Best Yet

Friday's advent activity was to drive around to look at Christmas lights. This seems so simple that it couldn't be so great, but it WAS! The kids got into their pajamas, we turned on a Van Morrison CD (perfect light-viewing music), and we drove around to look at lights. Pasadena and surrounds have some pretty great spots to look at lights. But even on the way to said spots, there was so much for the kids to enjoy. They rated which homes were their favorites and we heard, "Oh! Awesome!" over and over again. When we arrived at Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena, it was just as magical as I remembered it as a child. People turn off their car lights to drive slowly down the street and enjoy the splendor of all the colored lights on the tall trees. Even the kids were speechless, except for a few, "Whooooooaaaas." Majestic. And then we went over to the Hastings Ranch area, which is just the opposite -- tacky and gaudy and everything little kids love. They ooohed and aaahed over snowpeople and Mickey Mouse and penguins and all sorts of "holiday" animals. We ended the night with more tall trees on St. Albans in San Marino. They, too, were beautiful. On the way back home, Annalise fell asleep, Juliette woke up (and didn't fall back asleep until 11:00) and Zachary complained that we weren't getting home fast enough. But for almost two hours, we delighted together, as a family, in the magic of the season.

Advent

We have had the loveliest advent season this year. It seems like usually the advent season is filled with chaos: last minute shopping, running errands, big messes, lots of cooking, stressed out parents and sugared-up kids. Don't get me wrong, we still have a lot of all of that going on, but for some reason, this year, it all seems somewhat blissful. As I wrote before, this year for advent we are doing something special each day. I even found at the Bargain Box Thrift Store an advent calendar with little pockets for each day. It's made of felt and hangs on our wall. Each day the kids look in the pocket to see what the activity of the day is going to be. Truthfully, most of the activities are things that we do anyway this time of year. But for some reason, making that THE special event of the day really does make it special. So far we have, amongst other things, made fudge for the neighbors, watched the movie Elf (with popcorn and hot chocolate), read Christmas books, sung carols, decorated the tree and made a gingerbread house. Annalise, in particular, has really loved this time. The first thing she does when she wakes up is go to look in the pocket to see what special thing the day holds for us. It's really made the season magical for us.

The other thing that has been so magical this season is the gift-giving of my children. Annalise has been working like mad to make her Christmas gifts. She has been picking out projects and taking a lot of time to work on them. Right now she is at Grandma's, learning to cross-stitch, because she really wanted to cross-stitch a bookmark for her daddy. I'm anxious to see how she does! And today, Zachary couldn't wait to go to the toy store to choose gifts for his sisters. (He really thought we should get a babysitter for Juliette because he wanted her to be surprised. I promised him that I would face her in in the carrier so she wouldn't see what he picked.) We spent quite a long time in the store, looking up and down every row until he found just the right thing for each girl. A LOT of thought went into his choices.

It's going to be a wonderful Christmas this year, even though Annalise is not getting a Wii and Zachary is not getting every set of Star Wars Legos ever made. It will be wonderful because they will truly understand the magic of giving. How lucky they are to learn how great that can feel.

Zach, the Lego Maniac

I've always considered myself to be reasonably creative. I like to make things with my hands. I do calligraphy and other kinds of "cute" decorative writing. I can come up with clever party ideas. I can even come up with creative gift ideas. (All of this is when I am actually given the time to think, that is.) But when I am confronted with a pile of random Legos, I haven't a clue what to do with them. The best thing I can come up with is a very sturdy tower or maybe a really lame, boring four-wheeled vehicle. I'm truly at a loss as to what to do with them. If I'm given the instructions and a finite set of Legos, I have a chance at following the directions and creating something really cool. But it's something really cool that the Lego people invented, not I.

But Zachary is a Lego god. He can build anything his imagination wants him to build. We have ships of all sorts (pirate ships, space ships, ships owned by "good guys" and ships owned by "the bad robots") in all rooms of the house that he has created. He makes vehicles and buildings and anything he sets his mind to. It amazes me how creative he can be. He definitely takes after his father in this area, who is just as excited as Zachary is when a new Lego package arrives in our home. The two of them could build with Legos all day and make a lot more than just a sturdy tower. Zachary can even put the Lego people to shame with some of his creations.

Zachary struggles with a lot of things. We suspect that school will not be very easy for him. He doesn't know his letters and numbers and has difficulty remembering certain things. Of course this does not apply to any event that has happened EVER in his life -- he remembers it all -- or any place he's ever been or the plot to a book or movie. But some things just escape him. His sister, in contrast, excels in school. And we suspect that for her school will be easy. She has her sights set on Stanford and we don't doubt that she one day may go there. But creativity is not in her blood like it is in Zachary's. His imagination runs deep and his ability to see it to fruition is something I envy. I can't wait to see what will become of this little man. But I will bet big money that he will be using his hands and his imagination. What a gift.

Already, A Life of Crime

Today, Zachary and Juliette and I were shopping for Christmas gifts in our local bookstore. Mostly we wanted to pick out some books for my nephew, Saverio, who is about three weeks younger than Juliette. Zachary, excited to be picking out gifts for a boy, looked at just about every board book in the store. Finally, we settled on That's Not My Plane and That's Not My Monkey. He chose the monkey book first because, "Saverio LOVES monkeys!" (How Zachary knows this, I'm not sure. He hasn't seen him since he was three months old.) Regardless, apparently Juliette loves monkeys, too, because she snatched it out of my hand right away and looked at it in the front carrier the whole time we were in the store. Sure enough, we got out to the car, and as I went to put Juliette into her carseat, in between her little body and mine was the monkey book, totally hidden from view. Already, at the age of eleven months minus three days, she is a shoplifter. Sneaky little one.