Christmas in the Desert

The Nguyen-Sindt clan made the pilgrimage to the southwest to spend Christmas in the desert. Always thankful to have the excuse of visiting Auntie Paige in Phoenix to get a break from the early midwest Winters. We made the trip with the boys a few years back, but this year Aunt Lisa, Uncle Tony, and Cousin Max (aka. "Honey Badger", or shortened to "Badger") were also joining us. The theme for this year's trip was "Presence. Not Presents." More on that later.

It would be Max's first plane trip and we were all anxious to see how he did. For that matter, it was the boys' first plane trip since the Phoenix trip in 2010. In the days leading up to the trip, E would mutter, "I don't want to go on a plane." That had us slightly worried, but he perked up quickly once we were at the airport.

Travel Day Arrives

Like all Sindt related trips, the logistics are creative to say the least. Grandma and Papa started their trip out West by flying Northeast to Minneapolis. Turns out, a layover at MSP from OMA was a cheaper option than flying direct. Worked out for us because we caught the same flight as theirs from MSP to PHX and the boys loved having Grandma and Papa onboard. 

The boys did great and loved every minute of it. Camden fell asleep shortly after take off, while E kept himself occupied with various iPad games and movies through the duration of the 3 hour flight. Separated by a row, when we landed at PHX, Camden shouted, "Ethan we're at Auntie Paige's!" To which E screamed, "I knowwww!" They still have a bit to learn about airplane etiquette :)

Lisa, Tony, and Badger arrived the next day at midnight. Badger was a model traveler as he slept the entire flight. The bad news about that was that he was up until about 2am local time when they arrived. Can you blame him for being excited?

Jolly Roger Magic Show

One of the early highlights was the Jolly Roger Magic Show at the luxurious Valle Del Oro resort where Kim's Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob reside during the Winter months. Wasn't quite sure what to expect from the show, but it turned out to be a lot of fun for both the children and the adults. Here are some videos from the show, including E's on stage appearance in the second one.

Dreamy Draw Hike

Saturday was a beautiful day for the boys to go for a hike. Tony was shopping for tickets to the Bears game, Papa and I were gathering all the fixins to make Pho, and Lisa was keeping the Badger busy.  So Grandma, Kim, and Paige took the boys for a hike at Dreamy Draw. They hiked for about a mile and a half and by all accounts Camden and Ethan rocked it. They stopped along the way and willingly posed for pictures. It was a much needed time for them to run off some energy.

Coffee Table Catastrophe

One of the scarier moments from the trip while Kim, Grandma, and the boys were on their hike. Lisa and I had stayed back to watch after Badger. If you've spent any time around Badger, you know why he has that nickname. He's fast and quickly finds himself getting into trouble before you can blink your eyes. This played out right in front of us.

Lisa and I were chatting in the living room while Badger played with his Woody doll right in front of us. Before we know it, Badger rolls under the glass coffee table. Lisa and I immediately saw the danger. Just as we rose to get out from underneath the table, Badger kicked his foot up releasing the thick glass tabletop and it came shattering down on top of him. Max is 3 and fairly strong, but the coffee tabletop was thick and we never would have imagined that he could do the damage he did. He kicked the tabletop in just the right position for it to break on top of him. 

We were very lucky. Max escaped with only a scratch on his cheek and a small scratch over his eye. Yes, it could have been much worse. It was a scary moment to say the least. On the bright side, not having the coffee table in Paige's living room really opened things up in there.

Bears Game

Part of the appeal of taking our family Christmas to Phoenix was the Bears playing at the Cardinals on December 23rd. Uncle Tony is Bears season ticket holder and this was another opportunity to get another game in. Turns out, the rest of Bears Nation had the same idea. The stadium felt like it was 50% Bears fans, at least. It felt more like a Cardinals road game. Tony secured some great seats for us. It was Papa's first NFL game and it didn't disappoint. The Bears got an easy win and I got to see Brandon Marshall score a much needed touchdown to help propel my Fantasy Football team to a Championship victory.

Zoolights

This was a family favorite 2 years ago so we decided to make the return trip to the Phoenix Zoo to take in their beautiful Christmas lights.

The Phoenix Zoo uses 3.6 million individual lights for ZooLights. This includes all the lights used on nearly 700 displays of animals, flowers, stars, trees, etc. The big blue tree in the main plaza alone has 30,000 lights. ZooLights is one of the largest light shows in the Southwest. It takes a four-person crew approximately 12 weeks to install. That’s almost 2,000 man-hours!  Installation begins in early August and wraps up the first week of November.

Christmas Eve

With our travel to Phoenix, we had to make sure that Santa was familiar with our logistics. We were flying home on Christmas Day, so the boys wanted to make sure he knew where to go and when. So on Christmas Eve, we let the boys open a few gifts that were from family. I mentioned earlier that this year's theme was "Presence. Not Presents." Anyone could buy presents for the kids, but we weren't to buy presents for any of the adults. Our gift to one another would be the gift of togetherness - our presence. 

The boys' Christmas wishes were pretty easy. Their list included:

• Transformer Rescue Bots (all of them)
• Bullseye (from Toy Story)

They're still very much in their Super Hero phase, so anything related to action heroes or fighting crime would also fit the bill. Max got a Bullseye from the boys which he seemed to enjoy since he's currently in his Toy Story phase.

A Sindt-Nguyen Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without food, and lots of it. We had a nice get together at Cousin Anita's house where the main courses consisted of Fugens, Pho, and Honey Glazed Ham. We also had the usual assortment of snack mixes, cookies, and other delectable treats.

Following dinner we went to Christmas Eve service at Paige's church where she was slated for a piano solo. It's always a treat to hear her play. Auntie Paige is so talented. I really enjoyed her rendition of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

Christmas Day

Christmas Day arrived and it was also a travel day for all of us. Time to head back to our respective frozen tundras. Some more frozen than others. Grandma and Papa, with a layover in MSP would fly over their house twice before they actually arrive home. Everyone was packed and ready to get home to see if Santa left anything for them. This is what happened when we arrived home...

Christmas 2012 was a success. It was quite a whirlwind and there were hundreds of photos taken over the course of the week. Far too many to share in one blog post. If you're thirsting for more, click the photo below to see our Christmas 2012 Flickr album.

Ethan Gaining His Independence

Ethan's Self Portrait

Today was Ethan's mid-year pre-school conference. Camden moved to a new all day pre-school this year in preparation for Kindergarten next year. We decided to keep Ethan at Mini-Hops because we love the teachers so much and he also has some good buddies there. We were looking forward to seeing how Ethan did with his newfound independence. Ethan has always grown up in the shadows of his big brother, so this was a nice opportunity for him to begin to develop his own sense of identity.

Ethan continues to show good improvement in all of his cognitive and physical development areas. More than last year, he's starting to explore the arts. He does really well with detecting and completing patterns. He can recognize the sounds of all his letters and we've begun working on spelling and sounding out words at home. He's able to clearly speak and articulate his thoughts in sentences.

Emotionally, Ethan is described as very even keeled and doesn't let many things rattle him. Miss Kris described a time when another classmate was bothering Ethan and he very kindly asked that classmate to please stop. The classmate persisted, but he wasn't deterred. Funny because this behavior is much different from the behavior we experience at home when Camden is up in his business. I guess it's better that he handles things the way he does in public, than he does at home.

We're very proud of our Little E. On more than one occasion, Miss Kris indicated how much she adores Ethan and how much she wants to take him home with her each day. I'm sure she says that about all the kids :)