Auntie and Uncle Time

Last week Jayke came to spend some time with Auntie Mandy and Uncle Jim. We picked him up on Sunday and dropped him off this past Sunday. He spent the week heading to work with me and of course he had a great time playing with all of the kids, making crafts, and making new friends.

Monday night we went to Jolly Holiday Lights. It is an extremely long lighting display in one of Des Moines parks, with all of the proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We grabbed a bite to eat after work and then headed there. At the end there was a small place to park and go in for hot chocolate and other snacks, along with Santa and Make-A-Wish items to purchase. Here are Jayke and Jim in front of one of the lights on that building.

Wednesday night after dinner we decided to sit down and go through the ads to cut out pictures and make a letter to Santa with all of the things he wanted. He did awesome! I can imagine some kids would want to pick everything imaginable, but he truly picked the things he wanted most.

More than anything he wants the Imaginext jungle thingy and that is what he keeps telling Chelsea and Josh he wants. He would tell us that he also wants Santa to bring a lion, tiger and a dragon, so of course his next favorite things on his letter are his animals. Being the sweet boy that he is, he suddenly pointed out a baby toy he wanted Santa to bring, he told me he wanted Santa to bring it for his new baby brother (although Chelsea isn't due unti April).

On Friday all Jayke could talk about was taking his letter to Santa because that was the day we had been planning on going. That evening Jim, Jayke and myself got ready to got, had our letter in hand, got to the mall, and Jayke absolutely refused to Santa. He wanted to have nothing to do with him. It doesn't surprise me much, he has never really liked him, but I thought maybe this year would be different because he had been looking forward to it so much.

Saturday he helped me Christmas shop all day and we got quite a bit done. Other than that we spent the week just playing, hanging out, watching Kung Fu Panda and Horton Hears a Who, and just enjoying our nephew to the fullest. Here is a picture of him playing a monkey and Jim being the tree.

And Mom, this is for you from Jayke!