Merry Christmas, 2017!
Greetings, Merry Christmas to all!
Christ is Born!
As these before and after pictures show, we celebrated a wonderful Christmas this year.
For both Rebecca and I, this was the first Christmas in a long time (and certainly since we two met) that we both truly enjoyed. As we discussed it, we decided it's the first time we were not running from place to place, no pressure on the feast, and a continuous day not broken up in the midnight and mid morning hours of church services.
This year Rebecca and I found a church we both can call a home church; even Xavier enjoys attending church. This unification in our family brought, I think, much of the peace we felt this year.
We had planned on making the 10:00 AM service today, but late yesterday decided to take in the 7:00 PM Christmas Eve service instead. That gave us a slower moving Christmas Day, and allowed us to focus more on the purpose and worship of Christmas, rather than on getting here on time, getting there on time, etc.
Xavier started the day very early, and twice. Once at midnight and again at 3:00 AM. Excitement did not wake him these times, but congestion. At 3:00, we turned off the humidifier and he came to bed with Mom and Dad. He did not get up until 8:00 AM. This gave we parents some time to ourselves, a nice Christmas present in its own right.
When he did get up, the tree's lights shined brightly and the lights in the evergreen on the mantle shone clear, and the stocking were filled! He was excited.
Yesterday, he was concerned Santa would not fill his stocking because he thought he had been a bad boy. We still do not know where he picked up this thinking; perhaps at school, perhaps he watched Santa Clause is Coming to Town one too many times. Try as we might, we could not convince him his behavior had been "good" and not "bad".
Aunt Chelle drove down from Fort Collins. While we waited for her, we opened stockings. Xavier has never gotten so excited over stockings.
This year he turned the corner on getting it and anticipating stockings and gifts. He got into shopping, even picking out stocking stuffers and other gifts for people. He picked up a turkey baster for Rebecca as a gift; he explained to me "Mama can use this when she cooks." With thought like that, how could I tell him "she already has one"?
He helped wrapping presents, even several of his own (though he did not know that at the time). I think what he really liked was pulling and ripping the tape from the dispenser and applying it to the wrapping paper.
Xavier dug into his stockings (Xavier had two) with gusto, excited by everything he pulled out, even more excited when he continued to discover the stockings held more than he thought. He even watched excitedly as Mama and Daddy opened their stockings.
We decided to call Grandpa Danny before he got too far into his day of celebration. While on the phone, Xavier opened his gifts from Grandpa Danny. Danny gave Xavier a pair of robotic toys and a tool belt with tools. Xavier received both enthusiastically.
Later on in the day, Grandpa Bill arrived for dinner. He brought Xavier a gift as well. It was Xavier's first radio-controlled car (OK, technically, it is infrared controlled). Xavier overflowed with excitement and impatiently bothered us until we got the double A's installed in the remote control.
After Grandpa Danny, we rang up Grandma Penny and let Xavier tear into her gift to him. Grandma Penny always gets Xavier a big Tonka truck, and this year she sent him a front-end loader, something he desperately needed.
Next, we had the annual get Aunt Kathy working on Skype call. We're getting better at this, and it only took 30 minutes this year to get things going. Kathy sent Xavier more TinkerToys.
This excited Xavier. He had to empty the bag of new Tinker Toys into his barrel. After, we had to break down every one of his Tinker Toy structures, including the one he said only yesterday that he never wanted to take apart. The reason for this: Xavier wanted to see if he had enough Tinker Toys to "overfill" (his term) the barrel.
Aunt Chelle gave Xavier two books, one being the sequel to the book which themed Xavier's fourth birthday: Dragons Love Tacos 2: the Sequel. At bed time, we read that book four times and the second book Aunt Chelle gave him we read twice.
At last, we came to the big gift, the glory gift, the gift he has been asking for since early summer, the gift that would eclipse all others, leaving these others as distant memories in its light: the gift from his parents.
Success! We, the parents, gave the glory gift! Or so we thought. Xavier played with the Bruder cement truck to the exclusion of all else. A few hours later, Grandpa Bill would bring a remote controlled Lightning McQueen, snatching away the glory from us completely!
