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For the Best Christmas EVER!

I waited until today to post our Christmas card this year. Hopefully, it has already arrived in your mailbox!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

A 'Grown Up' Christmas Wish [List]

I know he's already listed in my Great Blogs off to the side, but my buddy Kev comes up with some incredible Christmas wish lists every year. Too good to pass up. Click on the links and get ready to smile. Probably even more funny than the list itself are his comments as to why they make such great gift ideas.

Awana Christmas Musical

Jake's first Christmas production, and he goes and volunteers to do a solo singing part. After a couple weeks of nerves, and deciding no, he didn't want to do it, I told the lady in charge that he was opting out. The evening at practice he went and sang his part. So a little cajoling and inviting the neighbors and he agrees to go ahead with it. With three lines and a lot of nerves, he did manage to get the last line out nicely! It was wonderful and he was pretty proud he had done it. Jake is the one in the back row a little right of center. Behind the dark-haired girl in the front row.

Here's Santa & the Mrs!

Jake wanted to see Santa, even though "I know he's not real, I just want to see him and make his spirit happy." I believe he understands the basis of Santa is from St. Nicholas who happened to be a real person who lived long ago.

Mrs. Claus was on hand to welcome each child and hand out candy canes and a free movie pass. Did I mention this was at the Pollack Building? The movie theater just happens to be Pollack Tempe Cinemas! Well, that's OK by me. No mall lines, Santa has a real beard and take your time (no hurry, click, next)! I'm not sure if this is the business owner or not, but the couple are super nice. Thank you Pollack Investments!!

Chihuly'ed Out Yet?

Not me! Sorry if this isn't your cup o' tea, but it is pretty cool to me, so please bear with it...I only take a few moments to sneak peaks at these works, so one was night and now I came back before sunset. If you do like them, go ahead and click on the picture for a closeup view (no links).

This one I missed before:

This one too:

I haven't even seen all the pieces, yet, so beware - more to come!

Zoolights

A few cities have zoos that do Zoolights. The Phoenix Zoo is one of them (a private zoo - not run by the city of Phoenix). Up until now, the weekday evenings have been quiet with the kiddos in school. It will likely pick up in attendance until the New Year. I hate having to deal with the crowds and the idiots who believe they can park anywhere they want (one year we issued over 60 parking tickets in one day!). Seems they could do better by issuing tickets for specific nights and selling only so many to avoid the sometimes 45 minute lines getting in. That said, it is still kind of fun. The music system seems to have improved over the years, though I believe the lighting itself (the main draw, really) has lessened. Well, some improvements in lighting but fewer trees all lit up.

The entry bridge is an improvement, though I liked the floating displays no longer used.

This is fairly new - fake palms all lit up
Hey Mom! Look at me! Gotcha!

Looking Mighty Good!

Erik's first tie. Erik had a Christmas band concert Tuesday night and needed a tie. It had to be black, so we had to find one (Dad doesn't own a black tie). We also had to get a button up shirt and it came with a tie, so now he has two ties!

Almost forgot to note that Erik performed Away in a Manger with two other clarinet players and did very well. My camera batteries died just after taking the photo above, so no action shots or video this year. We'll see if I can convince him to play again on his own...