Hat Trick

I love these pictures of Kris in the cool hat he picked out when we visited Heritage Park last week. It provided some protection from the blazing sun. He wore it again on Friday when we went to the Hogle Zoo, another Texas-hot day in SLC.

 

Somewhere between the Orangutans and the Merry-Go-Round he lost the hat. I found him sitting at a table rubbing his eyes and very sad because it was gone.  Happily, Heritage Park is across the street from the zoo so we went right back to the gift shop and picked up another one. Smiles!

 

The next morning we had one last hurrah with everyone at the Black Bear Diner for breakfast before heading home to El Paso. Kris was wearing his hat when we went into the restaurant and then set it on the table beside him while eating. As we were leaving Brei reminded him to get his hat. He stared at it and said, "I've never seen that before."

 

Ah, Kris!

Easter

Kris was thrilled to find an Easter basket with his name on it, and he had a lot of fun searching for eggs with Mary Louise. 

I love that Kris gets so excited about Easter. He talks about egg hunts and Easter baskets full of surprises and candy for weeks in advance. Even more important to him, though, are all the television movies depicting the life of Jesus Christ. Along with

 his standard soaps and cooking shows he has been watching religious features such as 'Ben Hur', 'The Ten Commandments', and 'The Bible' endlessly.

When our home teacher was sharing some thoughts about the atonement and the crucifixion Kris quickly shared his own, pulling Charlton Heston and Mel Gibson into the conversation.

Last week I heard an announcement coming from the TV in his room that went something like: "You are watching the Trinity Broadcasting station, for people who love Jesus."

Immediately I heard Kris say with great sincerity and reverence, "Oh, I DO love Jesus. I DO."

And I know he does.

Habemus Papam!

 

The first few months Kris was here he would occasionally attend church with us. People were friendly and he seemed to enjoy their attention, but one morning he announced that he was Catholic and didn't go to our church. We found that a very clever way of letting us know that he was no longer interested in coming with us.

 

Wednesday I watched a little bit of the news regarding the new pope while at the office, with my friend Karen, a very devout Catholic. It was wonderful to see her heartfelt happiness and joy. Upon returning home that afternoon I asked Kris what he thought of the new pope.

 

Kris: That man talks too much; I can't understand him. Made me miss my soaps.

Me: Did you know that he's the new leader for the Catholic church?

Kris: That man talks too much. I couldn't understand anything. I don't use that language.

Me: Oh, I thought you would be happy because you're Catholic.

Kris: Not the same. He made me miss my soaps.

 

Timing is everything!

 

 

 

Christmas Notes

First on the scene to help us celebrate Christmas was the Bunker family. 

Jill & Kris wasted no time getting into a deep conversation.

He loved showing her his special "Chia" ornament before hanging it on the tree

We were also privileged to have Sonja, Julie & Pierre spend a whole week with us, which meant much eating of good food. Kris was never opposed to heading off to a restaurant for a meal! He was also a lot of help with running last minute errands with his nieces.

Christmas Eve dinner: traditional tamales, refried beans, Spanish rice, queso & tres leches cake. No complaints from Kris!

No complaints either when he opened his  toasty-warm fleece guitar pajamas from Sonja later that night!

~ ~ ~

Kris was thrilled with every single gift he opened, and enjoyed the festivities of the morning. It wasn't too long though before he had gathered up his gifts and taken them up to his room.

~ ~ ~

The day after Christmas Ayrel, Avery & Miki drove from Tucson to add to the fun; the next day Ben made a surprise 24-hour-7th Anniversary! appearance.  Kris was happy to be part of the adult group that went to see "Les Miserables" and had lunch at the State Line. 

The following night we had a fajita party with close to 30 people. He made a brief appearance and then retreated to his room. I think the larger crowds are a bit overwhelming for him, but all in all he did a great job of participating and interacting through the holidays.

Today, out of the blue, he started talking about his nieces and nephews and how much his mother and father love them. Translation: how much HE loves them!

Blowin' in the Wind

Yesterday it was time. 

Even though the leaves still crunched in a most satisfying way beneath our feet, the time had come to take rake in hand and corral all 32,659,487 of the golden crispy critters into the side yard to be mulched.

Me: Kris, would you like to come and help me clean up the leaves in the yard??!
Kris: NO THANKS. In Gresham I already did that.
Me: Well, would you want to use the leaf blower or the rake?
Kris: Leaf blower is just fine.

After a few simple instructions I turned him loose. He had more fun blowing leaves all over the place while I raked away. He had even more fun than that aiming the blower at me anytime I was in range.

Once he saw how I was dumping the pails of leaves into the side yard he started making a great effort to aim the leaves in that general area. An hour of good hard work from Kris was a lot of fun, and made a difference!

(And I'm not the only one who is grateful!)

A Very Early Merry Little Christmas!

Kris LOVES Christmas.

So much so that he is wondering why the autumnal decor is still up.

He just has to wait 2 more days for me to enjoy my month of Thanksgiving!

So much so that he has turned all the calendars to December.

So much so that I can hear him singing Christmas songs loudly in his room.

So much so that he is thrilled to be getting all the catalogs and ads, going through them carefully every day.

So much so that when I showed him the Christmas card we will be sending out he gave me a big hug.

(I think he was pretty pleased that this ↓ picture is on it!)

Row 1: Aubree, Kyle, Jill, Alex, Curtis, Gabe & Elena

Row 2: Mitchell, Seth, Avery, Uncle Kris & Jake

Great Uncle!

This handsome young man

 really loves his great-nieces and great-nephews

(and I have it on good authority that they love him too!)

Ditto for his nieces and nephews 

(even though they turned into grown-ups)