Worth the Wait

As you may well know, we have really shifted into experience gifts with our kids rather than just giving them more stuff. As such, today was Christmas! Or at least today was a Christmas present. 😉 Today was the day we saw “Wicked.” Not the recent movie version of which I’m highly skeptical based on the previews I’ve seen, but the Broadway version. We took all our boys to see “Wicked” last time it made its way to Salt Lake, but Malia was still too young to care at that point. But about a year later, she was old enough to care and has wanted to see this spectacle of a musical ever since. So, suffice it to say, she was super, super, duper excited!

In past I’ve talked about the power of live theater and even though I’ve seen this show three times before today and I know exactly what is going to happen, I still get emotional, I still get goose bumps, I still enjoy every moment from that first chord to the final dropping of the curtain at the end of the show. As soon as the lights dimmed and the first chord sounded, I got a little teary. This show does have a powerful beginning, both musically and visually, and it gets me every time. And in the post show analysis, Malia declared that she is my daughter because as soon the show started, she got a little teary too. 😂She has wanted to see this show since she was eight, and the anticipation and the visual and musical power of those first moments of this show definitely made an impact on her. 

When the applause finally died down at the end of the show, I asked Malia if it was worth the five-year wait. Her response? “Yes!”

A Live Dragon

Usually, our yearly experience gifts are spread out throughout the year. But this year it seems like all of them have been in April. Nathan’s trip to Texas, Matthew’s band tour to California, and Malia’s parallel trip to Cali have all been this month. And this evening was another of Malia’s experience gifts. 

Malia has been a long-time fan of the movie “How to Train Your Dragon.” She spent several years very focused on Toothless, the main dragon character. She watched the movie over and over and over again. She dressed up as a dragon rider for Halloween one year. She even had a “How to Train Your Dragon” themed birthday party. And she still has framed art from the movie hanging on the wall in her bedroom. So, when I saw that the Utah Symphony had added this particular flick to their films in concert series, I knew we had a winner on our hands.

Malia said this evening’s performance was amazing! The music was wonderful, and the audience was actively engaged in the film, cheering at all the appropriate moments, etc., which makes things so much fun. Some years back I took the boys to see “Singing in the Rain” when the symphony played and we loved it, so I understand her enjoyment of the experience. We’ll keep our eyes on the schedules so we can see what other wonderful live soundtrack movies we can catch!

Less Miserable than 2020

Hard on the heels of our big trip to the northwest was our other big experience gift for this year. We had planned to give the kids tickets to see the Broadway tour company production of Les Misérables for Christmas in 2020. But as we all know, the world kind of took a hard left turn early that year and that particular show was one that was cancelled and not rescheduled. We got our money back and all that, but it was still a huge bummer. So when I heard that Les Mis would be back in our neck of the woods, I jumped at the chance to reschedule our missed experience. Thanks to my sister Patti and her status as a season ticket holder for Broadway Across America, we were able to get tickets. In fact, we were able to get really good tickets. 

The last time we all had an outing to see a Broadway show, Malia was not really old enough to care yet. But that was many years ago when we saw “Wicked.” (I have been to a couple shows since then, but it has been a mom and one son kind of a date.) At that point Malia didn’t mind staying home and she had a super fun time with her babysitter, but she is older now and wants to be included. Kevin and I are the only ones who have seen the Broadway production of Les Misérables, so the kids were all excited!

When we got to the theater, Nathan was extra excited to see that there were ASL interpreters for the show. Although they were down on the main floor, our seats near the front of the balcony made it so he could see them easily. Throughout the show, his focus was split between what was happening on the stage and the ASL version of what was happening. He has become deeply enmeshed in the ASL community in the past year and gets excited every time he encounters a new accommodation that will allow the deaf community to interact a bit more with the hearing world. He has attended symphony performances that have ASL interpreters, but this was the first time he has seen a stage play with such accommodations. As he is currently working towards passing the tests to become a certified interpreter, he loves any opportunity to learn a bit more. 

