A few cute stories

I don’t have any pictures to share, but there are a few things that we’ve done over the past weekend that were too cute not to share.  Plus, I don’t want to ever forget them, so this is the best way to record them.

Last night, our church visited Mission Gardens.  It is a nursing home.  I used to work there when I first moved to Lompoc.  Our youth group had made about 80 little gifts and trinkets for the residents, and the entire church went over last night to deliver the gifts and go caroling through the halls.  We made for a pretty good crowd. 

Val, our youth pastor’s wife was in charge of making sure all of the gifts got handed out.  She would hand the kiddos a gift and little gingerbread man door hanger and they would walk into the resident’s room, say Merry Christmas, and then hand the resident their gift.  When Micah saw what was going on, he wanted to help.  I was so surprised at how well he did.  He is usually a little reticent to do these types of things, and he is usually shy around new people.  But my big boy just walked right into those rooms and handed out gifts.  He would say Merry Christmas, and then hand the ladies and gentlemen their gifts.  No shyness at all.  And once Caleb saw big brother doing it, he wanted to do it as well.  I was so proud of my boys!  Caleb would walk in and say Memy Mismis!  It is so cute the way he says it! 

The boys didn’t know all the carols we sang, but they joined in on the ones that they knew, like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jingle Bells, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 

I loved watching them interact with the residents and sing the carols.  And I loved watching my boys care for these residents, since Mission Gardens still has a special place in my heart even though I no longer work there.

Later as we were driving around looking at lights, John asked Micah why we went over to Mission Gardens.  And he said that God wanted us to help take care of sick people.  Isn’t that just the sweetest thing to know that God is working on the heart of a little 4 year old?  It makes me tear up just thinking about it.  (I know, what a crybaby I am!)

So another story.  I have told you that the boys like to go around to the different Santa figures sitting outside peoples’ houses and tell him what they want for Christmas.  Well, John has been making a Santa voice when Micah would tell Santa what he wanted.  Like a deep voice, “OK, yeah, maybe” those sorts of responses.  And it was cute because when it was Caleb’s turn to talk to Santa, Micah started to make the Santa voice for Caleb.  It was too funny.  Micah wants to be like his daddy so much. I love that the boys love their daddy so much.  I am lucky to have such a good husband who is such a great father to my little boys.

Santa Claus is coming to…WalMart

Santa made a visit to WalMart on Sunday.  He was coming to take pictures with the kiddos and to listen to their wish lists.  And to entice the parents to come also, he offered a free picture of the aforementioned kiddo sitting on his lap. 

Knowing how I love a deal, you may have already figured out that the Stults family would be in attendance for this momentous occasion.  So after church, we headed to WalMart. 

We got to WalMart and Santa was taking a break.  So we walked around for a while and then went back to wait for Santa.  When Santa came, Caleb was fascinated.  He followed Santa all the way back to where the photo employees were.  He kept saying, “Danta Daws, Danta Daws.”  It was pretty cute.  I had to go get him and told him that since he didn’t work at Wally World that he couldn’t go back there. 

Once Santa got settled into his chair, he asked Caleb to come sit on his lap, but Caleb was having none of that.  He didn’t want to go anywhere near Santa then.  So we asked Micah if he wanted to go tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  That was all the encouragement Micah needed.  He went up just like that and started telling Santa about the different things he wanted for Christmas.  And he got his picture taken.  Isn’t my boy photogenic?  This is the free picture that we got.

We were getting ready to walk around some more and Santa came over and gave both boys candy canes.  They thought that was pretty cool.

Here’s a cute story for you.  We’ve been taking the boys driving at night to go look at the Christmas lights.  There’s this one house that I say threw up Christmas.  It is on a corner lot, and every inch of yard space is taken up by inflatables, nativity scenes, and other Christmas decorations.  They even have Christmas music playing in sync with the lights.

There’s this big inflatable Santa at this house, and the first night we were driving around, Micah had us stop the car and roll down the window so that he could tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  And when he was done, Caleb wanted to tell Santa what he wanted.  It was so cute because basically Caleb just repeated most of what Micah said. 

Once we were done with that house, we had to stop at every other house with inflatable Santas and repeat the process.  It’s funny because Micah knows that’s not the real Santa, but he thinks he should tell them all just in case.

The next day, Micah didn’t behave too well at preschool.  So when we got home, John told Micah that if he didn’t start to behave better at school that we were going to have to drive around and tell all the Santas how he had been behaving and Micah would have to tell them that he couldn’t get any presents. 

Now, John and I don’t really emphasize Santa.  We like to focus on the real meaning of Christ’s birth, but it’s just too funny how Santa and presents can motivate good behavior.  But what to do the other eleven months of the year?