And the tradition continues...

Our family is big on tradition.

We've had to adapt a lot with all the new members of our family, but that just make the traditions more meaningful.

One tradition Dad and I have kept for years is people-watching at the mall during the Christmas rush.

We go to dinner, finish Christmas-shopping for Mom, search for a parking space at the mall, buy ice cream from Cold Stone, and perch on an empty bench or the intersection right smack-dab in the middle of the mall simply to observe the many different varieties of people stressing over Christmas shopping. It's especially fun for me when I'm done with my shopping.

This year, we ventured out on a Tuesday because it's getting a little close to the wire, and all our weekends are booked up.

We first braved Walmart to buy stocking stuffers and wait, wait, wait in line.

Got to coach my younger cousin on wedding decorating over a phone call which was nice. 

With all that I went through planning our wedding, I am always more than happy to share some of that knowledge.
And when we exited the Salvation Army bell-ringers said Merry Christmas to us!
As Dad gave them a donation, I thanked them for saying "Merry Christmas"!
So refreshing to hear that as opposed to "Happy Holidays".

Then, we had a lovely dinner at Zio's.

I love to look at people's faces as they wonder what relation that older man has to that younger woman.

It used to not be odd to see a father and daughter on a date together. 

Dad and I used to get dressed up and do it regularly.

But, then it just started looking like I was his much younger girlfriend and we quit.

A large family sat near us for a birthday dinner while we were eating, and the kids busied themselves coloring on the tablecloths (they're paper.)

One girl didn't have the color she wanted, so she started going around to the empty tables gathering their colors and replacing them with her unwanted ones. 

Then, she came to our table, didn't acknowledge us, or say a thing. Just exchanged our red one for her orange one and returned to her table.

Dad and I just smiled big at each other. We could totally see one of the twins doing that.

Then, it was mall time. And since we chose a Tuesday night, the parking lot was fairly empty and the mall was as well. We walked straight to the food court constantly amazed along the way with all the changes to the mall since we'd been there last (which was probably 6 months ago). But the biggest surprise was the disapperance of Marble Slab. It in its place, Sbarro Pizza.

Apparently, they'd closed a while ago. Sad.

So, we ventured to a creepy boutique in the nook before you hit Sears (yes, we ventured into THAT corner of the mall). They had those weird gothic fairies, skulls, animals, and then a huge plethora of knives. That is where this picture was taken. We had fun in that weird store.

So, all-in-all, we had a great evening. I love carrying on this tradition with Dad.