So let’s get real about this particular show for a minute. There are several songs that are pretty spicy, not things that I generally consider appropriate media. We did feel like we needed to avert our eyes a couple of times. ASL is obviously a visual language and a very descriptive one as well which makes sense since they are basically communicating with pictures. So, anything that is vulgar when spoken is even more so in ASL. Poor Nathan did not have a comfortable place to look. Looking at the stage was uncomfortable and looking at the interpreters was even more so. While the rest of us discreetly looked away to avoid the onstage action that accompanied those parts of the show, he was focused on his lap for those two numbers. So there were pros and cons to having a good view of the interpreters for this particular show. 😂

All of my kids love the arts in some form or another, and it is always fascinating for me to see what stands out to them. For Nathan, the ASL was the big focal point. Matthew was intrigued by orchestration and lighting, which makes perfect sense with his band/stage crew background. Daniel was also enthralled by the orchestra, but he also had strong feelings about the actor who played Jean Val Jean. There was something about his voice that just didn’t sit well with him, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. The man’s voice was spectacular, he was an amazing performer, but there was just something not quite right. As I mulled it over, I realized that the problem was the timbre of the singer’s voice. He was young man and as such, his voice sounds young. I don’t mean weak or unskilled or anything like that. He just had a wonderful, strong, youthful voice. And Jean Val Jean is not a young man. Even at the beginning of the story, he is old enough that he has been in prison for nineteen years. So what Daniel was missing was the depth and richness that simply comes with an older, more mature voice. When I tossed that idea at him, Daniel agreed that it was spot on. In another decade that same actor will still sing the part just as skillfully, but time and age will have given him the depth that both Daniel and I felt he was lacking. As for Malia, she had all her focus on trying to understand the story. She is still only eleven and hasn’t studied European history other than the bare bones version they need to be able to understand the American Revolution, so the whole war in the streets bit needed a modicum of explanation. But with some tidbits shared here and there, she ended up understanding enough and enjoyed the show.

We definitely enjoyed our second big experience for the year, perhaps even a bit more since it was delayed a couple of years. Now we are on the lookout for another show that we might enjoy. Malia is hoping “Wicked” will make the rounds again since she is the only one of our little crew who hasn’t seen it. There are relatively few new shows that seem particularly interesting to us, so we’ll just have to keep our eyes open and wait to see what makes it to our neck of the woods in the future.

Our Very Own Horse Whisperer

There is a family-owned farm not far from us. They run a farm market year-round, selling their own produce and a variety of other locally grown foods and locally produced products as well. In fact, we won’t buy corn on the cob from the grocery store anymore. We wait until we can get it fresh from the farm. They have bred their own variety of sweet corn and it is well worth the wait. We eat is as often as we can while it is in season. In addition to their produce, they run a preschool, host a yearly pumpkin patch with hayrides, sell Fresh Christmas trees in the holiday season, host a food truck event each Friday during the summer, and a number of other things. In short, they have made their farm into a lucrative business. One of the newer things they offer is a variety of farm experiences. They have seasonal experiences where patrons can come in and see what is growing in each season and what the farming looks like at different times of the year. They have ones just at strawberry harvesting time that focus on the sweet little berries. They have an experience where people can get up close and personal with their goats and see what caring for a goat would be like. And they have a similar experience with horses. 

When I got the email announcing their four-week “Life of a Horse” experience, I thought it would be a perfect fit for Malia. She had a few horse riding lessons last year, but she got bored with that pretty quickly because they didn’t move fast enough for her. After six weeks, she was just riding around in big, slow circles and she wanted more hands-on time with the horse. The local farm doesn’t focus on riding, it focuses on how horses think, their “herd behavior,” and how to care for and communicate with them.  Malia was sick last week and missed her first hour with the horses, but the teacher was amazingly accommodating and gave her two hours today to make up for the lost lesson. And Malia was in heaven. They learned how to put a halter and lead line on the horses and she had all three horses haltered in about five minutes. The instructor told Kevin that she has had adults who spent the entire hour trying to halter one horse. But apparently Malia has a really good demeanor for working with these animals because she had them eating out of the palm of her hand…literally. There was one that was following her around by the end of her time. She also learned how to clean out their hooves and how to brush them. 

