Going out with a BANG....

Well, 2008 is definitely going out with a bang in our household...compliments of Collin's Christmas gifts this year!

We have decided to not really push the "Santa" angle with him, instead focusing on Christmas as Jesus' birthday. We try to explain that the gifts we exchange with family and friends are really birthday presents and that since Jesus was so special everyone gets and gives gifts on His birthday. Since he obviously sees Santa everywhere during the Christmas season, we have just explained that sometimes Santa helps with this, since there are so many presents being given.

When it came to gifts this year, suggestions were pretty easy. It has been obvious for quite some time that our little guy is a music lover, so this year we directed many of our family and friends toward that theme when it came time for gift exchanges. As a result, we are now pretty equipped to start our own band... (drums, guitar and keyboard, right)

Ironically, neither of his parents have any talent or special interest when it comes to music, aside from my short stint in choir at St. Thomas and some voice lessons for easy class credits that I am not sure should count...perhaps it has skipped some generations and all the extra has landed with Collin?

He is now the proud owner of a children's Gibson guitar (compliments of Grandma Nola), and a keyboard (compliments of the Butcher family). These two items will happily replace the Wiggles guitar and the infant piano we have been using for way too many months. You see, not only does Collin love music, he loves to direct us as his own personal band....assigning each of us what instrument we are to play and then alternating the assignments after each "song," just to mix it up I guess...this has been going on for as long as he could stand and point at us at the same time...

"Rocking out" in his PJ's for Cousin Grace and Cousin Kalie. A Rocker's work is never done...

Doug and I decided to purchase the drum set...we thought this was likely to be the most annoying gift, so we ought not to leave any room for blame once it started to drive us crazy. It was a very inexpensive gift (thanks, KMart) but Collin loves it.

Actually, we are not finding the drums to be too bad either. The cymbal, however, is a different story....This is still a better set-up than the large blue plastic ball that kept rolling away and the recycled chopsticks from LeeAnn Chins that we had been using for drums and drum sticks...so we are still not complaining! Yet....

Collin playing drums at 6:10am on Christmas morning.

Despite his love of music, he is still a toddler, so even that does not hold his attention span forever. Collin also got a plastic bowling set from us and a very nice and extensive farm equipment, animal and barn set from his Grandpa Don and Grandma Lynn. He is now totally set with Play-Doh and will be practicing "catch" with his new indoor friendly ball and mitt, thanks to the John Rosenau family, in addition to clothes and other odds and ends from various family and friends. All of this has occupied his time nicely over the last few days! I am sure we will be able to "spotlight" all the presents in this blog as he uses them...he really loves them all!

Perhaps some of my favorite gifts are the 2 books given to Collin by the Westphal side of the family. My Uncle Stanley and his family have started a tradition of giving Collin 2 books at Christmas that used to belong to my Grandma Rose. I have memories of reading these books with her myself as a child, and I think that some of them were also read by her to my father.

At the Westphal house. Collin fell in love with the skiing snowman decoration. It moved and played music...how could he have resisted!

Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful gifts. More importantly, thank you for sharing your time with us over the Christmas holiday!