After dinner, and at Xavier's persistent pestering, he and Dad built the robotic spider Grandpa Danny had sent, a feat which took about an hour and a half. Once the spider was up and running, it was hard to say which grandpa stole the glory, Grandpa Bill with his remote controlled car, or Grandpa Danny with the robotic spider. Likely, they both share the glory stealing; both granddads did very well this year in gifting Xavier with what rev's his engine.
Dad got the 1955 SciFi movie Tarantula as one of his gifts this year. As it played on the TV in Middle Earth, Xavier acted out scenes having his own robotic spider chasing cars just like in the movie.
Merry Christmas 2017!
An Early Christmas Present
Greetings to all!
Xavier has asked to have a pair of house slippers for some while. The problem has been finding a pair that will fit his feet. As with his clothes, certain things like shoes often are specialty items. Rebecca found a pair and wrapped them.
When some seasonal cold (highs in the twenties and teens) rolled in, Xavier complained of cold feet, even in his socks. We decided to let him open a present early.
Excited to open a gift, though a little pensive as "It's not Christmas, yet" he informed us, he responded with joy at seeing what pulling away the wrapping revealed.
We clipped the tags and plastic threads holding the two slippers together. Xavier tried them on.
They did not go on well; it took some effort and manipulation. Partly because they are new, and partly because the slippers are just on the edge of being too small.
We decided he would break them in and they will last the winter. Upon finishing our assessment, Xavier removed the slippers, returning to his socks and chilled feet.
We asked him why, since he clearly liked his slippers, and told us so.
"Daddy's not wearing his," was his reason. So Dad had to find his slippers and slip them on. Xavier followed suit.
Who Needs Toys When...
Greetings to all.
Xavier's Aunt Kathy's annual box of Christmas goodies arrived on the doorstep today. Inside, the box held Kathy's Christmas card, about ten pounds of homemade fudge, cookies and other seasonal snacks. And, of course, presents, all nicely wrapped.
Xavier was excited to open the box. We have been getting deliveries nearly every other day, most with gifts to be wrapped and placed under the tree.
We opened the box, pulled out the packing materials. We found and read the Christmas card. We unpacked the tins of goodies (which was like opening several nesting dolls, each tin holding goodies and another tin of baked goods). We placed the gifts under the tree.
Xavier, growing board during the sampling of the baked goods phase, got excited about something new. No longer was he excited about the new packages under the tree. He had a box: one he could fit into, close the flaps and hide.
We cut two holes in the side and made a flap to close the holes over. Xavier moved the box all over the house, then hid in it.
We played hide-n-seek. It was not hard to find him; however, we were informed that because the spy holes were closed, we could not see him.
He watched TV in the box. He even held puppet shows for Mom and Dad from within the box, using his stuffed animals as actors.
Later, when Grandpa Danny's box of Christmas goodies arrive in a slightly smaller box, Xavier pushed that emptied box all around the house. It became a vital piece of equipment in a construction project he had going on with his Hot Wheels and other trucks and cars.
Snow Tubing
Greetings to everyone, and Happy Birthday, Rebecca!
Yes, today Rebecca turns forty-four. We spent a great deal of brain power trying to decide how to mark this momentous event. The pat find a sitter and go to dinner just did not feel fun this year. First, no sitters could be found, confirming the previously mentioned feel.
Secondly, Rebecca wanted to make memories, and we thought it might be nice to have the whole family involved. Remembering the tubing hill in Keystone, an idea began to take shape.
Three things hindered the plans. The first being the gondola ride to the tubing hill: would Xavier be able to board the moving car, or would he freak out.
The tubing hill had a height restriction of 42 inches or taller. Xavier fell short by three inches, and research showed Keystone did not cut any slack on this number.
There was not a lot of snow. Keystone boasted 24 inches, and with the small storm last Friday, now 25 inches.
It was looking doubtful unless we drove much further into the mountains, which no one wanted to do.
Keystone, we remembered, has another area called the Nordic Center. We read up on it. Tubing hill with no height limit, tubes rented by the hour, enough snow to make the trip worth it, and no gondola car to manage. The biggest hindrance was no conveyor belt to get you back up the hill; it was all foot work.