When Malia got home, she was extremely happy. She had missed a birthday party to go spend time with the horses and although she had been sad about that in the morning, by the time she got home she was incredibly glad she had gone to the farm instead. She has two more weeks so spend hanging out with the horses and she is excited for next Saturday.

The Sky’s the Limit

As I’ve mentioned before, our experience gifts for the kids have been a bit on the fly the past couple of years. As things have really started to normalize post-COVID shut down, there have been more and more opportunities presenting themselves and there are things we have been able to arrange for the kids that we didn’t know about until close to the actual date. In fact, today ended up being an amazing experience gift for both Daniel and Matthew, one that Kev didn’t know was going to happen until they arrived at what they expected to be simply a viewing of a fantastic historic airplane. They had planned to drive to Wendover to see a visiting B-29 but didn’t know there would be two smaller historic planes in attendance as well. When the opportunity presented itself for the boys to actually fly one of those planes, Kev made a spur of the moment decision and gave both boys an unforgettable day. I would have done the same thing.

I wasn’t there and all I can tell you is that they came home giddy with excitement, so I’ve invited Daniel and Matthew to be my guest bloggers to tell us about their experiences. 

DANIEL: We have been watching for years to see when one of two remaining B-29 Superfortresses would be coming to someplace reasonably close to us so we could go see it fly. Because there are only two left in the world that are airworthy, it was a huge deal to discover that the B-29 named Doc would be coming to Wendover, Utah. Matthew, Dad, and I were all ecstatic to find it was coming to someplace within reasonable driving range, so we made the arrangements we needed to make so that we could drive to Wendover Wednesday. After waking up at O-Dark-Thirty (for me, at least) we drove two hours to see it.

When we arrived in Wendover around 8:15, we drove down to the hangar where the B-29 was stored overnight and saw that it had been pulled out of the hanger and was being prepared for taxiing over to the flightline where it would pick up the people who had paid for flights. We got to see and hear them start the engines. We were standing behind the aircraft at this point. As they started each engine, the air around us went from still to very turbulent as the propwash from the four massive engines washed over us. It wasn’t a little prop wash, either. It felt like a hard wind was gusting steadily towards us! And the sound was glorious. Nothing sounds like four high powered radial engines working in unison. After getting too cold to keep standing in the prop wash, we went over to the main gate of the airfield to watch it taxi up to the flight line. We watched and heard it taxi up and shut down for a while. The flight crew began preparing and briefing the passengers on the 9:00 flight. At this point, we had 5 cameras between the 3 of us all taking pictures and video of the B-29. Afterall, it was big, shiny, exciting, and unbelievably cool! Once the passengers were situated, they started the plane again. Hearing each engine start never gets old! Once it was started and the pre-flight checks were done, we watched it taxi to the runway and take off. The sight of a flying B-29 is the epitome of “they don’t make them like they used to.” We watched the take off and the flyover with rapture. Throughout the whole takeoff sequence, we were taking pictures. 

We waited a little bit while it flew around, and we watched it land. By this point we were allowed to walk much further onto the flight line, and so we got into a spot where we would be able to see the landing and taxiing back to the start. We watched as the B-29 landed, and then taxied towards us. We definitely took pictures of this as it moved towards us and turned around in front of us. It was quite the sight! At this point, we watched them brief the 11:00 flight. Matthew and I climbed to the top of the 60 ft historic control tower to watch the second take off, which was much the same in procedure, although the different perspective of being 60 ft above the flightline made it a separate experience once again! We watched the take off, and I had the chance to talk to a really nice old man briefly about how it is important to keep these historic machines in full operation so that we can learn about history from them. These historic airplanes are reminders of a bygone era shaped by a global war that we need to remember and keeping the warbirds flying is a fantastic hands-on way to teach history. Funny enough, while we were taking about this, we saw an elementary school arrive to look at and learn about the B-29. If I had a field trip like that when I was in elementary school, it would have been extremely memorable.

