Zackorating

I expected to have some trouble from the four year old when I put away the Christmas decorations. He was surprisingly helpful. He likes to keep our holiday decor up to date and was all set to bust out anything that looks Valentines-y. I reminded him that we needed to celebrate New Year's first, which put him in a dilemma. What is appropriate New Year's decor? Anything new. That was interesting. He put a wreath on a little tree and using Bendaroos, put up some balloons and fireworks on the walls. It's always interesting to see what he comes up with.

I mentioned that we could leave out a few snowmen. That gave him this great idea.

This tree was the source of more than one disagreement. It's also the tree that he put the wreath on. While my parents were here he wanted it as the centerpiece on that table. It was too tall and annoying, but he wouldn't let us move it. I tried to get him to use it as a cornerpiece, but he wasn't having it. He can be very stubborn.

His main focus this year was the table centerpiece. We lost one glass vase to his creativity so he learned to use plastics.

When Dad was visiting, he put this watch on the candle because it was almost "time" for Christmas. Zack enjoyed the symbolism so I dealt with the watch on the candle for a few days. I really thought that Matt would put his watch on but he didn't and I eventually ended up putting it away.

While I was digging the van out of the snow in the driveway. Zack was inspired. It snowed (kleenex) inside too.

He was actually pretty clever with this one. He tore an edge off the snowflakes and wrapped it through a hole in the bottom of the blinds.

Matt helped him set this up.

I think he dreams of ways to make our house look pretty. Lucky me.

Christmas Stresses

Have you seen the commercial for Bendaroos? It's magic wax. Zack decided that he wanted it for Christmas, so we suggested it to PaPa and NaNa. They ordered it, but we weren't sure if it would make it by Christmas. No big deal; it's always fun to get a present in the mail after.

I normally take the kids to visit Santa early in the season so that he has plenty of time to get what they ask for. This year, we didn't go until the 22nd. While we were waiting in line, I asked them what they were going to request. Noah and Ben had decided on Zero Gravity Micro Racers. That's what Zack was talking about since the first of the month, so I was a little shocked when he said he was asking for Bendaroos. I quickly tried to talk him out of it: Bendaroos are not available in stores. Santa might have a hard time getting them this close to Christmas. Wouldn't he feel sad if he didn't have a car to race? I was working hard & I thought I'd convinced him to ask for the race car. But Zack will do what Zack wants to do. He asked for the Bendaroos.

The original arrival date for the Bendaroos was on December 23rd. Curse the snowy weather all over the country. No deliveries that day. And the weather wasn't improving much. Things were getting a little stressful. Zack just knew Santa would bring Bendaroos. I was coming up with explanations and preparing for a Christmas morning meltdown.

Then the most glorious sound-the doorbell. I'd had a few false alarms during the day and maybe I looked a little let down when friends dropped off various Christmas goodies. But at 6:30 pm on Christmas Eve and Fed Ex pulled through. I wanted to kiss that guy.

I still had a few things to work out, like the fact that Noah and Ben had prior knowledge of PaPa and NaNa's present. Fortunately Santa is all knowing and wouldn't bring something that someone else had already bought. It was just essential that we had it for him to unwrap. And so Christmas morning was a happy time.

Even if he had a to wait a few minutes to get what he wanted most of all.
And by the way, the Bendaroos are really fun. Among other cooler things (which I don't have pictures of) he set up an obstacle course on the hallway wall for the race cars, which also work. Can't ask for a better Christmas than that.

Pretend this came in the mail…

Merry Christmas!

Love, the Francis Family

Visitors from Up North

We were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa come visit us for the weekend. We don't usually get to see them before Christmas. Grandma brought some fun things to do.

Grandpa got caught up on his teasing and play doh-ing.
A few weeks ago, we let Zack draw a snowman on the window. I should say we didn't freak out after he drew on the window with marker. I told him that when I was little Grandma used to paint a Christmas picture on our window. I should have known that he would remember that. He commissioned a picture of Santa for Grandma and he painted an elf.

He is so proud of their artwork that I am afraid we'll be doing Valentine's pictures, Easter pictures, St. Patrick's Day pictures, because he feels like it pictures...

We Believe

We took a drive on Sunday night to look at Christmas lights. We were told that there was a really impressive house in Alpine. The house was pretty, but paled in comparison to one house sitting near the top of a mountain that was so lit up we could see it from miles away. I told the boys that it was so bright that it might be Santa's house. As we were trying to figure out how to drive to it, we nearly hit a little deer crossing the street. That was all it took to convince the boys that we were almost at the North Pole and en route to Santa's place. Zack was especially excited because "there are deer that can't fly and that was probably Rudolph's friend and it is a good thing we didn't run over it or Santa and Rudolph would be mad..." As we wound around the mountain road, the kids were more and more excited to see where Santa actually lived. And then we saw it: thousands of brilliant lights, a huge house, big gates--definitely Santa's.

The next day we went to see Santa at the mall. Even Zack knows that a mall Santa isn't the real guy. But there was still some hope as Noah was telling the boys that Santa picks a different state to visit personally and maybe he was in Utah. Lucky for us, this Santa was the real deal. He said all the right things, had a real beard, wore jingle bells and, according Ben, he had a twinkle in his eye.

So close...

Today it snowed like it was going out of style. We drove down to Provo to help Kelli move. The 25 minute drive took an hour. Being the snow driving veteran that I am it wasn't too bad.

I did get stuck. The first time (it happened more than once) I was leaving Kelli's apartment, but Dad was able to drive out of it. It was very impressive. It's a simple matter of not giving it too much gas and just letting the car get itself out. It also helps if you aren't afraid of sliding around in what appears to be an out of control manner until the car rights itself. The second time I didn't fare so well:
I thought I paid attention to Dad's lesson. Maybe the van (like horses and tractors) has more respect for my Dad. It just wasn't wanting to get itself unstuck. Perhaps it felt like it was close enough to home. Whatever the reason, I am grateful for neighbors who were willing to help shovel and push.

Sick Kids Day 2

This may sound weird but the kids are home sick and I'm pretty happy about it. I have an iron clad/guilt free reason not to be at the elementary school, grocery store or anywhere else. Home confinement has forced me to do all the little house projects that I have been neglecting. Yesterday, I cleaned out three closets, my laundry room, and a cupboard. I'm not sure how they ended up in such a state of disarray, but now I just want to sit and admire the linen closet. It looks so neat and tidy. I've filled three bags of stuff for the D.I. and I'm just getting started. Today I plan to tackle the boys' bedrooms. I'm giddy just thinking about it.