The Night Shift at the Falafel House

Before Xmas break, our school put on its annual Christmas show.  Well, it was very cute and involved all grades.  Zachary has taken to acting, which I think is wonderful as it encourages him to use his imagination and to apply what he has seen others do.

Zachary was asked to play a little solo before all the actors streamed on stage for the final number.  He was a customer at the Falafel House.  He played Come and See.  I expect at a Christian school you can guess who the cast was coming to see.  He played the very sweetest sound in his oboe solo. 

 I was so proud of our little shepherd soloist!

Happy 13th Birthday

He's officially a teenager!  And for his actual birthday, which happened to be on a Friday, he wanted to go to his Nana and Papa's.  No, I'm not hurt (sniff, sniff).  We celebrated on Sunday with many of his favorites from hamburgers for lunch and his favorite nacho dinner.  Plus a cake, that John and I thought was to die for.  Zachary said it was good, but he liked Nana's better.  "More for us," John told him.

On Friday morning, before he left for school, we opened presents.    He received 20 pieces of spare cane for making oboe reeds, a robot puzzle, LOTR calendar, and I finally finished his scrapbooks and had them published in books from 2nd-5th grade.  Most children would not be so excited about this, but Zachary enjoys reading about the past.  And his most favorite gift was receiving his iPad mini back after six short months of parental confiscation.  He also received Forever Comfy from his favorite Aunt Traci.  He thinks advertisements are still 100% truthful.

Happy about Forever Comfy

With an added favorite - Hershey's chocolate

Finding money at the bottom of the box - woohoo!

Notice the leaning candles because the cake was just out of the oven & they were melting in the cake!

Blooooooowww!!!

I'm 13!

Zachary always enjoys his birthday, but as a special treat for me this year, he declared it was his birthday as he walked out of his room in the morning.  "I'm 13 today!"  We were a little late to school because of opening gifts and pictures.  The Front Office ladies told me he walked in and said, "I'm late, but it's OK because it is my birthday."

Cute picture

Zachary and I volunteered at church for the Santa and baby Jesus pictures.  I was milling around and apparently he snuck in and took a picture.  We knew the photographers, so I expect they thought nothing of it.  It wasn't until we were sorting pictures, I came across this jewel. 

He looks like an elf.  He really enjoyed the movie Elf and a several other older Christmas movies this year.  It made me laugh when I saw it.  Cute and silly, often his personality.

A sneaky Santa

Zachary did not want much for Christmas.  A few oboe accessories, a few Lord of the Rings items, and some Lego sets.  This age can be hard to buy for, but when Zachary's band and oboe teacher suggested another oboe that has a full conservatory, I had an idea.  I must say, we've had a challenging year, and really a new oboe was not even on the radar.  But I presented it to John, and he thought that sounded like a good idea. 

We did not have much time to pull this idea off, but Zack's oboe teacher was instrumental (no pun intended).  She had a contact that sold oboes.  After discussions with the vendor, we decided on a used Loree oboe.  He wouldn't make any money on this oboe (vs. another brand we considered), but he felt it was the better investment, had great tone, and had recently been overhauled.  And a big concern of Zack's is whether his oboe is cracked.  This little 12 year old oboe, has never had a crack.  Score!

The vendor shipped it, and then I snuck over to our oboe teachers, who played it.  Linda, Zack's oboe teacher, said she would buy it.  It really sounded great, and all keys were working correctly after one minor adjustment.  I was so excited!  And honestly, I was going off of what both of them were telling me.  But Linda's face really assured me of the purchase. 

So we dove in and made a purchase.  Little did Zachary know, he had just paid for 80% of an oboe, but I didn't expect he would be too upset.  We had discussed how much he had saved and what he wanted to spend.  He was ready...I didn't know if he was really ready though.

Christmas morning arrived and we had finished opening all gifts.  We put this one off until the end because, as expected, Zachary asked if "that one" or "that one" were his to open.  I honestly think all adults were more excited about this gift before he opened it.  And we received the expected reaction...little smiles and smirks.  A delightful, joyous sigh was about all we got.  But after that, he was all oboe for the rest of the afternoon.

What could this be?

"F. Loree!"

The soft squirm of delight

Reality.  "A Loree oboe!"

"Let me play it"

And this was the position for much of the day.

We did hear "this is the best Christmas gift ever!" followed by "I need a Loree thumb rest."  The days that followed consisted of new Loree oboe accessories needed.  And now, we are saving for a Loree English Horn.