Greetings to everyone.

Xavier has reached the age where setting up Christmas decorations and a tree excite him. This will be a fun Christmas we think as we enjoy Xavier's enthusiasm.

We mentioned setting up the Christmas tree early on Sunday. Xavier asked many questions, drilling down as he learned more. He wanted to know where the tree was stored. Then he wanted to understand how it fit under the stairs. Then he wanted to go see it.

Being the enterprising parents that we are, we used his curiosity and drive to set up the tree to get him to eat his supper. Wow! Xavier can pack it away in record time when he has a goal at the other end of eating.

After finishing dinner and clearing the table, Xavier helped Dad pull out the Christmas boxes from under the stairs. He helped enthusiastically, and was very excited until the way to under the stairs was opened.

Suddenly, an imaginary (at least I think imaginary as I saw no evidence of it) spider backed Xavier out into the utility room.

OK, so no help pulling out boxes, but definitely exuberant help for carrying them upstairs. Of course, that soon met with disappointment. Dad lugged up the heavy box with the tree in it and opened it. Xavier saw inside and wanted to get it out immediately, but Mom wanted to vacuum the room first. Also, we needed to rearrange the furniture to accommodate the tree. To Xavier, these were more delays!

Eventually, we had the tree up and Mom was debugging the burned out lights. Xavier, ever the helpful Christmas Elf, pointed out every dark light bulb (which were many) and impatiently waited for Mom to fix them (most of which she could not).

Then Dad brought up the boxes of ornaments. Xavier had a blast putting hooks on the ornaments and hanging them on the tree. We do have several branches that Xavier has tasked with supporting half a dozen or more ornaments in tight clusters.

Tonight, we decorated the mantel and hearth. Xavier could not wait to plug in the lights. He dragged a string of lights into another room and plugged them in (Mom and Dad were too slow in getting the garland up around the fireplace it seems).

Now, when Xavier gets up, the first thing he does is plug in the tree, the lights he dragged into another room and the lights on the mantel.

Greetings to everyone.

Yesterday the Denver area actually had a measurable amount of snow fall, the first real snow of the season. Though Xavier went to school, they did not get to have recess outside. Instead, they had it in the gymnasium.

Xavier was home today, and Fridays are clean the house day with Mom. However, not having a proper amount of outdoor time and equipment to burn off his building boy energy, Xavier turned his attentions to other things, making clean the house a more difficult task than usual.

I took Xavier aside and whispered "Go ask Mommy if she would like to play in the snow with you."

Off he went. He found Mom in the kitchen and asked her for a carrot. Somewhat confused, it took Rebecca a few minutes of conversation to understand what Xavier intended (at first Rebecca got excited that Xavier asked for carrots to eat).

Once they reached an understanding, Mom agreed to play in the snow. Twenty minutes later, they both had dressed in suitable cold weather clothing.

Outside they went. The snow had accumulated to about two inches and the mid morning temperature had not risen enough to do much melting. Together, they worked at clearing a small sidewalk. We bought Xavier his snow shovel last year. One of the best six dollars we spent on him in 2015.

Easily conquering the eight feet of sidewalk, both mom and son set out to shovel the lawn. Xavier really got into this activity. He did not yet realize what mom intended, however.

The snow had started getting wet enough to stay in packed balls. Using their shovels, mom and Xavier pushed enough snow into piles to build their snowman. At last, the earlier asked for carrot had a place to go.

The project was a success. Xavier and mom had fun together. Xavier burned off some pent-up energy. Later in the day, however, the snowman fell over. Seeing a rabbit near the toppled snowman, Xavier was convinced the rabbit knocked over the snowman to get at its carrot nose.

Greetings to all.

This morning at breakfast, Xavier informed me that he needed a haircut. I agreed. In fact, both he and I have needed haircuts for weeks. I had planned on getting us in yesterday, but the birthday party and the failure of some computer equipment derailed the plan.

I did get an appointment for two thirty and three today. We took them as they were the only two available, and we really needed the trims!

