Enjoying my Buddy-Boy

Simon has been such a delight lately!
We finally got our Christmas decorations all put up on Thursday.  Dallin and I stayed up late doing the finishing touches, so I went back to bed after Scriptures and breakfast Friday morning. 
I heard when Simon got up and went down the stairs to see all of the lights, nativities, and decorations.
"Oh, I love this!"  He said.
Later I heard him say, "Wonderful!"

Since then, the Christmas Spirit has been in his heart.  He keeps bringing me lovely gifts all wrapped and taped.  He did it for probably an hour yesterday while I was figuring out the finances on the computer.  Every few minutes, he would bring me a present wrapped in kleenex and thouroughly taped up. 
"A calculator, it's just what I wanted!"  (It really was as I had been using it and put it down for a minute.)
He was so excited to hear that it was what I had really wanted. 
He brought me some ornaments from the tree and other little odds and ends, but my favorite was the last one.
We both had a good laugh when I undid the tape and wrapping and found a piece of popcorn!

At co-op on Thursday, the teachers gave them some paper to color and put snowflakes on.  He said, "I want mine to be a surprise."  So he covered his eyes while he colored on it.  Then he mostly covered his eyes while he folded it up and hid it in his pocket.  It was very cute!  He loved making snowflakes, too. 

The first time he brought me a gift, I was resting in bed.  I told him how excited I was and told him to put it under the tree and I would open it on Christmas.  He put it under there and sang "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" and said, "That's long enough!"  and brought it up for me to open.  He was so happy with my delight at opening the gift that he said, "Mom, you can open one of my presents on Christmas."  On his way out of the room, the reality of that promise sank in and he said, "Well, you can open YOUR presents on Christmas." 

We've come across a few "bad guy" stories lately that have really impacted him.  King Noah from the
Book of Mormon and today king Herod.  It is interesting to realize how he'll still be thinking about something quite awhile later.  Out of the blue he'll say something like, "But kings aren't bad.  They're good."  Or he'll ask over and over again why someone would want to do something like that.  Today during the Christmas devotional, I explained to the kids that the part of the film they were showing was Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt away from King Herod.   Later at dinner, Simon piped up, "I never, never want to see that show again with that bad king."  It is cute because the show didn't show Herod at all, but because of my explanation he was feeling bad about it.  I am glad for his tender heart. 

At the ward Christmas breakfast, he won a jar of cinnamon Santas with a gold gift bow on top.  As we rushed to help clean up, gather our things, and get out the door, he was trying to explain something to me.  It took me awhile to figure it out.  He said that he had a flower with a sticky thing on the bottom.  I said, not knowing yet what he was talking about, "Oh, did you lose it?".  He got emotional and said, "No, somebody threw it away....and now my heart is broken!" And he burst into sobs.  After we got in the car, I realized he was talking about the Christmas bow on his jar.  I was happy we had one in our wrapping box at home.  It was even blue, his favorite color. 

I am thankful for the enthusiasm and liveliness this great kid adds to my life.  I'm a lucky mama.
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