"Mom, Yer my Buddy!"

4 little words exuberantly uttered in the dark, after handing him "Drankie", tucking a fuzzy fleece all 'round him,
and placing his cup nearby.  The sturdy ticking lump in my chest is forever affected and reduced to a
puddle of goo.  I could die happy and content. right. now.
Those delicious little words make up for every struggle that ever came before tonight,
and will probably cover a multitude of sins for many days (and possibly years) to come :-)

It was a long day.  A good and productive day.  A fun day.
I loaded 7 Bugletts into our snow-worthy 4x4 and hit the town!  We left at 10:30 this morning, and pulled
into the driveway tonight after 8pm.  Whew!
What transpired between those times were as follows:
Christmas shopping,
12 cheeseburgers
Birthday shopping for Clay
A Salted Caramel Mocha for me
6 Peppermint Hot Chocolates for 6 Bugs
Grocery shopping,
A lot of getting into and out of the truck (which may have accounted for several hours of  our time)
Nursing the baby.  3 times.

We encountered numerous raised eyebrows over the course of the day, and none of them pertaining to
the box of glass ornaments we bumped off a shelf, or the 2 hot chocolates we lost on the grocery
store floor before leaving the produce section.

Note to self: experiment was a success.
I now know why 
it was against my better judgement 
to let the kids sip hot chocolate 
while I shopped.

Lesson learned.

One grandfatherly fellow and his elderly mother leaning upon arm, got a real kick out of watching us
through the store ad I'm sure we were good entertainment for them.  Their pleasure about made my day!
Upon meeting up with his wife, I overheard the tickled two as they pointed us out to her:
"She has seven children!"  They exclaimed in admiring awe.

 The mans wife promptly turned and took a headcount, and
smiling with genuine warmth and sincerity she said to my crew
 "I wish I had seven children just. like. you."

 Loaded to the gills, 6 bananas later and another Mocha for ol' mom, a take-and-bake pizza for dinner
stacked precariously on top of the dollar store bags (which were strategically plopped on top
of the groceries), with Christmas carols turned full volume... we turned toward home.
 It was a long day (9+ hours).
A good and productive day (see: full truck, content children, sane mother)
A fun day too.  I really thought it couldn't get better!
But good-night hugs from long-legged big bugs, and 4 little words from my Bryce-boy....
no.  I'm pretty certain it doesn't get any better :-)