After the B-29 landed the second time, they had it pointing towards the meager crowd, and they opened it up for cockpit tours. We purchased the pass for that and got in line. We entered via ducking into the forward bomb bay, where we were told more about the specifications and design requirements for the B-29 and the instrumental role it had in ending WWII. After that we were let into the cockpit cabin proper. We were able to stand upright, which was shocking as most aircraft of early 40s vintage we can’t actually stand up all the way. One of the mechanics was in the cockpit telling us a little bit about the specific airplane. Most of the stuff inside was original hardware, with exception the radio and flight gear that helped make it meet current flight regulations. Me wanting reference photos for when I build a model of the B-29 proceeded to take a number of pictures of the panels and the equipment. After experiencing the interior, we stepped out and began to prepare for the next part of our adventure.

The Commemorative Air Force wing out of Heber City had brought two WWII trainer aircraft out to the same event, a Stearman bi-plane and an AT-6 Texan trainer. Matthew and I had the chance to fly in one of them, and we both chose the AT-6. The Stearman was the beginning trainer of WWII where all pilots started, but the AT-6 was the trainer that pilots flew when they were training to fly single engine fighters. I figured that the AT-6 was about as close to some of my favorite single seat aircraft as I was going to get. And I think I was right! Matthew and I got a 30-minute flight in it each, and I will say that those 30 minutes were something that I will never forget! Matthew went up first and looked like he had a grand old time! I got into the back seat of the AT-6 behind our pilot, Skip. After getting all strapped in and had the headset ready to go, Skip started the engine and we started taxiing. The way that this worked was that it was our flight, in that we could decide what we wanted. I said that I wanted to try some aerobatics out along with his standard control showing. We took off, and after he got the plane all trimmed out and flying steady, we climbed to about 8,000 ft. He then proceeded to talk me through what the controls did and demonstrate some slow lazy turns. He then said that I could do some of those nice lazy turns and gave me control of the aircraft. That was when I knew I would never forget this! Not only was I in a plane from 1943, but I was in control. I looked past Skip’s head at the horizon and was in complete control to keep it level and then do slow left and right turns. Let me just say this; An actual airplane is much easier to control than any flight simulator I have ever played. It was surprisingly easy to keep it flying in a gently turn. I realized why the AT-6 was such a good trainer. It was an incredibly forgiving and stable airplane! After some slow lazy turns, he started into his aerobatic portion. We started by doing wing-overs, which is when you put the wings vertical and let the plane swing back to level like a forward moving pendulum. After that, we started pulling some Gs (the force of gravity on Earth is 1 G). We started with a 2 G turn, and then did a 3 G turn. I think we were between 3 and 3.5 Gs at one point, and that is a wild feeling! After the G turns, Skip did a few barrel rolls to the left and right. Not all at once, but we did probably 3 barrel rolls. Seeing the world spin but not really feeling a huge difference in my stomach was a crazy moment! After the barrel rolls, we did one more lazy turn in my control. After that, Skip landed the plane. I had a smile on my face the whole time because there is no feeling like flying a vintage aircraft like that. The simple joy of being separated from the world by 7,000 to 9,000 ft of air in a little airplane that is easy to control on your own was easily the best thing I have done for a long time! After I was unstrapped, Skip told us and Dad that we were some of the easier people he has taken flying in the AT-6. We knew to keep our movement smooth and controlled, whereas the guy who flew before both of us was really choppy and Skip had to fight the controls a bit to keep the plane steady. Long story short, Skip enjoyed flying with us as much we did him!

It made for a long day, as we didn’t leave Wendover until 4:00 pm, but it was a day well spent. Seeing and hearing a rare bomber fly and flying a vintage aircraft over the Salt Flats created a day I will long remember with fondness and joy!

