A Spirit of Giving...

First, the back story to this post: Mugger's preschool has asked each of the children to bring in $4.00 to buy a "Jesus Loves Me" lamb from the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. Here's an excerpt from the Director's Note in Mugger's ECC (Early Childhood Center) newsletter this week:

"I want to extend a great BIG thank you for the MANY lambs we will be able to purchase for children in need. One of our ECC children came into my office last week with his teacher to ask me if there were enough lambs for children. Then he proceeded to give me an envelope with $20.00, and it was enough to purchase five little lambs. This child, who is only four, gave from his savings and from money given to him for Christmas. He chose to spend his own money to help others instead of purchasing something for himself. He also needed one more dollar to make it $20.00, so he helped his dad straighten out the garage to get the additional dollar. What a heart!"

We're awfully proud of you, Mugger, and I know Grandma and Grandpa will be thrilled to hear what you did with their Christmas money. By the way, as of last Friday, the preschoolers have brought in enough money to purchase 83 lambs!

Mugger's Joke of the Week

"Hey Mama/Papa-- I can count to 900! 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900!"

This is the height of silliness to a 4-year old, and Mugger has told this joke to EVERYONE this week!

Bug our Singer Girl

Bug is turning into quite the little jukebox lately! She seems to be singing all the time-- often with most of the right words. Some songs which she has been singing excerpts from this week:

• The Alphabet song
• Jingle Bells
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm
  
• The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
• The Wheels on the Bus
• Down by the Station
  

An Early Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa

Last week, the kiddos had the best Christmas present they could have hoped for, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa! Mugger got to bake cookies with Grandma, Bug got lots of storytime with Grandma, and we all got to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel.
Mugger was very concerned that Grandma get to hang the first ornament on the Christmas tree, since we had saved the decorating for their arrival. He did a great job decorating the rest of the Christmas tree, though. He even made a paper angel to help hold up the star and added a whole box of candy canes to the decorations.
After the decorating, they were ready for presents. Mugger (being the Hugger Mugger that he is) loved his zebra pillow, which he declared his new best friend (along with Bunny.)
Mugger also loved his Jeep Adventure Set and makes new tracks daily!
Bug was totally in love with her new stroller for her doll...
...and then she saw her new doll!
After all the excitement, they were ready to head for bed in their Christmas jammies. So cute! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Santa Claus & Snow Come to Town

Last Saturday was the day a local realtor trucks snow down to a parking lot here in town so California kiddies can experience snow! Montana-born Papa thinks this is hysterical, but I never want to miss it since it's all the fun of snow without the 2-hour drive to the mountains! I must admit that it's pretty funny to see the snow corralled in a chain-link fence though. Anyways, Mugger had a great time playing "Snow Fight" (as he called it) with Papa, and Bug enjoyed her first experience (in her memory) of playing in the snow.
We also had the seasonal sleigh ride with Santa (in his California sleigh on wheels), though I must say we still don't know exactly what to do with the whole Santa issue. Mugger knows that Christmas is about Baby Jesus and has even asked me if Santa is just a character like Caillou (from his favorite TV show), but I think it confused him to be asked what he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas! Oh well, we'll just let his mind sort it all out until he has more questions. For now we'll keep our focus on counting down the days until Baby Jesus' birthday.

Christmas Trains!

Last Wednesday Nonnie & Gramps took me and the kiddos to the Nixon library to see the holiday train display. Mugger liked lots of the trains, but Bug was more interested in laying on the benches! (All those pix turned out blurry as she was too busy!)As many trains as there were there, Mugger was most excited to help Nonnie and Gramps get their train set up once we got back to their house. He even helped move and clean furniture to get the train running sooner.
And of course, once we got home, he was all excited to get our Christmas train set up too. Those pix will come in another post...