December 16

Our annual Christmas dinner at Redeemer was tonight. Though we rehearsed this afternoon a Christmas song that's familiar to him, Hamilton chickened out when it came time to practice singing into a microphone on stage before the party started. He said he didn't want to sing his song in the entertainment portion of the night, so I didn't push it. He sings so sweetly at home; I was sad not to share his voice. But with all the kids on stage later in the night, he did enjoy singing "This Little Light of Mine" with his church friends. Here's a video of the last verse.

Hamilton's perspective

The boys and I visited the mall Thursday to run an errand (and let them play in the play area). Santa was already set up and accepting lap-sitters, and all the trees and wreaths were decorated to the full. We walked into the mall and Hamilton exclaimed, "It's getting very 'Chris-me' in here!" He then said that exact phrase a dozen more times for the two hours we spent playing, eating, and shopping in the mall.

Mr. Morgan captured a cute video of Hamilton talking about a big storm we had last week. Hamilton employs his usual storytelling tactic of inserting random bits of information, repeating favorite sounds and words, and talking incessantly in one long run-on sentence.