Over the winter break, I'll be starting a North Orange County study group, so we'll be meeting each week to dictionary crawl and do other activities to build our vocabulary and knowledge in the language. I also plan on attending small group ASL lessons through a private Deaf teacher during the month of January. I hope to attend at least one workshop and go to as many Deaf events as possible. This past semester I realized my biggest weakness is my lack of lexicon. There's really only so much vocabulary I learn in class, and the rest I have to learn on my own. I'm getting the hang of ASL grammar, but without enough vocabulary to back it, I really struggle. So I'm hoping that with all I plan to do over the break, I can hit the ground running come spring semester.
On to other news, Brian has reached the age where the Christmas season is truly magical. It pretty much started the evening of Halloween, as I was tucking Brian into bed. He asked me, "Halloween is over, now it's Christmas?" He had seen the Christmas decorations already coming out, and I kept telling him that we had to have Halloween first. I didn't want to cut in front of Thanksgiving, but Brian's exuberance for all things Christmas just overflowed into our day to day interactions and we've been enjoying Christmas songs, sounds, smells, tastes and sights much earlier than I anticipated. Instead of the usual "bah humbug" that I feel in November, I've embraced Brian's enthusiasm and truly enjoyed seeing the excitement in Brian.
Some of the fun Christmas-y things we enjoy include Knott's Merry Farm, Disneyland all decked out (we have passes now!), singing along to Christmas songs in the car, watching A Charlie Brown Christmas almost every single day, reading Christmas stories, and just recently visiting Santa in the mall.
I wish I had been allowed to record Brian's visit with Santa. It was so magical that you could have convinced me that Santa was real. We went to Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza and there was literally no line, which meant quality time with the Big Red Man. Brian ran up and gave him a hug, talked to him about all things Christmas, and started singing Jingle Bells. Santa joined in with his big jolly deep voice and they sang together. It was one of those moments where you try to just be present, enjoy and sear it into your memory. I wasn't planning on taking or buying pictures because I hadn't dressed Brian up and I didn't want to pay money that day, but the photographer did snap a picture mid-conversation (I think when Brian excitedly exclaimed that he wanted "EVERYTHING!" for Christmas) that I had to buy the picture. It was just a perfect visit.
He also dictated a letter for me to write to Santa. We didn't write it until after his visit with Santa, so we didn't read it to Santa. Probably a good thing because it's really random and some things don't make much sense. He's got a few Charlie Brown references in there ("holiday feast," "holding hands under the table" and "kicking the football") and he's also got some random 3-year old silliness ("I want you to go down the water bottle" <- he thought that was the funniest thing. Weird kid.)
It's only December 6th, but we've been enjoying the Christmas season for awhile now. I'm glad that my semester is over and I can be more present with my family. Hieu and I are hoping to enjoy some more date nights and quality time together. I still plan on studying hard over the break, but the stress of assignments and tests are over for now, and what a gift that is.
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