The last several times to the barber, Xavier has fought getting his hair and head messed with. The last two times the barber did dry cuts because Xavier disliked (definitely not strong enough a word here) getting his hair wet with the mister.

Today, he sat and watched Dad get his hair done. He sat very still and watched. He did very little fidgeting. He remained well-behaved and quiet—a little surprising as he definitely did not want to be in the barber shop.

When it came to his turn, he walked over and crawled up on Dad's lap. He told the barber he wanted his hair wet. He sat still, more or less, throughout all the cut. He only flinched when the scissors tickled his skin. "That tickles," this explained often after pulling away.

Since his first hair cut, this trip was the best. He walked away with an unrushed and well-crafted cut. He looked sharp (because he held still and did not fight the barber).

After paying the barber, Xavier wanted to do what we always do after his haircut: walk over to the Italian restaurant and eat pizza.

Today, Xavier took the menu from me and opened it up in front of him. He looked it over. I had to laugh. He did it so convincingly, like any adult would look it over. He looked at all three sections, then pointed at one item in the pizza section.

"Daddy, I want pepperoni pizza."

Not surprisingly, that's what we ordered.

Greetings to everyone.

Xavier attended a birthday party for a friend he knows through his MOPS group. A local bouncy house served as the venue for the fun. The Pizza Hut across the parking lot served as the catered meal after the fun.

It took Xavier some time to grow used to all the bouncy contraptions available. He did not want to go on the trampolines because they were (in his words) "scary."

It took Dad getting involved and crawling into the air-inflated train slides to get Xavier to stop shying away from the smaller slides. Once he got a taste of the slides, though, it was game on! Up the front of the train, down the slide in the back. Through the "maze" in the next car. Up the ramp then down the slide into another maze, then out the caboose. Once out, it was race around and repeat, laughing all the time.

After a time, I did get him to go on the trampolines. They no longer seemed scary. Once on them, Xavier bounced, climbed and slid and had a blast.

By this time, Xavier had found a friend to run with, another boy about his size. The two discovered the giant shark. Once they identified the climbing ramp, up they went. They did the shark slide several times.

Then I introduced Xavier to the big slide. I asked him, "Do you think this is scary?"

"No!" he replied and squirmed to get out of my arms.

Over the ramps, down some small slides, then up, up, up, a high incline to the big slide. He climbed like an experienced monkey. This slide became his favorite. Too bad we discovered it so late. Lunch time called, and he only had two runs at the slide. He so wanted to go back and do it again (and again, and again…)

We found our shoes and socks, put them on and walked across the parking lot. Their, pizza, drinks and party favors awaited. Xavier ate pizza and pasta. Looking at me he told me "I like the white pasta." There were two choices, one with a white sauce and one with marinara. I did a double take at the phrase "white pasta". Where did he learn that?

In all the eating, playing with party favors and watching the opening of gifts, Xavier never forgot about the big slide. It's all I heard about from the time we left Pizza Hut and drove home. He wanted to go back.

Greetings to everyone.

Xavier loves pizza. It's his favorite food. It must have pepperoni on it and lots of it.

Tonight, Rebecca had pizza on the menu. We purchased pepperoni at the local market over the weekend. The deli at the market only had the uber-sized pepperoni, so our slices were about four inches in diameter.

Xavier was oblivious to what his mama was doing in the kitchen as she prepped for the meal. He sat on Daddy's lap playing a computer game involving bombs and loud explosions. He would laugh heartily whenever he blew himself up.

Generally when he plays this game, it is difficult to pull his attention away from the explosions and bomb dropping. But when Rebecca called to him asking if he wanted to help make pizza, Xavier left tennis shoe skid marks on Dad's legs.

Xavier helped grate the cheese and lay out the pepperoni on the crust. Then, he watched and waited intently as the pizzas baked. He helped make two of them: a big one for mom and dad, and a little one all for him.

The pictures show the chair he stood on to do his work. Underneath the chair, some of the cheese which did not make it onto the dough. Both ovens worked to brown and crisp Xavier's creations.

We all enjoyed the pizza. Xavier ate enough that he did not require a second supper before bedtime.