Our First Girls' Night Out

Tonight was a wonderful night of firsts. Mo and I had our first girls' night out, Mo marched in a parade for the first time and she went to a movie for the first time. And not only was it a night of firsts, it was a super successful, magical night of firsts. The city of Davis was throwing its annual christmas tree lighting ceremony, including a parade with Santa and Mrs. Claus, free horse drawn carriage rides, and free showings of the Grinch at the Varsity theatre. Last year Matt and I (with baby Mo in tow) went downtown at the appropriated start time and it was so crowded we could barely move through the crowd, let alone find dinner anywhere. So this year I decided to go all in and get downtown super early, which turned out beautifully. Mo and I strolled into an empty Chipotle at 5:00 for dinner and by 5:15 the line was out the door. Most excellent timing. We shared a kids meal and it was the first time I have been able to sit nicely and have a conversation over dinner with my child. It literally brought tears to my eyes. No running around, no screaming. We just sat and enjoyed each other's company and it was lovely. Molly even ate her dinner without spilling a single grain of rice. Other people actually commented on our super cute dinner date. JOY!

I was so excited about the success of our dinner that I decided to buy Mo a GIANT sugar cookie from Peets Coffee. And man oh man do I wish I had my camera out for the look on her face when I handed her that cookie! She stood, rooted to the spot, with that cookie raised high in the air just staring at it with a look of jubilant amazement that such a thing existed. That cookie was so amazing she took her time enjoying it, instead of shoving it down her throat like all other cookies. JOY!

It was only 5:30 at this point so we strolled through downtown looking at all the Holiday decorations in the store windows. I had the Ergo (to avoid the stroller in a crowd thing) and Mo was so excited to get to be "baby" again. So we walked, and oohed, and ahhed, and snuggled our way towards the parade. JOY! We made it all the way to the Co-op and somehow found our good friends Melissa and Patrick in the giant crowd. And then we all joined the Band-uh and walked in the parade. JOY! And if that wasn't good enough we all got to go see the Grinch for free with hot cocoa and popcorn to boot. Mo did well sitting and watching the movie but was SUPER concerned about the Grinch's treatment of Max. "Oh NOOOO!!! DOGGY!" Luckily it was really cute and not too loud. Mo's first movie! JOY!

                                                      Waiting for Cocoa in Mishka's

                             Patrick made friends with the Grinch.  Mo was in no way interested.

And to top off the whole night there were the free horse-drawn carriage rides across the street. There was a loooong line but it wasn't too stormy and we were in the company of good friends so we decided to wait.

We were even "entertained" by the noisiest most obnoxious group of pre-teen girls that I have ever observed. I kept commenting on the lack of parenting and decided they must be hanging out on the corner being obnoxious and rude unobserved untiiilll...It was our turn to ride and the parents of those girls came out of the woodwork and notified us that we would be on the ride together. Oh, geez. And it was as bad as you might think riding with a bunch of sugared up pre-teen girls with checked out parents would be. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS! They literally scream-sang songs the entire ride at a volume that made Mo shout "STOP!" and Patrick sign "all done." That moment, however, when Mo and Patrick were fed up was too cute to consider the ride a loss :) Patrick's face was priceless. "What is wrong with those girls mom?" JOY! (in spite of crazy obnoxiousness). And after a fabulous night we walked back to our cars (which were conveniently right next to each other) and sped off to our cozy, warm homes to hunker down for the night. This night has been my favorite night of the year and gives me so much hope for future girls night outs!