We loaded up the car with winter gear, stopped at Village Inn for breakfast, put in A Bug's Life into the car's DVD player, then headed up I-70.
Traffic was light going up, and not a big crowd on the mountain. In fact, there was no crowd, so the tubes we rented were for all day at the two hour rental rate.
We got to the Nordic Center expecting a crowd. There was none; only three or four other families. Xavier and Mom made the first run, followed by Dad. Xavier huffed his own tube up the hill twice before learning he could jump into one of the tubes Mom or Dad were dragging back up the hill.
Though there was not much snow—exposed grass at the top of the run—there was enough for a lot of fun. Xavier went down on his own more times than not. We even tied the two tubes together a few times and went down the hill in "doubles." Once we even did a family three-on-one tube run.
We spent almost two hours on the hill, for about a dozen or more runs for each of us. After, we found a restaurant for lunch, then headed down the hill back to Denver. Again, no traffic worth mentioning. Xavier was thoroughly tired. Unfortunately, we woke him up too soon (he only had 20 minutes) and it was a bear to get him to sleep tonight!
Xavier Explores Anatomy
Greetings to all.
It started with someone gifting Xavier several Berenstain Bears books, and Xavier deciding he wanted to read "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food."
Actually, it started earlier. Several months ago, in point of fact. Xavier began asking questions about his food and snacks. "Does this have sugar in it?" or "Is this a healthy snack?"
He would also have commentary about food, saying it was healthy or not healthy. This he used particularly when he wanted to eat something or not eat something and he was lobbying for parental support.
Then he found the "Too Much Junk Food" book.
In this book, the Bear family visits their doctor, who shows them slides of what their bodies look like on the inside. There are drawings of the digestive system, the nervous system, the circulatory system, bones and muscle.
Xavier was fascinated by these pictures. He wouldn't let me turn the page. He just wanted to look at them, and ask many questions. We ended up reading the book not just at bed time, but several times a day for many days in a row.
I thought of the Visible Man model I built as a child. So Xavier and I hit several stores looking for one. Back in my day, entire store rows held shelves of plastic models: planes, ships, visible frogs, and visible men. Gone from the stores are those shelves and shelves of models.
We visited five different stores. Nada. We found visible heads, visible torsos, visible feet, but no visible "everything".
We came home empty-handed, but not disheartened. We still had the Internet!
After fifteen minutes of searching, we found nothing. Oh, we did find the Visible Man, but no way was I going to shell out $75+ dollars for it! Apparently, the Visible Man of yesteryear has become a collector's item. Still, I was determined to get Xavier something before his interest in the body's workings waned.
Then, we stumbled on just the right key words for our Google searches!
For just $20 we found better than we originally thought to find. No painting of plastic organs. Instead, the organs are squishy and tacky. Not too much detail to overwhelm Xavier. In fact, just a little more detail than the Berenstain Bear book showed.
And, as Xavier would soon point out, the Visible Man model showed the insides of people, not bears.
We added it to our shopping cart, then headed for the virtual checkout. Surprisingly, it said it would arrive the day before Thanksgiving. Xavier waited and checked the front door step every day. We even followed the tracking number. I arrived in Denver on Tuesday. Excitement grew. Loaded on the truck for delivery on Wednesday, Xavier was bouncing off the walls.
It did not arrive on Wednesday, leaving both of us disappointed. I reset his expectation for Monday or Tuesday. But to our surprise—and the goodness of God!—a deliveryman showed up late Thanksgiving morning. Guess what he delivered?
For the next two days, Xavier carried his Visible Man everywhere. It came with a book that explains the systems as we follow a bite of pizza through the body. We've read that many times. He has even taken it to school for show and tell.
What's next?
Funny you should ask that. The other night, while in bed, Xavier started talking about being in Mama's tummy. His questions soon turned to how did he get into Mama's tummy. My answers to his questions led down a road he is not yet ready for. Soon, however, his Visible Man model is likely to have a Visible Woman model standing at his side.