#ImAtEllen

Months ago my mom put in for tickets to see the Ellen DeGeneres show. She got them! Unfortunately, it was for the week AFTER she left CA. But does she give up? Not my mom! She says sure, I'll come back to CA a week later. So she does, and she brings my sister, dad, and brother in law (see my last post about our fun weekend!). We reserve a room in Burbank for the night before and we all plan our outfits over the phone. When I put my outfit on in person I get blank stares and cricket sounds from my mom and sister so a shopping trip is also planned for the morning before the show.

The process at Ellen is like a machine. You "half register" when you show up by showing your ID. Then at 1:30 they call for people to get in line and hand out numbers (you KNOW we were up front and got 33, 34 and 35 out of around 400). At 2 they herd us across the street in numerical order. At 2:30 they usher us into the studio and hand pick who is sitting where. It looked like we were going to be towards the back when we got the eye up and down and were told, "We actually have three seats up front for you." I am pretty sure I heard my mom squeal. Three cheers for the Gap Outlet as it saved my mom's trip to Ellen! We sat down and then had an uplifting session to get PUMPED for Ellen and we did. We were laughing and cheering and clapping till I thought we were going to get blisters on our hands. Portia and Ellen came out and we laughed and cheered and clapped harder. And THEN! And THEN we found out we won tickets back for another Ellen show, the 12 Days of Giveaways. The crowd was INSANE. WE were insane. We were heading back 3 weeks later!

That night we went to dinner and laughed and called the husbands back home. Chris was in the middle of packing up the trailer and rounding up the kids and walking the dogs and didn't really quite get the excitement until I told him again, it is ELLEN and it is the TWELVE DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS! I think he then pretended to get it, or at least he is being a sport and playing along. We head back on Monday and we are all pretty excited. It is fun to be around that much excitement, and if I am honest, it is fun to have an unexpected bonus Christmas. It is a kind of Christmas that you can really be surprised and not feel bad that your family is spending money on you and it is ELLEN, so it is bound to be a fun time!

Because we are now in Santa Cruz, Ellen in Burbank is not quite as easy to get to. The weekend will hold some travel plans as my dad will fly to us in San Francisco on Saturday so he can watch the boys for us on Monday. I fly out on Sunday from San Francisco and meet my mom and sister in LA and then we all fly back to our respective homes on Monday evening. Three Cheers for family who understands the excitement of being able to say #ImAtEllen!