Monday, December 7, 2009

Laps: Santa and Ferraris


One more picture from Thanksgiving -
the kids love making cookies with Grandma

We decided that we needed to celebrate the bejeebers out of Christmas so Saturdays are FAMILY FUN DAYs. It's important to capitalize it since you can't hear me yelling it in my stadium voice. So our Saturday dawned and we started our celebrating by taking Joel's car to get the oil changed. FUN DAY! And now you can't hear me yelling in my sarcastic stadium voice. Nevertheless, it was a better visit than the day previous when I had to interrupt my wildly-paced morning errands when I noticed that the engine light was on and the car was stuck in second gear. NOT a fun day. After a while at the Goodyear place, they applied a quick-fix that I am hoping is the real-fix as opposed to the scenario they painted that involves software and a transmission problem blah blah blah they gave me the keys and it works fine for now, so that's all I needed to know.

We headed to Home Depot for the first Saturday of the month craft. Allison has been telling me about this for a while and how Emaline does this EVERY month. I've never made it a priority. And now I have shifted my priorities. As we entered HD we were heralded to the craft area by the enthusiastic banging of hammers. Donovan and Ainsleigh took one look at the organized chaos, put on their game faces, and said, "We want to DO this." And they did.

Joel sat with Ainsleigh and proceeded to make her read the directions and count all her pieces to make sure it was all there. LAME! Being my father's daughter, I ripped into the packaging and got out the first pieces as quickly as possible. *I* barely read the directions (that's what the pictures are for!) and quickly slapped to pieces together and commanded Donovan, "Hammer! HARDER! butnotonmyfinger!" About 6 nails in, as Donovan was hammering away, he said, "Mom! I wuv making toys! I don't fink I want to be a fireman when I gwoe up. I'm going to be an ELF!" I tried to tell Donovan it wasn't a race. That just because he (with me at the helm) finished way ahead of Ainsleigh (with, ahem, Joel), doesn't mean we are (exaggerated) ANY better. And then one of the HD helpers happened to walk by and said, "Sure it does. That's what boys do." I had to smirk. In your face, Joel.

I told Donovan we could take his wagon (they give you a pin with the craft on it to affix to your apron! some of those kids had like 20 pins - holy cow!) home and wrap it up and give it to Pablo (his Backyardigan stuffed animal) for Christmas. His eyes got big and in a hushed voice he pronounced, "Dat is such a good idea mom. Fank you for your good ideas." I forgot to say that throughout the whole craft, he would stop and, almost in wonder, thank me for bringing him there. Thank me for having him make a toy. Thank me for thinking he would be good at this.

After that, we headed to SANTA! There's a nursery near here that has Santa and reindeer and donuts and hot dogs and hay rides and IT'S! ALL! FREE! You bring your own camera, but who cares - SANTA! We waited about 15 minutes in line (I've waited over an hour at the mall before) before they kids clambered up onto his lap/sleigh. He looked at my three kids, leaned in, and conspiratorially said, "Wanna know a secret?" With big eyes, the kids nodded (not so much Gemma). "When I was younger," he whispered, while beginning to peel off his hat, "I had red hair just like you." A few faint streaks of strawberry were visible through his white hair. Donovan's mouth went into his "ohhhhh" face as his eyebrows shot up and Ainsleigh brought her hand up to her mouth to hide her giggles. "But don't tell anyone I told you," he continued. "We wouldn't want them to feel left out." Well played, Santa.

And after THAT, well. Let's just say that I tell people we took the girls to sit on Santa's lap and we took Donovan to sit on a Ferrari's lap. Donovan has been obsessed with FEE-ARE-EEs for a while and between the oil change and HD, we saw one out driving. That's when we remembered there is a Ferrari dealership nearby. Let's go!

Before we even got there, we threatened our children with certain death if they so much as touched one of the cars. They were ready. As we stepped into the showroom, Donovan adopted a reverence I can only dream of for church. We looked at a car or two before a very nice salesman came over and shook Donovan's hand. Joel had previously said he doubted Dono would get to sit in a car, saying they would be mean (because they CAN). But Mr. Vaughn was exceptional. I suspect that, had he not shaved his head, we would have seen that he was (or had been) a redhead as well. Regardless, he took Donovan (and Joel) around and showed them car after car. He opened the doors of a Lamborghini and showed them the engines of several cars. Mr. Vaughn asked Donovan if he wanted to sit in a Ferrari. "Oh yeah!" Joel said, "Uh...can I sit in it too?" Boys are adorable. Donovan sat in the cockpit (driver's seat sounds so...inadequate) of the newest Ferrari (I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention - Joel will be ashamed) and totally blew Donovan's mind by telling him it was (one of?) the fastest street cars in the world. When we got to the Bentleys, Donovan adopted the George H.W. Bush 'A thousand points of light' hand motions to emphasize that "This. THIS is the car I want. THIS is a weeeeeeeelly good car."

The only disappointment came when we left the dealership. Donovan, confused, said, "But I wanted to buy a Fee-are-ee. Daaaaaaad - we didn't buy one!" Joel and I have decided two things: 1) Get Donovan a Ferrari t-shirt for Christmas. 2) Do everything we can to encourage this infatuation, so when it comes time for homework we can say, "You want that Ferrari? You need to work harder, faster and smarter." I should totally write a parenting book.

Anyway, that was our FUN FAMILY DAY and we did it before lunch. After lunch and quiet time, we dumped them all at our friends' house as part of our swap we have going on. It's a little chaotic when they're all at our house, but totally worth it for the good times the kids have, the exhaustion that sets in, and the few hours of peace and quiet we get when it's our turn to go out. And that's what I call FUN.

5 comments:

Sarah Burgoyne said...

What an awesome day. I can't believe you got such a perfect picture with Santa. Isabelle would have been screaming. Where did you go for the picture?

laura said...

Aww, the look on D's face in that first picture is ADORABLE.

Allison said...

Yay for Home Depot Saturdays! I sat this one out and opted to stay home and clean (now that's MY fun day), but Mabes had a blast making her wagon with Dave. She decided hers would be a gift for Ricecake, but didn't have the patience to wrap it up and save it for Christmas. Ricecake is sitting in it now.

Love the pictures with Santa!

NancyO said...

I had a fun day just reading it - great pictures, too.

Sariah said...

I really enjoy your blog and I really mean that. I know if I read your blog that I will a) have a good laugh and b) walk away feeling happy. Thanks. It's funny but I save reading your posts so when I've had a rough day I can end on a happy note. I was behind and read from the top til here.

I think that is totally awesome that you took Donovan to a Ferrari dealership. I was bummed there weren't any pictures of the cars. Funny enough, I would have been the one asking if I could sit in it too.

Anyway, I don't really know how to say what I mean, but I needed to say thanks for your blogging. I'm trying to figure out what it is that I appreciate so much, but I think it's that you have this zeal for living life to its fullest and your ability to appreciate it. Something I admire.