Deer Camp

I've become more of an "inside kind of girl" over the last several years, particularly since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and experiencing the accompanying heat intolerance and challenges with temperature fluctuations. I think it's sometimes hard for my boys to believe that Mommy really did grow up spending more time outdoors. I've had to be careful, but we have been able to take some camping trips and do some fishing, so hopefully they can learn to enjoy these things anyway. Of course going boating with Papa and Nana also means tubing, which they already definitely enjoy. (They were shocked to see some pictures of Mommy as a teenager water skiing recently, though. It seems they think Papa has a boat and tubes just for them!)

This past year we were able to introduce Tyler to another outdoor activity that's always been meaningful in my family--hunting. Although Nana has never hunted, and I only went a few times as a teenager and young adult, deer season and squirrel season were always important parts of the year in my family. My dad, my grandfather, my dad's cousin, and some other men loved spending the time together in the woods almost as much as the hunting. With my grandfather and dad's cousin no longer with us, the love of hunting didn't change, but the loss of the important hunting partners certainly dampened some of the comradery that these trips allowed.

HoneyBear did not grow up hunting, but he has always adored being outdoors and quickly learned to enjoy hunting trips. He has tried to join my dad hunting several different times since we married, but time off work has rarely worked out. Since he works with several hunters, he can't take off the times when my family spends time in the woods, and trying to coordinate the boys' fall sports and other things just gets crazy.

This year finally worked out with an after-Christmas hunt. To make it even more special, this year Tyler joined in to begin learning about his hunting heritage! He had already learned to enjoy his Red Rider BB Gun, but had not had any other opportunities to be involved in guns or hunting. HoneyBear and Tyler went through hunters' education classes in early December. It wasn't the most entertaining class for Tyler, but he did pass the test and seemed to learn some things. He especially noted the information on ATVs, since riding Papa's 4-wheelers has become a favorite activity at Nana and Papa's house.

For the hunting trip, we traveled to Little Rock late Christmas Eve for Christmas at Nana and Papa's, then on December 26, the first day of the after Christmas hunt, we all traveled down to Camden and the deer woods. HoneyBear towed the 4-wheelers, and Papa towed the camper. 

HoneyBear's Christmas present seemed to be appreciated--a Hogs hat perfect for hunting.

HoneyBear looked on as Papa connected the trailer with the 4-wheelers to our truck.

Tucker and Roly enjoyed chasing Papa as he headed around the camper.

Since it was a pretty chilly day and Nana and I both were feeling poorly, once we got there she and I settled in to the camper and napped (which meant there were no photos taken at camp). Shawn enjoyed being in the campsite, and wandered around collecting rocks and just being all boy. Tyler got a chance to go over with HoneyBear and Papa to sight in the gun he'd be using and do some shooting. 

After a brief moment of being directionally challenged, Shawn, Nana and I left the guys in the woods and headed back to Little Rock. They wound up not seeing any deer, but did enjoy the time together in deer camp.

Do You Believe?

As shared previously (in "Photos on the Square" and "Pony Rides and Smiles"), our family spent Monday night at the Lights of the Ozarks on the Fayetteville Square. We looked at the lights, we took photos, we rode the ponies, we even had kettle corn. This year a new exhibit mesmerized Shawn--a live reindeer exhibit with Santa and his sleigh.

He insisted on having his picture taken with the sign for the exhibit.

We were pretty surprised at his strong reaction to Santa. We could understand the fascination with the reindeer--they were pretty cool to see! It was his determination that we all look through the door as much as possible to see Santa on his sleigh that we didn't expect, especially since Shawn has been ... unenthusiastic about Santa the last few years while trying to be like his brother.

Once we looked through the doorway to see Santa, Shawn asked me a question that will stick with me for a long time. My sweet baby, getting so big and changing in so many ways, asked me, "Mommy, now do you believe?"

Oh, how I love my boy. I hope this sweet innocence, the kind that leads him to giving lots of hugs to lots of people, the kind that has him tell teachers and coaches he loves them at random times, the kind that blows kisses all the time, I hope this innocence can stay a while longer. I'm so glad that this sweet boy can remind us with his question to believe in the magic, and to make the season special. Because based upon some of his other lines of questions this year, it won't be too much longer before this child's faith will believe in what REALLY matters. Yes, my baby, Mommy believes.

Pony Rides and Smiles

Monday night our family continued a tradition started a few years ago of spending time on the Fayetteville Square during Lights of the Ozarks.


