A Piano of His Very Own

One of the nice things about the “big boy” Lego sets the boys have grown to prefer is the fact that they have so many pieces that it takes multiple days of building to compete. And that stretches out the fun. It has taken Nathan four days to build his Lego piano. He has had several shifts at work so he hasn’t been building non-stop, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a Lego build last this long. But this particular one is very intricate. The thing is so cool! All the parts work and it has a power block so it plays music and the keys and hammers all move accordingly. Nathan has had a great time building it and is mighty pleased with the finished product. He doesn’t like it as much as he would a Steinway grand, but there is no way Santa can afford to give him one of those. 😉

 

And the Fun Continues

Matthew built his Lego yesterday and today he put together a wooden lock box. There are other builds still underway as well, Nathan’s piano in particular. That one is going to take him a while to complete. Matthew also got his bed made with his new BYU blanket and as you can tell by his pillowcase, he’s happy about it. 😁

 

 

Still, Still, Still

Most of my kids are old enough that they don’t feel a desperate need to get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas day. And while Malia is still young enough to have “visions of sugarplums,” she isn’t exactly a morning person and having a bit of a sleep in is always nice for her. As such, we didn’t get up at 5:00 this morning. Or even six. We rolled out of bed just before 7:00 which fit the excitement needs of the youngest and the sleep needs of the oldest. Then we took our time discovering what Santa had brought while our breakfast cooked.

There was Lego all around, of course, even a set for me. The Christmas Carol themed set was the very first Lego set I’ve had of my very own, which is pretty amazing considering there has not been a Christmas without Lego since Daniel was a tiny baby. Matthew got a cool car. Daniel had Star Wars Lego and Malia’s was Harry Potter. Nathan’s was probably the most amazing set. He got a Lego piano that when assembled, has all the working parts of a real piano. Other presents included some “How to Train Your Dragon” themed things for Malia as well as a copy of Black Beauty (which is currently one of her favorite books), some funny t-shirts for Nathan, waffle socks for Matthew since he is the reason waffles have become a weekly occurrence in our house, a twin-size BYU blanket (Matthew’s of course), and a stack of assemble it yourself kits from Esther as Christmas-Part 2. Matthew gave Daniel some strawberry flavored saxophone reeds, which caused great laughter, and Matthew received a gaming steering wheel that he can use when he plays his favorite driving video games.

My in-laws usually join us for Christmas dinner but with a nod to COVID, we packed theirs up and they took it home to heat and eat. We had a quiet dinner and spent a good amount of time building Lego and playing games. We put together a couple of assorted wooden kits and watched movies. And napped, of course. At least the older portion of us. It was a lovely day.

I always love Christmas, but sometimes the season gets so jam packed with events on our calendar and long to-do lists that the entire month ends up feeling rushed and chaotic. Things have been much calmer this year. There have been fewer events on the calendar and I’ve made a conscious choice to simplify my plans and as a result, I’ve felt more at peace and more joyful this year. I guess that’s another blessing disguised as a pandemic. I do miss the family gatherings and the live music of all the concerts, but I’ve loved having more time to do simple things like play games with my family. As things eventually make their way back to some semblance of normalcy, I’m going to have to work to find the balance in my life that will let me enjoy the activity of the holidays and also be still long enough to feel the joy. I never thought a pandemic would be just what I needed to learn how to find joy, but the Lord works in wonderous and mysterious ways.

 

Pros and Cons to the Latest Monkey Wrench

 It would seem that 2020 is not done messing with our lives yet, because we got another monkey wrench tossed at us on Sunday. Daniel was on his way back up to school when he got a text from one of his roommates. His roomie was having COVID symptoms, had scheduled a test, and wanted to let all those affected know. Daniel, smart boy that he is, turned around and came back home. His roommate’s test results came back positive today so it looks like Daniel will be hanging out with us a bit longer. At least all his classes were already planning to be exclusively online after Thanksgiving. Work is a whole different story, but most employers are very flexible with COVID related complications so he should be able to work that one out. As lousy as it is to be unable to go home, he would much rather be here than quarantined in his apartment. Because of when he last saw his roommate, he doesn’t even need to self-isolate, so he is able to get out as needed to help keep his cabin fever at bay. He is, however, disappointed about this turn of events. He feels, and rightly so, that COVID has completely rewritten his life and it is just keeps coming. On the flip side, he was having some conflicting emotions about missing out on all our Christmas festivities so he is glad he will be able to participate in all of those.

