Female Bonding

Every year since Katherine, my younger sister was thirteen, she and my mom would go to Denver Christmas shopping. They make a whole weekend of it, they depart early Saturday morning, shop hard all day, eat lunch at Nordstroms, followed by more shopping, dinner, and then they would spend the night at the Marriott so that they could get an early start on Sunday. It is their "female bonding" weekend and it is A LOT of fun! I have had the privilege of joining them twice. This was my second year.

But this year was a little different. Okay, it was a lot different! This year, we brought the babies. Luke was born five weeks before Macie, they are presently ten and almost nine months and they, we discovered, do not love female bonding weekend so much. They don't see any need to get an early start on the morning, they pretty much hate shopping and couldn't care less about lunch at Nordstoms. Well, actually, Macie quite enjoyed lunch at Nordstroms. There was one point where she was sitting in the middle of the restaurant waving to all the patrons around us. She waves like she is a movie star and you would think the way people respond to her she was one. Luke just ate his Cheerios.

In previous years, we could peruse the mall, browse through each store and really contemplate our gifts. We could compare prices and products, try clothes on, look at expensive and delicate items, we could take our time. This year it was more like a mad dash through specific stores, each of us taking our turn with the stroller while the others frantically chose and paid for "must have" gifts. The lucky one with the double wide stroller often found herself outside the store as to keep those chubby little fingers off of fine china and fragile ornaments. (Why do they put those so low anyway?) Or she would be holding one crying baby while rocking the other crying baby in the stroller with her foot. Then we would make the exchange..."Okay, you have the babies, I am going into J. Crew."

After shopping we went to the Marriott to relax. There, we found a beautiful room with two lush double beds and a terrace that looks out over the gorgeously decorated atrium. The sound of Frank Sinatra singing carols wafts in from below. It is peaceful and serene...full of the Christmas spirit! Add two portable cribs to the mix and suddenly everything changes. None of really foresaw the difficulty of getting two exhausted babies to nap together there in the same room. Needless to say, the cry of one would immediately wake the other and then together it would become a chorus of chaos each feeding off the other. In previous years we would sit out on the veranda and enjoy a glass of wine, chat with each other and people watch. This year it was more like us locking ourselves out there for fear that if we made the slightest sound inside we would wake one, then both of the babies. We had our wine but this time it was because we needed it to take the edge off, not as a mere complement to our already relaxing weekend.

Then there's dinner. Katherine asks, as Luke screams, "do you really think we should take the babies to Bone Fish?" Uh...probably not. This photo is of Katherine and my mom before they went to dinner while I baby-sat (thus the true reason behind my getting invited). Don't they look happy? What you can't see are the two babies crying, one at my foot desperately wanting me to pick him up and the other sitting on the floor looking at Katherine and probably wondering why she looks so happy. I think it was finally 10:30 p.m. when both babies were asleep. Thanks to Mom who rocked Luke while Katherine and I had drinks in the bar with our brother.

Sunday, we woke up bright and early. Not so much so we could hit the shops again, more because the babies dictated we get up early. And boy, were they cranky! Add a stomach virus to the sleep deprivation and we had one recipe for a desperate exodus home as opposed to more shopping.

All that being said, I wouldn't have changed one thing about this weekend! "Female bonding" isn't about shopping or dining or relaxing in a nice hotel. It's about spending time together. It is about our relationships with each other and it is about family traditions. Ones, that will some day be passed on to our children. Luke probably won't want to continue with this particular tradition but Macie will and some day, perhaps, her daughter.

Here's to Female Bonding! Thanks Mom!!!