MATTHEW: It was really cool. Starting the day standing in the prop wash of a WWII heavy bomber, then walking around and hearing its absolutely massive sound, was amazing. It was a wonderful way to start the day. We then booked it down to the other end of the air base to meet Doc as it moved. We got some wonderful pictures. It was amazing to hear it from forever away, progressively getting louder and not a bit less proud. We did see it fly twice, and I will say, it was very amazing to see how fast it got off the runway. When he came back and was taxiing down the tarmac, we also got more amazing pictures. After the second flight we got to walk through and see the cockpit. It was so amazing to see that such an intricate thing could be created in such an intense time and make it so that it worked so well. Afterwards we went through the museum on base as well. We then waited for a few hours to take our flight in a T-6 advanced fighter trainer. When it was our turn, we got a briefing as we prepared to fly. After we got in, taxied, and got ready to take off. As this was my first flight ever, I had no clue what to expect. But when we did, I realized how amazing it was. We went out over the Salt Flats, and we flew for a couple minutes as he (the pilot) taught me about the plane and how to fly it. And then he was off the controls and let me fly the plane. That was an amazing experience. Flying a WWII era plane was such an experience, and one that I will never forget. One of the first things I noticed as we got over the salt was how beautiful the salt is from 6000 ft above the ground. It was very pretty. As we were passing back over the airbase to come back for a landing, he let me have full control of the plane. Stick and rudder. He told me exactly what to do, and I waggled the wings as I passed over the base. (Waggle the wings was slightly right, slight left, slight right, etc. It was essentially waving at the ground). As we landed, I realized how amazing it is how they have the science and technology to do that.

Road Warriors

While we didn’t give the kids any experience gifts for Christmas, we did tell them that we would be watching for opportunities for experiences throughout the year. As things have started to open back up, we’ve taken advantage of some opportunities to get the kids out and about. Today Kevin took Matthew out to Tooele to drive go carts. At fourteen, Matthew is already looking ahead to being able to drive, so driving the carts was a tantalizing sneak peak at what is to come. Of course, the rules of the road are far different from the rules of the go cart track, but I suspect that actually makes the go carts a bit more of an adrenaline rush. My two boys had a marvelous time.

 

Giddy Up!

Last Christmas we didn’t give our kids any experience gifts. It’s not that we didn’t want to, and we told them that, we just had no way of knowing what would or wouldn’t be happening this year. I’m not sure anyone knew. Nearly all the experience gifts we gave them for Christmas in 2019 ended up being cancelled and we didn’t want to make promises that we could not keep this year. However, we told them we were watching and hoping that as the year progressed, we would be able to find some fun experiences for them.

One of Malia’s experience gifts from 2019 was some horseback riding lessons. Because that is not a one-time event like some of the experiences we had planned, it was one that Kev has been trying to make happen for her as things start to open back up. He has searched the internet, made phone calls, asked everyone and anyone who might have a lead for him, and despite all that, he was not having any luck scheduling lessons. A month or so ago, my sister Patti called with a lead for us. One of her friends at work has sister who teaches horseback riding lessons at a stable in Orem. Kevin called and was miraculously able to schedule a series of lessons!

After a year and a half of waiting and searching and calling and frustration and discouragement, Malia’s first lesson was today. She was absolutely giddy! And for Kevin and I, it was a joy to be able to finally be able to fulfill one of the experiences we had promised her.

 

Giddyup!

 One of the many casualties of Covid are nearly all the experience gifts we gave our kids last Christmas. Tours, concerts, exhibits, rec centers…they were all canceled and closed. It has resulted in a lot of disappointments this year. But now that things have normalized a bit, Kevin’s mom was able to follow through on the experience gift she gave Malia. Amongst Kev’s extended family, there are quite a few that own and ride horses. His mom made arrangements with her brother-in-law to teach Malia a bit about horseback riding and take her for a ride. While it had originally been planned for spring, rescheduling it for the fall made Malia one happy cowgirl.

Kevin accompanied Malia as they traveled to the location where the actual riding would take place, and then Malia and Kev’s Uncle Don took off and had a grand old time perusing the hills on horseback. After their ride, they went back to Uncle Don’s house and Malia got to see his leatherwork. He makes his own saddles, and they are just beautiful.

It was such a fun day for Malia. I’m so grateful for all our family and their willingness to share such a memorable day with her. It will be one of those days that stands out in a good way, unlike the many less positive memorable days we’ve had this year.

A Second and a First

Malia happens to be the one of our children who had to wait the longest for her experience gift from last Christmas. The experience we gave her was a trip to see The Nutcracker ballet which meant that she had to wait nearly an entire year. After a long, long wait, today was the day. We chose to ride the train rather than drive down to avoid crazy holiday traffic and the need to find a parking space. Although it took a bit longer than driving, the time was a completely acceptable trade-off for the lack of stress I felt in getting downtown. Malia can only remember riding the train once before, so the ride was a novelty for her and an exciting experience on its own.

In my opinion, live performances of any kind are a whole different beast from those watched on t.v. Being there in person is an experience that cannot be replicated, hence my love of live performances. This was Malia’s first time experiencing live ballet, so it was fun to watch her excitement. Malia’s favorite part of the ballet was The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. I asked her a number of times to see if it would change, but it didn’t. She enjoyed the whole thing, but the Sugarplum Fairy’s token dance was the one that stood out. We had a lovely time and came home with a tiny nutcracker of our very own to add to our Christmas tree. I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again, but I love all these experience gifts!

Vroom! Vroom!

One of Matthew’s experience gifts this year was a trip to a car show. I’ve invited him to share his comments about this exciting excursion. 😊

“Auto-Rama is a car show that travels around the United States and shows off many peoples cars. One of my experience gifts was to go see Auto-Rama. It was so cool! There were cars that were restored from back in the 1930’s and a brand-new McLaren! There were Camaro’s, Mustang Shelby’s, and plenty of Volkswagen Beetles. It was amazing seeing some of the most historic cars ever made. There were V8’s, V10, so on and so forth. It was so cool!!”

Horses are Not Hypoallergenic

At the beginning of June, we will be going to Island Park, ID/Yellowstone Park area for a family vacation. One of the experience gifts we gave the kids for Christmas was a horseback riding excursion during our vacation. Malia is super, duper excited about this one. You might remember that she asked Santa for a horse for Christmas. He didn’t bring one (thankfully!) but going horseback riding seems to be a reasonable substitution.

Malia had her annual appointment with the allergist yesterday (Another new one-I already feel far better about her than the one we met with last year. We’ll probably continue to see her.) and since Malia is allergic to dogs and cats, I had the thought that maybe we’d better see where she stands horse allergy wise. Unfortunately, she is allergic to horses. The doc, however, did not advise that she skip horseback riding. She simply gave us some tips on how to keep reactions to a minimum and keep Malia comfortable and happy while we are riding. One of those suggestions was to wear some simple, lightweight gloves to keep horse to skin contact at a minimum. Malia latched onto that idea, more so than to the antihistamines and eye drops.

This morning Malia asked me if they would give her a helmet to ride a horse. I told her that a helmet wasn’t necessary and that they would not provide one…and then I had to laugh for a bit. This evening I happened to come across a picture Malia had drawn and left on the table.

As you can see, Malia has made a rendition of herself ready to ride, helmet and gloves included. She’s definitely not letting the whole allergy thing interfere with her plans!

It Was “Wicked!”

Last night was the long-awaited night. It was time to see “Wicked.” Nathan has seen several Broadway shows before, but this was a first for Daniel and Matthew. The boys were jovial at dinner, excited pre-show, and well satisfied afterward. I most definitely enjoyed the show as well, but honestly, a big part of my enjoyment was seeing the reactions of the boys. Each of them was intrigued by different elements of the performance and noticed different things. Daniel was very attentive to the pit and paid attention to how many instrumentalists there were, what instruments were included, When the clarinet had a fantastic musical line, etc. Nathan was geeking out about the technology including lighting, props, sets and special effects. Matthew was completely lost in the story and on several occasions, I nearly laughed out loud at his reactions when the story took an unexpected twist. All came away feeling it was time well spent.

These experience gifts have been such a great thing for our family. I look forward to them nearly as much as the kids do. Being able to spend time together taking advantage of the many varied performances, exhibits and activities that life has to offer has been wonderful. I look forward to many more years experiencing life in all its variety!

(And yes, I know this particular title proves I’m a child of the ‘80’s. 😉)

Holiday at Home

Christmas morning always seems like a whirlwind of paper, presents, laughter, excitement. The afternoon generally feels like things slow way down, get lazy and kick back. This year was no exception.

Malia presented Santa with a rather interesting wish list this year. She requested a drone, a phone, chapter books, a ticket to Legoland, a very specific Lego set, a kiddie sewing kit and a horse. Santa definitely knows us and thankfully he did not bring her a phone or a horse. He did manage to track down the Lego set she had her eye on even though it was no longer being produced and Mrs. Santa helped him fill a sewing box with sewing supplies. The sewing kit was accompanied by a basic sewing skills book and a beginners’ cross stitch kit. Although Malia rushed through the unwrapping in her traditional whirlwind of excitement, she was happy about them all and is excited to start learning to use her sewing accoutrements.  Her experience gift for this year will be a ticket to see “The Nutcracker” at the ballet next Christmas. She’s pretty excited!

Matthew has grown up a lot this year so even though he was excited, he was trying hard to be manly about it. His wish list was a lot shorter. There was one certain Lego set he had a hankering for. But it was “big boy Lego,” one of the sets meant for adults, which also means it has many more pieces and a much bigger price tag. As such, he assumed it would not make an appearance beneath our tree because it was too expensive, but he lucked out because Santa decided he was worth the expenditure. And in my opinion (and hopefully Santa’s), his reaction to the gift made it completely worth the cost. Matthew also gets to go to Autorama in the spring. He has developed an intense interest in cars over the past year so a car show will be a perfect fit for him.

Santa brought Nathan a board game that he played with his cousins many times over the summer. I know he doesn’t look excited at all, but he really likes the game, I promise. Kevin and I have started focusing on the experience gifts for our older boys since the experiences they want are much more expensive, so from us he received the money to fund Summersong, a summer music workshop for teens that one of his cousins really enjoyed a few years back. It is an audition only weeklong event so if he auditions and isn’t accepted, we’ll come up with something else.

Once the early flurry of activity was over, Nathan’s new game was the first one we played. He really does like it. See what I mean? (Matthew photobombed this one like a total spaz. I just couldn’t crop him out. It makes me laugh!)

Daniel got a small Lego set from Santa. From us, he gets a trip to New Orleans. The high school band will be traveling to the home of jazz in April. It is a pricey trip so we figured funding it would be a great Christmas gift. He’s totally excited about the trip and doesn’t feel at all shafted by way of Christmas gifts. He’s just looking forward to a brand-new adventure!

This year there were several family experience gifts as well. We will be going on vacation with my folks, my siblings and their families in June and part of our trip will be taking everyone horseback riding. So I guess, in a tiny way, Malia did get a horse for Christmas. 😉 Kevin, the boys and I also got tickets to see “Wicked.” We are all excited about that one!

Grandpa and Grandma joined us for the afternoon and dinner. Grandma has jumped on the experience gift bandwagon and gave Daniel and Nathan money to spend on their adventures this year. Matthew gets to shoot arrows with Grandpa and Grandma at some point. Since Malia isn’t really going on any adventures of her own this year, she got a scooter that lights up. She absolutely loves it and has been riding it around the house all afternoon!

I love these days when everyone is home all day, talking and playing together, enjoying each other’s company. In years to come, I may only get a few days a year to gather my crew around, so for now, I want to take advantage of as many of them as I can.

Merry Christmas to all! Hope your day was as full of family and joy as ours!