Moving on to a happier topic, my sister Esther is gifting to our family for Christmas this year. One of her great joys in life is choosing exactly the right gifts and she is hailed as the Queen of Christmas where gift giving is concerned. Part 1 of Christmas arrived at our house on Sunday evening with instructions to open it today. We did so and are super stoked (Yes, I know using that word dates me. I’m a child of the ‘80’s and am happy to claim my age.) because it is a Harry Potter Lego Advent Calendar. How fun is that? We’ve been very Harry focused this year and we are also Lego-philes, so this is perfect for us.

 

As we move into the last month of this year, I know many folks are anxious to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. As for me, we have some fun stuff for this month and I’m looking forward to the family time. There are usually so many concerts and activities that finding time for family stuff can be a challenge. This year, all the cancellations are leaving us with plenty of opportunities to celebrate together. In addition, I’m so looking forward to the increased focus on the Savior that always happens at this time of year. Learning to better hear his voice is something we are all working on and as my family and I do so, we are finding joy despite the monkey wrenches life keeps tossing at us.

All is Calm

This year Christmas felt a bit calmer than usual. I’m not sure why other than the fact that my kids are getting older. Or maybe the fact that this month we have had few days, or even evenings, when we were all home at the same time. Or even that Jingle Jangle, our elf, left a note for Malia requesting we sleep a bit later to give Santa a bit longer to get all his work done. But whatever the reason, I’m happy about it.

Malia was super excited, of course, and had a bit of a maniacal grin on her face throughout the morning. She has been extremely into horses of late and Santa obviously knew that because he brought her a toy horse. It is quite large, and Jolly was the first official rider. Malia also got some Lego (horse themed ones, of course), a pair of real cowboy boots (which she is totally thrilled with) and in her stocking, she got a bunch of crazy socks and a sleep mask, something she has been wanting for some reason. Her horse is what kept her attention throughout the day and by this evening, Baby was having her turn riding the horse, equipped with her canteen since all good horse riders know that staying hydrated is key.

Matthew got a big Lego set of a classic 1960’s era Mustang and was really pleased with it. Unfortunately, when he got about a third of the way through building it he discovered that he was missing two full bags of Legos. Tomorrow we will get started on getting them replaced, but there was nothing we could do about it today. Luckily, Matthew was also the proud recipient of several trumpet books and a trumpet mute he has been wanting so he was able to spend some time playing his trumpet. In fact, the mute was from Santa and Matthew had his trumpet out and was experimenting with the mute before we even opened the rest of the presents. In addition, all the kids got some eyeballs in their stockings, which sounds weird, but is actually a family tradition/joke. You know, the weird stuff that gets said and then sticks.

As a teen, Nathan’s tastes have gotten more expensive, but he is also very reasonable with his wish list, so he was perfectly happy with the new Fitbit he got from Santa. And he knows that one of his experience gifts for the year will be his choir tour to Anaheim in a few months, so he was happy as a clam. In addition, he loves crazy socks and glad to find a stocking full of Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street themed footwear.

Kevin got a Lego Saturn V rocket, which is a set he has had his eye on. The thing definitely qualifies as big boy Lego and once it is built, it will be over three feet high.

As for me, Santa brought me a new iPad. My old one has gotten a lot slower and a lot more finicky, so I was super happy to get an update. It will make my time spent using Gospel Library a much more pleasant experience.

It was weird not to have Daniel here, but he did get to call. In fact, we were able to video chat using my new iPad. 😊 Based on the way his countenance looked, I think it was a bit tough for him to be away for Christmas. He was a trooper and shared positive stuff with us and all that, but as abnormal as it felt for us not to have him here, I suspect it was worse for him. We sent several packages a couple weeks ago though, so I know he at least had some of our traditional Christmas goodies and some packages to open today. Several weeks ago, he mentioned that he is taking all his spices with him when he transfers because they are expensive, so I thought he might appreciate getting some free of charge. I picked up a bunch of the ones we use the most and Matthew and Malia wrapped each little container separately. We also sent him a calendar with images of Christ painted by Yongsung Kim which Daniel said he loved and a few other small things. Kevin’s parents arrived in time to chat with Daniel for a bit and I think that was good as well.

