This month, you got to live out the cliche, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Someone left a bag full of lemons in the break room at work, so I brought them home. You and Dad juiced them up and made delicious fresh-squeezed lemonade. It tasted so much better than the mix.
You made a friend this month, and then he moved away. Our across-the-street neighbors were a family with two children, Evan and Lily. Evan is your age and also goes to Kindergarten at Los Cerritos. Lily is 4, so she hasn't started school yet. You and Evan get along well, which is nice. They were in the process of buying a larger house, closer to the school, so you only had a few weeks of running back and forth across the street. Now it's a few minutes drive to get you together, but it works out all right. They introduced us to some other neighbors, though, who have a daughter in Kindergarten, so you do still know one other child on the block.
It rained, which was lovely. We put out a bunch of buckets under the patio roof and collected a couple of barrels of water. You managed to refrain from playing in them all the time, unlike Miriam, and actually used it to water plants. It is interesting to see how fast the river fills up when it rains. It doesn't seem to take much to make it look like a real river. The rain makes it feel like fall, finally, which isn't winter but it seems to be the closest that we're going to get.
I've taken heart in the fact that in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas is at the height of summer and still manages to be festive. We did some regular decorating in the house early in the month. We hung my big framed print of Neuschwanstein Castle, and the pen-and-ink of the Madison house in your room. I told you to go and look at them and see if they were okay. You said, "I wanted four pictures." You didn't care which ones, so I hung up my Snake Dreaming from Australia, and the skyline that Dad painted in college, and then you were happy.
We hung up some of our Chinese art in the living room, and then it was time to clear away boxes and put up the Christmas tree. When we walked into the trees on the lot, I made you stand with me for a moment, just smelling them. When we put our tree in the living room, it was such a lovely smell. I would walk past it going to my room and take a deep breath every time. You had fun helping Grandma put the ornaments on. You got frustrated when Miriam didn't seem to understand leaving the ornaments on the tree, but it ended up being a very nice looking tree. You also helped Grandpa put lights on the front of the house, and you made it your job to plug them in every afternoon when it started to get dark.
The toy you really wanted for Christmas was a remote controlled airplane, which you got from Grandma and Grandpa Thorne. You were super excited and you fly it all around the family room. Dad also got an RC helicopter, for both himself and you. The airplane is easier to operate, but harder to fly successfully. The helicopter is a little harder to operate, but easier to fly around the house. You've gotten pretty good at both of them. You also got a really cool circuit set from Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena, so you and Grandpa build circuits together sometimes. You also got lots of books from the Spencers, and some How to Train Your Dragon DVDs from the Thornes. You got a cool dragon tree ornament from Grandma Lam, and I gave dragons with riders to you, Miriam and Grandpa.
We also spent an afternoon at Target, putting together a couple of backpacks for kids entering the foster care system. One of the doctors here on campus works with children who need to be in foster homes. Often, they aren't able to take clothes or toys with them from their houses. So I got a list of useful items from her, like pajamas and underwear and school supplies, and we loaded up a couple of backpacks for her clinic to give to a couple of kids that need them. I hope that you will understand how fortunate we are, compared to many people in the communities around us. We have many, many blessings to be grateful for and shared.
Love,
Mom
The rainy season:
Decorating by Dragons:
Opening presents:
De Plane! De Plane!
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