Christmas 2006


Pre-Holiday Costco Visit
A holiday shopping trip to Costco had Aidan wanting, "just one fire engine - just one..." When told it wasn't his birthday and Christmas wasn't here yet, he stepped up his pleading.

Mindy then told him he could earn money to buy it himself by doing chores. So, with earned money combined with birthday present money, Aidan went to Costco to choose.

Forty-five minutes later, he walked out with a rescue helicopter! And later in the week when he told us they had to return the defective helicopter, he said, "but I don't want to do more chores!"

A Christmas "Wish" Dialogue
Aidan was excited about Christmas. When he and Grandma Judy were looking at a village set covering two pages in a Fischer Price catalog, the conversation went like this:

Aidan: "Santa wants Aidan to have this set."
Grandma: "He does?"
Aidan: "Santa likes sets."
Grandma: "Does he?"
Aidan: Santa really likes BIG sets."

The Power of Santa
Like parents everywhere, the power of Santa was leveraged leading up to the holidays. One Leffler household conversation went like this:

Mom: "You need to get ready for bed."
Aidan: "I'll just play with my truck for a few minutes."
Mom: "It's time for your bath now."
Aidan: "Not quite yet."
Mom: "Santa isn't happy with little boys who don't mind their parents."
Aidan: "This truck wants to take a bath too..."

Mullen Family Christmas Party
Aidan had fun playing with his cousins Tyson and Taya.

Six-year-old Taya is a great reader and "showed her style" reading "Skippy Jon Jones".

At the beginning of the party, eight-year-old Tyson gave $5 to Aidan's Grandma Judy. He explained that he'd sold his Pokemon cards for $60 and wanted to give $5 to Aidan's trust fund. When Judy thanked him and told him how special he was to do that for Aidan, Tyson replied, "He's my cousin."

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was spent at Aidan's maternal grandparents' house. Aidan had fun playing with his family: his parents and Uncle Dave, all four of his grandparents, and his three great-grandparents, Ford, Jessie, and Doris.

And he had a great time playing with his ambulance and camping sets. (You remember how Santa "really liked sets...")

Santa's Present - The Riding jeep
As you can see from the picture on the right, Aidan has a new jeep - brought by Santa and chosen with excitement by Mitch. When Aidan went to bed on Christmas Eve, Mindy went outside his room and rang jingle bells. Mitch went into Aidan's bedroom to see what Aidan's reaction would be.

Aidan asked, "Will Santa come down the chimney now - I hear his bells?"
Mitch responded that he thought that Santa would.
Whereupon Aidan said, "You've got to get to bed now!"

The next morning when Aidan got up and saw the jeep under the tree, he went into his parents room and said,
"Santa came and brought me a jeep! And I heard his bells!"