It has been a busy month and honestly, being able to just stay home with my family today was a huge relief and a huge blessing. It was a blissful moment of calm. It gave me a chance to take a breath, to remember my Savior, and to find gratitude in my heart for the many tender mercies I see in my life each and every day. I truly am blessed.

I’ll end with my favorite quote from the day. Apparently, Daniel has been unable to find seasoned pepper where he is. It is a flavoring we use a lot, so I happened to include some in his spice assortment. He had been unable to ascertain what all those little gift-wrapped cylinders were, and the seasoned pepper just happened to be the first one that he opened. When he messaged me to let me know what time he would call, his first comment was, “I have never been so excited to see seasoned pepper in my life.” It made me laugh! Score one point for this missionary mama!

The Aftermath

It took Matthew two days to build his ginormous truck. He didn’t do much else yesterday. He’s quite pleased with himself.

Malia has been riding her scooter all over the house since Christmas. Even Jolly got in on the fun.

It would appear their gifts were wisely chosen this year. Good job, Santa and Grandma!

Growth Curve

We were in the Lego store earlier today because we had some time to kill before my scheduled appointment at the Apple store. Matthew walked in, stood next to the big old Lego man and said, “Look, I’m taller than someone!”

A Whirlwind of Activity…and Still No Sharks

Today was our last full day in Seattle. We still had a number of places we wanted to go, so we were on a tight schedule and knew we would only have a couple of hours at each stop. First up on our list for the day was the aquarium. Malia has been fixated on sharks this entire vacation. Every time we see water, she asks where the sharks are, where the sharks live, why can’t we see the sharks, etc. As such, she was super excited about the aquarium. The Seattle aquarium is located on a pier and has an open system with the ocean which means the water and wildlife in the wild is also in the aquarium. That was super neat but the aquarium here is actually bigger. We saw a variety of fish, animals and bird. My favorite was the sea otters. They are about four times the size of the river otters we can see here. Nathan, who has toyed with the idea of being a marine biologist, took about a million pictures. Malia took a bunch as well. We enjoyed ourselves, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any sharks. Malia did find a stuffed shark in the gift shop, but they were the only sharks in the aquarium.

Not surprisingly, this kid is being a total goofball again. Malia is very proud that she took this picture.

We picked up clam chowder from Ivar’s (Did I mention that I really, really loved the food there?) and after lunch we were off on our next adventure. What we did not know was that the two hours we had allotted for the Pacific Science Center was not even close to enough time. The center had three separate buildings and was jam packed with interesting things and fun hands on learning. There was a special exhibit of art created entirely with Legos and fans that we are, we couldn’t pass that up. There were Lego renditions of famous artworks and sculptures as well as new works created by the artist. It really was amazing.

This is all Lego, really.

  

We also went into the butterfly pavilion which was great. There were a large variety of butterflies living in the habitat and the feeding areas were a great place to see a bunch of them. They were flutter around and land on whatever was handy, including people. Matthew had a butterfly land on his head and when we were done, we had to be checked by an employee to make sure we didn’t have any hitchhikers as we left the area.

Malia loved all the things she could touch and play with. She was especially fond of the ginormous sheets of bubbles she made.

She was brave enough to touch an actual brain, although I think this face expresses perfectly how she felt about it:

I wish we could have spent more time, but we were burning daylight and still had two stops. Next up was the EMP, which is a pop culture museum. There was a fantasy and science fiction exhibit that was fun for all of us. There were costumes and props from a variety of films including the Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, etc. We saw a dalek and a cyberman from Doctor Who. I read the letter from the publisher to Terry Brooks accepting The Sword of Shannara for publication as well as the first several pages from Brooks’ in progress manuscript of the book. For t.v. and movie junkies, it was really cool!

There was also a special exhibit that was all about Star Trek in its various incarnations. Daniel totally geeked out about that one. The exhibit included costumes, props, set pieces and even an area where you could join the action in a short film, which the kids thought was neat. In our allotted time, we were able to see everything there that we wanted and were pleased that it was such a fun stop.

Our one disappointment for the day was that we weren’t able to go to the top of the Space Needle. By the time we got there, the next available times to go up were at 10:00 p.m. We still had dinner to eat and needed to pack up so we can hit the road in the morning and just couldn’t wait that long. So overall we had a great day, super busy but fun.