Merry Christmas! (A few days late)
The weekend before Christmas, my friend Craig flew up to visit us. While he was here, we walked around Old Sacramento and took him to the capitol building. On the grounds of the capitol, there was a tall Christmas tree and many orange trees. Since we’ve heard that stolen fruit is the sweetest, Craig had to find out (shamelessly in broad daylight). Verdict - the proverb was proven correct!
The first night, we taught him Settlers and the second night, we added Cities and Knights. Craig learned the rules pretty quickly, but he’s also very easy to convince. I remembered that from college (how could I forget the nose and foot shaving incident?) and used it to my advantage to win! (Much to James’ annoyance, which only fed my glee.) As an interesting side note … Craig drank 7 hot chocolates in 2 days. Also while Craig was visiting, we went to Karen/Paul’s holiday dinner party. I especially liked the Asian noodles – delicious!
Craig left Monday morning, and James’ parents came to visit that afternoon. This was the first year Zachary got the concept of Christmas. (And by that, I mean the gifts, Santa, counting down till the 25th etc …not the religious part or the spirit of giving.) That meant no sleeping in! … Zachary got up at ~6:30am, jumped into our bed and asked,”Is it TUESDAY yet?!”
As the only child in the household, once again, it was adults hovering over him with cameras and video recorders while he opened gifts. Some of his loot included a puzzle where he can practice writing, a Fisher-Price digital camera, a super hero cape, Douglas (wooden train), lots of books (especially beginner reader ones), shoes/socks, frog cup holder for the car, Thomas pajamas, a big barrel of Lincoln Logs, 2 games (Hisss and Rat-a-Tat Cat) , Wedgits, and the complete Discovery Toys marble run set.
He enjoyed all his gifts (as opposed to ignoring most of them like last year) – and was especially excited about the marble run! So far, James sets it up and Zachary only triggers the marbles, but I’m thinking over time, he’ll start building it himself. (Just like with the train tracks … we used to build them for him while he ran the trains, but now he builds the tracks and wants us to crawl on our hands and knees with the trains! 
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I got James a Cake CD and a computer part. He got me super warm slippers, silver earrings, 2 card games, The Office season 3, and a bottle of too-expensive lotion that was on my Amazon wish list as a placeholder (oops.)
Hoping you also had a happy holidays – and wishing you and your loved ones a healthy and joyous new year! (My next post will be in 2008; Wow, time flies! 
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If one of the other parents forwards me any pictures, I’ll post them! 
