The Misadventures of Mommy Mayhem: Thanksgiving 2008

This Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for. Bella has a brand new baby cousin, Faith so we traveled to Las Vegas to see her for the first time.

What a Cutie-Pie! Even when she frowns!

Here’s the beautiful new family, my sister-in-law, Won and her hubby Ed:

Some may recall Ed’s action shot we took a few years ago as he carved the bird for the feast. This year, he struck the same pose as he carved up the turkey. Look at the look of determination on his face!

Go, Ed, Go!

The chefs and the wonderful feast

Cousin Trent and Bella Bella holds Faith

Those of you who are mothers know how hectic things can get to host guests in your home while taking care of an infant. So to alleviate Won’s stress from too many house guests, we decided to stay in a nearby casino hotel. The place was less than a month old so we were sure we’d get nice new rooms. Plus, the best part was we booked it at a special rate of $49/night! Can’t beat that! Or can we?

It turned out that upon check-in, they had no more non-smoking rooms. I proceeded to make a fuss about smoky rooms in my “condition” (milking the pregnancy card for all it’s worth) and how I have a young toddler with me. The agent looked at me sympathetically and then called over her superior who clicked away at the keyboard, doing her obligatory search for a non-smoking room. A few seconds later, she looked up and apologized for not having our room but said that she did have a suite for the night. We would have to move into a regular room in the morning. The other agent’s eyes grew wide and nodded in approval. “That’s a nice suite,” she said. I accepted and smiled deviously at the though of scoring a suite for $49!

As we entered the suite, we realized this wasn’t a traditional hotel suite. This was VEGAS, baby!! And bling is how they swing! Our pad had two full-sized bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a living room, dinning area, wet bar and kitchenette. The drapes and lights were all remote-controlled, a feature that Bella particularly enjoyed. The rooms were filled with state-of-the-art electronics, with flat screens in every room (six TVs in the whole suite), and a giant wall-size screen in the living room:

Even the bathrooms had TVs built behind the mirror:

Bella stops to pose after being caught messing with the remote

The bathrooms were equipped with the most complex toilet I’ve ever used with pre-warmed seats, motion detectors that open upon entry into the stall, a bidet built into the toilet with settings for warm water for front or back wash, and auto-flush. Bella quickly learned the full functionality of our porcelain throne and was the first to show any new visitors all of its features. Needless to say, the toilet was the talk of the weekend.

To celebrate our new-found luck, we decided to order room service for breakfast the next morning. We also had a $30 credit as part of the hotel package so we weren’t shy about ordering. The bill turned out to be nearly $80 for breakfast, but we didn’t care. Things like this don’t happen to us often so we settled in and enjoyed our splurge! Then Jin ruined the party and announced that he would call down to the front desk to see about the regular room we were to move into. Bella looked at me with sad eyes and said, “But Mommy, I wanna stay here.” Then I had to explain to her how we were really poor and that this is how famous rich people live. She seemed to understand and continued munching on her toast and butter. More on the butter story later.

A few minutes later, Jin returned from his phone call with a goofy ear-to-ear grin and said that they gave us the suite for the entire stay! Woohoo!!! This was no lottery, but it was better than nothing! Anyway, had I not been pregnant (a fact that I exploited fully) we may not have gathered the sympathy of the lobby receptionists; therefore the moral of the story, at least from my point of view is, to always play your best hand in order to parlay your winnings!

Here are some more pics from our Thanksgiving weekend: