reward points

As we've been promising him all week (as a reward for his good behavior), today was Lego Store day. We picked him up from preschool and headed to the mall (with a brief stop for a drive-thru lunch). He didn't want to ride the carousel, didn't want to see Santa, didn't want to do anything before going to the Lego store! He zig-zagged around the store looking at all the different sets, and he wound up, of course, at the build-a-Lego-man table. He assembled several police officers, a couple of pirates, a cowboy, and an entire marching band. We ended up purchasing another 3-pack for him, so we brought home a cowboy, a policeman, and a drum major! There was a kiddie train driving around the mall, so we let him ride all by himself, and then we all went to the Christmas store and looked at all the decorated trees and cool ornaments. So much fun! And we followed our mall shopping with a stop at Target to get LED lights for our tree this year. After we got them, we toured the toys, and when we finished that, Dennis said "now can we start all over and do it again?". We were pretty sure he meant the toys, but David teased him a little, asking him if he wanted to go back to the Christmas lights. He said "no, back to the Lego store!!". It's good to know he enjoyed his day so much. So much, in fact, that he sang several rounds of Jingle Bells while we were walking around Target.

But that was half our day. Tonight we experienced a real Hallmark Christmas moment: the lighting of the town Christmas tree. It was small town fare at its best! Local beauty queens, tiny baton twirlers, a couple of children's choirs, a lovely solo by one of the high school seniors, and then a senator with a countdown to the tree lighting. "Five, four, three, two, one" we counted together, then the collective gasp as the lights came on, then the community wide chuckles as we all realized that only the top half of the tree lit up! Free hot cocoa was available for everyone, and we saw and spoke to many people from our church and stayed out long enough to hear our church's kids' choir perform before we walked the block back to Gran's house. We found her busily preparing hot chocolate for us (and warm chocolate milk for Dennis who doesn't like hot cocoa). Dennis added marshmallows to all the mugs and suggested we sit by the fire. We did just that, telling marching band stories at his request (demand). It's really starting to feel like Christmas now!