Weekend Recap: MOA, Christmas shopping, family

This past weekend, my mom and sister came up for some Christmas shopping. We usually do it the weekend before Thanksgiving, but we'll be leaving for Disney then.

On Friday night, we went to Boca Chica in St. Paul, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I made a reservation online earlier that day, and I'm so glad I did because it was packed! The service was good though as well as the food. My mango margarita was awesome (Manny's take note), but my mom's was rather strong. We got a kick out of it when she said if she had another she'd be "crawling out."

I had some soup, walleye and a sope. The walleye was a little weird on the bottom but the sope was great.

Back at home, we played a game and then tortured poor Chester with a Christmas costume my mom got him.

Chester the Elf

"Chester, you are so cute as an elf!"

Chester the Elf and my mom

Saturday morning we got up and going at 9ish so we could be at the Mall of America right when it opened at 10 am. That really paid off too because the parking ramp and mall were empty when we got there. It started getting really busy around 11 when we were at H&M.

I had the opportunity to observe many people as I waited outside for mom and Stine at a few stores. There's nothing like going to the Mall of America to make you feel skinny and beautiful! Just wow.

We had lunch at the crepes stand. The crepes were actually pretty good for us not being in Quebec or France, but just could not compare to the awesome crepes Adam and I had on our honeymoon.

By the time we left around noon, the place was a zoo! The parking ramps were all full, and there was a huge line of cars down to the street just to get in the parking ramps.

Our next stop was Galleria for Crate & Barrel. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded. We enjoyed looking at all the Christmas decor and picking out a few ornaments. We were back by 2 pm, so mom and Stine could head back to La Crescent for a party they had that night.

After they left, Adam and I ran to Target mainly so I could get a few "travel size" items for Florida and some totes for upstairs. Our storage room and office are a bit of a disaster upstairs. So I tackled that for a while once we got home. Some boxes hadn't been opened since we moved in almost 2 years ago. Sad, I know...

Chester's new coat that was too big for him :(

Then we watched the movie "Red" together which was quite entertaining. It wasn't great, but we've seen a lot of bad movies lately. Plus, I enjoy Morgan Freeman in just about everything so that helped.

Sunday, we headed over to Curt and Robin's for some delicious build-your-own nachos and football. Chester of course loved running around downstairs. I had planned to start some packing at home, but I was so exhausted that Chester and I took an awesome nap together on the couch while Adam played his new Call of Duty game. It was so relaxing.

We had a great relaxing weekend at home. With the holidays coming up, I don't think there will be opportunity for many more of those until January.