Each year we take photos of the boys with the Christmas lights (as shown in the previous blog entry, "Photos on the Square"), take photos of the lights themselves, and, for the last three years, have pictures made of the boys riding the ponies from Playtime Ponies. Since pictures with Santa have never been exactly happy events with the boys, but I still wanted something special for Christmas, this became a great option for me (and Nana liked having the pictures, too). I wasn't sure Tyler would still want to do it this year, since he's getting older, but he became excited after we watched them for a moment.

Unfortunately, Shawn thought we were going to get to ride the horse drawn carriage, so he was momentarily disappointed.

The ponies won out, though, and the boys seemed to have a great time. Shawn was curious about everything, so each time around he was trying to investigate another part of the pony or the tent

Tyler cooperated beautifully with the camera.


Shawn also enjoyed it, though in the end he wound up giving us another photo of the back of his head.


My sweet, photogenic boy knows how to smile for the camera (now if he'd only do that every time...)

Photos on the Square

I love Christmas lights. Let me rephrase that--I love well-designed Christmas lights. We are very fortunate to live in a town with a nice light display on the downtown square, complete with pony rides and concessions. Visiting the square has in fact become a family tradition for the four of us. This past Monday night weather was in the low 50's, making it a perfect night for a visit to the square--not to mention the last night before the boys went to Nana and Papa's house for the week before we joined them Christmas Eve.

We started in front of the lit Hog, once again ignoring the fact that getting in front of it required the boys to climb over slippery rocks by a water feature. Of course, it took a few tries, since Shawn tends to prefer to look at things behind him! I have many photos of the back of Shawn's head.

Last year the "Hog Lights" photo became our Christmas card--needless to say it was taken a little earlier in the season rather than the week of Christmas! It was also a much colder day, requiring the boys to bundle up.

There was a new bench on the square this year--at least one we'd not used for photographs before. These started out with Shawn looking away from the camera.

Then Tyler looked a different direction.

The guitar on the bench is really great for our boys, especially when they both look at the camera for a photo.

(Fortunately, they're covering their laps in this photo. It wasn't until after this that we discovered Tyler's zipper had been down the entire time. He later told me that I should just fix the pictures to have the zipper zipped--a photo editor in the making! Of course, then he thought it would be neat to be able to click on a hand in the picture and make the hand move down and zip up the zipper. He may be more programmer or flash designer!)

Our next set of photos was a repeat of previous years as well. Last year involved a little hugging.

This year apparently moved into kisses, though they're not completely documented. Tyler started the process, sneaking in a kiss on the cheek while Shawn was crossing his legs--which was supposed to be crossing ankles, but had Shawn sitting criss-cross-applesauce.

Shawn quickly decided turn about was fair play and went after Tyler.

Once they settled back down, Shawn turned around to see the lighted carousel behind them.

Even though we're pretty much used to it, Tyler decided to try to help get Shawn turned back around.

Shawn didn't pay much attention, so Tyler had to get a bit more assertive!

Unfortunately, Tyler may not be happy with me for posting these, since they were taken before we realized the zipper situation!
 
This was only the first part of our visit. I'll post more about pony rides and Santa soon!

Hear Those Sleigh Bells Ring

I love Christmas concerts. I love adult choirs singing of how special the season is. I love children's choirs showing everyone the joy and fun of the season. I love jazz bands setting the Christmas mood. The sounds that trigger the most memories for me, though, are those of concert bands giving a special ring to holiday tunes.

Image Courtesy http://www.freefoto.com/

When I was in junior high and high school, the Christmas concert was one of the most enjoyable concerts of our year for band. In 8th grade the Christmas concert let us highlight how much we'd improved, since we'd only been playing a year and a half. In 9th grade and then throughout high school, the fall had been filled with marching music, so Christmas was a fun time to enjoy new, fun pieces before we began working on our spring concert music for contests.

In my high school band, there was a Christmas song that became a tradition for us each year. Since the junior high and high school bands played a joint concert, junior high players learned of the song early and looked forward to being in high school to play them. We loved playing the song Sleigh Ride. The arrangement was a little challenging, which made it fun for us, and the percussion had a great time with it. Most importantly, the first chair trumpet player got to play the horses neigh at the end!

Looking at this from where I am now, it doesn't seem as exciting. Being a part of these fun times was so wonderful then, though! I still smile and think of some of my friends from junior high and high school when I hear Sleigh Ride.

This week I had the privelege of attending a junior high Christmas concert at my school. It was so wonderful for me to hear these kids and to see them enjoy what they were doing. They didn't play Sleigh Ride, but they had some Christmas tunes that will be memorable for them.

Do you have a special memory involving Christmas music?