Learning the Gift of Giving

Right before Christmas, I took Spencer shopping to pick out a birthday gift for Daddy. As we were strolling through Target, Spencer saw a NASA t-shirt and gasped, "I KNOW Daddy would LOVE that!" It was seriously so sweet and genuine that I almost started crying right in the middle of Target. He also selected some flannel pajama bottoms with dogs on them. I could tell he was proud of these gifts. And he was right - Daddy loved the shirt and pj's!

The next day, Geep took Spencer shopping to find Christmas gifts for us. He even took his own money from his piggybank! Beside learning how neat it is to buy presents for people, he got a lot of practice with keeping a secret since he had to try to hold it in for a couple of days. We were so excited to open our gifts Christmas morning and find iPhone covers - blue for Daddy, hot pink for me. They are absolutely perfect!

Funny story—on Christmas Eve we were driving somewhere and I asked Dave what he thought he was going to do with some money my Dad gave him. Spencer said, "I know he's NOT going to buy an iPhone cover...." So he almost kept the secret!

December Catch-Up Continues

Before I write about our Christmas festivities, I wanted to record a couple of other holiday activities since I'm behind on blogging.

In mid-December, Spencer and I went to see Ballet Austin's The Nutcracker at the Long Center. Steffani and Ella joined us, too! The kids had fun, but the performance was a little too long to hold their interest. Steffani and Ella headed out at intermission and we sneaked out with about 10 minutes left. I forgot how slow the beginning of The Nutcracker is...they should rethink that! :)

We also checked out the Trail of Lights with Piper, Beckett and their parents a few days before Christmas. This was the first time in several years that the city did the full-scale trail, and it was pure insanity, but fun. I'm glad the kids got to do the Christmas light thing together again - it's a sweet little tradition. Most of my pictures turned out something like this:

 So you'll understand now when I say these are the two best pics of the night:

Ice Skating atop Whole Foods

For the past few years, Whole Foods has set up an ice skating rink on their mezzanine during the holidays. We decided the time was right this year to give it a whirl. It was one of those really cold days last week, too, which made it even more fun.

Spencer was patient and really stuck with it and by the end we all felt somewhat stable on the ice. Since we didn't require a trip to the ER we considered it a success!

Side note: It was after this outing that I realized that the camera on my new iPhone was not focusing correctly, so that's why the video and the picture of Dave and Spence are blurry. The Apple store swapped out my phone and now I'm back in business.

A Welcome-Back Surprise

Today was Spencer's first day back at Nature's Way after a delightful holiday break. Over the weekend, teachers and parents got together to plant a recycled Christmas tree forest on the playground. It's all about magic and wonder at Nature's Way. This is a great example of why we are so in love with this school. Dave took some video of the big reveal since I was unable to be there.

By the way, a Christmas recap will appear here sometime soon...promise!

Peek into Christmas Morning

I still need to download and sort through our Christmas pictures, so until then, here are two videos from Christmas morning. The only things Spencer asked Santa to bring were some Magic Treehouse books and Clarabel the train. Santa must've thought Spencer had been a really good boy this year, because he threw in another neat gift called Magna-Tiles. Spencer thought it was odd that Santa didn't wrap his gifts. (Warning: I don't have the ability to edit videos, so the first one of these is loooong and only for diehard fans.)

School Christmas Party

Tuesday night was Spencer's Christmas Party at Roz-Mina. First everyone listened intently as a former student (or someone's big brother?) played his violin.

Then the students and teachers sang some songs for us that they rehearsed all month. The video below is dark but will give you the flavor. Spencer was such a precise bell jingler.

 

And then, guess who showed up? Santa! Though after careful inspection, Spencer determined that he was not the real Santa, but just one of his helpers. I think he was right about that. But he did have a toy in his sack just for Spence.

After that we ate dinner outside. The kids had so much fun running around outside in the dark. It was a sweet and simple little celebration.

Flying Foxes

December catch-up continued... Two weeks ago we went to the Waldorf School's Winter Fair. We were excited to finally check out the school because we want to explore the possibility of Spencer going there (if we win the lottery!). Anyway, it's a magical place and the Winter Fair was neat. You could go from classroom to classroom and do little crafts. Spencer made a pretty, glittery spinning top and two ornaments - one foil and one felt.

But the highlight was the Flying Fox - a zipline that Spencer and Daddy rode. This video does not do it justice - I wasn't in a good spot to film it. But they had fun and went so fast! We were proud of Spencer for being brave and wanting to try out this ride. He wanted to do it again but the line was miles long and we were starving.

Later that day, Spencer started running a fever and it got up to 104.5. That was the second weekend in a row he had fever, so Daddy took him to see Dr. Bayer first thing Monday morning. Turns out he had strep. Ugh! But luckily the little guy didn't really feel all that bad. He enjoyed having a few days of TV and couch rest. Unfortunately it meant he couldn't go to Piper and Beckett's birthday party or my Christmas concert. We were all so disappointed to miss those events!

And speaking of sickness, we found out our little Olive has hyperthyroidism and a bout of pancreatitis. Unfortunately, hyperthyroidism is treatable but not curable - she'll be on twice daily meds her whole life. She's feeling so much better and is back to her old spry self again!