christmas prep and an old story

We've been busy lately with preparations for Christmas - a little shopping, lots of sewing and knitting on my part, some decorating. Gavin is really excited about Christmas this year. I don't know that he fully understands what it is and why he's excited, but he is oh so excited. For the first time in year I actually put up Christmas decorations, and all because he demanded that we do it. It's a lot of work and I usually wimp out of all but the Christmas tree and maybe a fake pine garland on the banisters. But no, this year he and I put up other things too. Things like statues and candles and whatnot.

We seem to have a pheasant living in our area. This is odd because we don't live out in the country. We don't even live outside the outerbelt. Yet the other morning I looked out and there was a strange bird strutting around the yard. I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. They all turned out really crappy, since my zoom sucks, but thanks to photoshop I was able to crop in closer. According to a google search, it's a ringneck pheasant. Quite interesting. It was lovely. I saw it again this morning, outside out yard in the field behind the house.

Here's a Gavin story I was reminded of today as we were outside putting up lights on the house. Gavin is a very friendly, outgoing kid. He talks to anyone and everyone and regularly peppers complete strangers with questions. He'll crawl over the counter at stores to ask how the cash register works. He opens the windows of the house to ask questions of passers-by on the street outside. You get the idea.

So one night several weeks go, right as the leaves reached their peak color, Gavin noticed that the bush outside our kitchen had turned red. Evidently he had never noticed the bush before because he exclaimed, with much raucous laughter, "Who brought us a new bush?!?!" He continued to gush about our new red bush all evening. The next morning he noticed it all over again. I explained again that it had always been there and that the leaves just changed color. He asked who did it, and I said that autumn did it - autumn fairies. Later that morning we were getting into the car in the garage and he noticed a woman walk by with her dog. He rushes down the driveway, calling after her.

"Hey! We have a red bush! Yeah, it's red and autumn made it red! We have a RED bush!!"

The lady kept on walking. I could tell if she didn't hear him, or if she just didn't know what to say. But either way, I was giggling. I love how the simple things in life give kids the most joy!