Making Christmas Memories

I know this is a little past due, but I wanted to mention some of these anyway. So when I was living in southern California I had constant access to Doug and Kris' kids, and my niece Cameron. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I went home over Christmas and got to see them all a good amount. My favorite moments with them:

• Christmas Eve I had dinner at by brother's house and Cameron got to open up all her presents the night before. When she'd open them up, she would get most visibly excited about the girly ones, but then when it actually came time to play, she wanted the more boyish toys. That's totally my brother's influence because he gets her those kinds of toys and wants to play with those ones. She's super girly and has tons of Barbies and dolls, but then has a number of action figures and legos and stuff like that. She's awesome. Anyway, she wanted to build the Star Wars Starfighter lego set that she had gotten so I helped her out. When we finished, I kept telling her to show her dad, but I thought she wasn't listening to me. After the third or so time she smiles and turns to me, looks me in the eye and says, "why do you keep repeating yourself?" It just totally caught me off guard, and I just started to laugh. And then when I was playing with the puppy that they had and I guess kind of baby-talking to it, she reprimanded me saying, "don't talk like a baby to the dog because then he won't think you're the pack leader and he won't respect you." She's 7, and I love her.
  
• After church one Sunday I was at Grandpa Reid's house (weird to say that, but that's the easiest way to distinguish him) and I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Mike, Doug, Ryan, and gramps. I look over and see Tyler (2 years old) picking away at the gingerbread house on the counter. He has a drawer pulled out, standing on top of it, and just munching. I call over and ask, "Tyler, whatcha doin?" And he just was going to town on it. I walk over, and he finally looks up at me, and in a defensive tone says, "No no no no." I reached and picked off a piece and I could see his whole body relax, and then he squeaks out, "it's good!"
• My favorite was while at Doug and Kristen's visiting with them, the boys were kind of acting up. I guess that's just how it goes for them now. Ryan (4 years) got sent to the time-out spot over in the entry, but Tyler just couldn't leave him alone so he goes and plays with him. He playfully jumps into him while also unintentionally causing Ryan to bump his head into the door. Ryan gets up and just pushes down Tyler who in turn starts wailing, and everyone looks over. Before Doug or Kris say anything, in his little 4 year old voice announces, "Beastie (Doug and Ryan's shared nickname for one another), I'm kind of ornery." That was my favorite line.

I know the boys are kind of pests right now, but it really just melts my heart to see them and be around them. It really surprised me how much I love all of them. They're all so great. There were a number of fun moments over the break. Watching Dave and Caitlin Christmas morning open up each other's presents was just darling. I don't even want to elaborate just because it almost felt private, but it was just so sweet to see. They probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but they're so sweet to each other.

I got to play soccer twice with everyone, which I kind of live for, but then missed the third time to go 80's dancing with some other friends. I'm sure it sounded super gay to all the other guys, and it probably is, but I just love that 80's night down in Laguna Beach on Tuesday evenings. Aaron is so fun to go dancing with because he just gets so into it. The music is awesome, and it's so cool to have a bar full of people singing and dancing to the music.

I caught Strung Out in concert at home too. I was going to do a separate post on this one, but I'll just give it an honorable mention here. I don't know of many better feelings than to be in the mosh pit seeing your favorite band perform your favorite song live. Seriously, that's a top 10 kind of feeling. They were awesome, as always. You know what else is so cool about them? Almost the whole band stays after they're done to talk with the fans. They'll sit around and take pictures with whoever wants to, and just chat with everyone following the show. I just love that it's this hard, melodic punk music, but they're just totally down to shoot the breeze. Jason Cruz is probably the coolest lead singer ever. Oh, and I finally heard them play a song that I've been dying to hear live since their last album came out. Love love love live music.

Remember Santa's Village? If you're from Southern California and watched cartoons in the 80's you know exactly what I'm talking about.