park. When I reach the Merry Go Round they are no where in site. Panic starts to set in. I go across the street to where a band is playing and there is an information booth. They are no where in site. I go back to the Merry Go Round, they are still not there. I am starting to get really worried because my girls left their jackets in the car and I am afraid they are freezing. I am also worried how I will ever find them. I see 6 police officers standing around talking so I decide to approach them and tell them what happened. They could care less really, I am sure they probably hear these stories all the time. They send me over to the information booth. I tell them my story. They say in 15 minutes they can stop the band to make an announcement. I decide in the meantime to go back over to the Merry Go Round. FINALLY, they are there! Well at least my girls, Sticker Grandma, and Great Grandma are there. Apparently there are two Merry Go Rounds and they didn't know which one I was at so Barbara, her grand kids, and my cousin Stacey are over at the other Merry Go Round.

Turns out that when the Grandma's jumped out of the car they dropped the cellphone and it fell apart all over the street. Being that they don't have cellphones it took them awhile to get it back together! My husband eventually got a hold of them and my cousin did too. By the time all of our drama was over it was 8:45 and we hadn't seen anything. The girls really wanted a Merry Go Round ride so we let them have one. After that big boy Johnny (7 years old) wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel. Due to all of our problems finding each other we wanted to stick together so we waited for Johnny to ride the Ferris Wheel which took an hour. At that point his brother Sammy had already fell asleep and my children were wanting to go to bed as well. So KK, Johnny, and Barbara rode the teacups. Then we stopped by Starbucks for a hot chocolate and went home. We were so bummed that we didn't even get a chance to walk around Christmas in the park and see what was happening.

KK, Sticker Grandma, and Aly on the Merry Go Round.

Sticker Grandma and I pose for a picture!

Barbara and Sammy on the Merry Go Round.

Mommy could not brave this ride so Barbara stepped up to the plate and took Johhny and KK on the teacups!

Just so you know my original plan would have been to get to Christmas in the park at 6:30 and stay until 8:30. Of course when I made this plan I didn't know they had carnival rides. I thought we would just be walking around looking at decorated Christmas trees and different holiday displays. Oh well, plans need to be flexible! Now that we know more hopefully if we ever do again we can plan better!