AJ was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his friend N., who was supposed to come over to play this morning, when the phone rang, informing us that N. was sick and would not be coming. No one likes to see a sad boy so close to Christmas, so we decided to get out of the house and find something fun to do.

We drove to the small downtown of a neighboring town to see the Christmas decorations and look at the trains in the hobby shop, peruse the bargain bins in the used book store, and see if we could find anything interesting to do. We ended up wandering into one of those paint your own ceramics shops. Feeling artistic, we decided to give it a try. AJ picked out a large bank shaped like a basketball and I painted a little box which, if it comes out of the kiln okay, will be a present for my grandmother�s upcoming birthday � she�s in need of something in which to stash her bobby pins. AJ and I had a really good time. We picked out our colors and rolled up our sleeves. I got AJ a big brush and he slathered orange glaze all over his bank while I washed my box in lavender. Then he began to paint on black lines with a smaller brush, carefully at first, haphazardly later. He drew an elaborate basketball scene in pencil on the table cover while I painted small flowers on the inside of my box, around the outside and on the lid. We can't wait to pick up our projects next week to see how they come out. I wish it weren't so expensive or we'd do this every week.

After we�d washed the paint from our hands, I took AJ next door to spend his Christmas money at the toy store. His grandmother hadn't been able to find a toy she thought he would like, so she gave him money instead, which prompted my favorite moment of Christmas morning. AJ tore open the envelope his grandmother handed him, saw the money inside, grabbed the bill and started waving it over his head while yelling, "Fifty dollars! That's a lot of dollars!" My little mercenary.

In any case, he invested his fifty dollars in Playmobil and solemnly handed his money to the sales clerk in exchange for a car that came with a guy to drive it, a bicycle, and a roof rack to carry it on as well as a gas station, which came with all sorts of little things (as well as an attendant) like oil cans, a battery tester, a bucket and squeegee, and a fire extinguisher. Since AJ has never actually seen a gas station attendant, he has assigned the attendant the job of "the guy who tells everybody not to smoke" (he was quite fascinated by the no smoking stickers we applied to the gas pumps when putting the thing together). The car has been running through a lot of oil (its hood pops open to reveal a plastic engine inside) and gas, no doubt due to all the trips to the North Pole to pick up Santa Claus from AJ�s advent calendar scene. Santa and the kids have been doing some joy-riding around the family room. Mrs. Stein is in hiding after being nearly run down while she was trying to pounce on a toy mouse. Poor Mrs. Stein.

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