Celebrations

We are busy ringing in the Christmas Season at our house. Special thanks to my dear sil Cami who made this for our family, since they had us for Christmas this year:

Isn't it beautiful! Everything is hand-stitched and she made up all of her own patterns, too. I think I'm the luckiest gal in the world to have someone else make me such a beautiful advent calendar!

Each pocket is filled with an activity that we will do. Some of them are simple crafts or outings we do during daytime hours. A few of them are planned events with friends. Others are family outings. All of them help us celebrate the birth of Our Savior.

Of course we decorated the tree and pulled out our nativities. David has his own Fisher Price nativity set for him to play with, and I found a cute bucket at WalMart with the nativity scene printed on the outside. It was full of cookies, and while the cookies are nothing to speak of, I am so glad I got the bucket so he can carry around his nativity set.

David had fun decorating the tree. Sixty percent of all the ornaments he hung ended up on these two branches:

Please note that when he ran out of ornaments, he started to hang up tags that came from the new ornaments. David thought that everything looked festive enough for the tree!

But one particular ornament got its very own space--it is the spotlight of the tree, as far as David is concerned. He was such a good sport as I shopped some Black Friday sales. When he saw these ornaments, he cocked his head, put his index finger up, and sweetly said, "Mom, can I just have my D for David that's hanging up right there?" He was too sweet for me to say no, so this has a special place on our tree:

Last night was another highlight. We attended the Sounds of the Season Christmas Concert put on by the Air Force Band of the Pacific. Such a festive evening! David was absolutely riveted by the performance. He was taken in by all the flashing lights, spotlights, and large speakers as the program began. Pre-show, David showed us that the spring in his theater chair was stronger than he was, so every time he sat back, he got folded in half. Well, when the emcee invited us to "sit back, relax, and enjoy the show" David quickly scooted back. If they were going to ask him to sit back, by golly, he was going to do just that! Most of the rest of the show was spent on Daddy's lap, and David loved it. I was thoroughly entertained--by David. Here was our little boy who couldn't sit through Toy Story or Cars II for more than 20 minutes, and he was totally engrossed in the performance. He was perfectly behaved--sat still, asked a few questions, and wildly applauded at the end of every song.

At the end (actually, at half way--we left at intermission while we were still ahead, but please don't tell David that!) the emcee invited all of the children to join him on the stage while he read a story to them, then Santa came out onto stage at the end. David managed to make his way to the very front of the group--none too gracefully, but he did it. He sided up to the man reading the story, and turned into a real ham. He kept making  his way back and forth, from the man's rocking chair (stage right) to the guy playing Silent Night on the trombone (stage left). His path was filled with lots of other boys and girls quietly sitting on the stage, but that didn't stop him. I just want to say one thing: If your child was on stage with David, and he/she was stepped on or kicked with those blue moon boots, please accept my apologies. He was really just trying to get where he could see better. And he couldn't make up his mind exactly where that was.

About 50-75 children sat still while John Tracy, the emcee read the story. But not our David. Oh no. He was absolutely determined to see it all. And I'm pretty sure he did.

As a side note, here's a funny conversation on our way:
Me: David, we're going to a concert tonight. Are you excited?
David: Yes! We're going to a conference.
Me: No, not a conference. It's a concert. Can you say concert?
David: Concert. Like stake conference?

I kept working to straighten out the difference between concert and conference. He still doesn't get it. Today he told a friend that last night we went to a stake concert, where the man played loud music.
Won't he be surprised the next time we go to stake conference!?! The two events are nothing alike.
(Stake conference is a church worship service that we have twice a year--it's nothing like the concert we were at last night!)