Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The First Day of Christmas Holiday - or to others, Thanksgiving

 
 
Apart from the day off, Thanksgiving to me is mostly just Thursday.  I say mostly because family comes to visit and that always livens things up.  And as far as Nathaniel is concerned - more uncles (Analisa and Alex weren't with us this year) in town means more people to play with him.
 
Thanksgiving for Nate is almost entirely academic.  He seems baffled by a holiday centered around something as mundane and old fashioned as eating but he loves hanging with family.
 

After Thanksgiving dinner, Nate, Grandpa and Micah retired to the garage to do some light carpentry.  Nate thought this was absolutely fantastic.  Not only does he love spending time with his Grandpas but he is weirdly into home construction right now.  The kid can't get enough of home improvement shows.  His personal favorite - Rehab Addict.  He loves to scoot around people's houses looking for things to "rehab addict".  Or in human words, repair.  Although not everyone is happy with him pointing out all the flaws in their home.


After some work in the garage nailing tacks into a piece of wood, Nate then spent some quality time watching Youtube videos in the hallway with some uncles.  I'm not sure why this happened in the hallway but it did. 
 
At one point uncle Bryan tried to stop a video and Nate gently but firmly put his hand on Bryan's forearm, letting him know that, yes he could turn the video off but he would have his eyes clawed out.
 

 Almost as exciting as the influx of new bodies to push him around and play with him was our visit to the Christmas party at the farm this weekend.    He learned what mistletoe is and that it was the most fantastic idea.  He made all of us stand under it multiple times and in every combination possible.
 
 


 The highlight, however, was  meeting the big man himself.  No not this big man:
 
 
 
This big man.  Santa Claus - or in the old-timey case at the farm, Father Christmas.  Nate was delighted.  He told Santa everything he wanted, a Lego mini Millennium Falcon.  Santa then asked Nate if he was aware that a new Star Wars movie was coming out.  Of course he does Santa, of course he does.
 



 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Primary Talk


Nate gave his first talk in primary on Sunday and he nailed it. Sort of. He remembered the whole thing but he mumbled so bad no one could understand him. But, for a first stab at public speaking, we are pretty darn proud of him.

Here is the transcript for those of you who don't speak 4-year-old:

The gospel helps me to be strong. I have SMARD, and that means my muscles aren't very strong. But Heavenly Father has a plan for me. He doesn't think I need strong muscles to do my mission on earth. He helps me have a strong spirit to do hard things. Going to primary and having faith in Heavenly Father helps my spirit to grow strong.

 
 
Also, it is not that easy to get him to do this talk anymore. It was outtake city over here.