Answer to "Is there a weight limit on Santa's sleigh?"

The answer is...no there isn't, well if there is then it at least covers pianos.

Yep we found a piano! yay! I was a little worried that we weren't going to be able to get one. I kept telling Brayden that Santa probably can't bring a piano, that it's a little too big for his sleigh. Brayden was okay with that and said that we'd just have to keep "looking at yardsales" for a used one. haha

But then every time he wrote a Christmas wish list or talked about what he wanted, it involved a piano first and foremost. He wrote a letter to Grandma Beki (did you get that letter by the way? I think he's waiting for a reply, because he was bummed out when he mailed the letter in the morning and came back in the afternoon to check the mailbox and there wasn't a reply from you yet. haha I had to explain how the mail system works. It's not instant like email!) ....anyway in the letter he wrote "I want a piano for Christmas. I want it so really bad."

I posted a want ad on Craigslist and thankfully some nice lady read it and emailed me. She had a used piano for $75...just fine working order, some marks on the outside but that can easily be taken care of with a touch-up. You can't beat $75 though! (well unless it was free, but we haven't had much luck with the free pianos listed on Craigslist...either too far away, or in too bad of shape and we don't know enough about pianos to be able to fix one or buy the parts to fix it)

SO...somehow Billy is going to go "pick up" the piano next weekend (any helpers? Pretty please?) and hide it in a garage until Christmas Eve when Brayden is sound asleep and we'll bring it into the house and set it up with a big red bow on it.
I can't wait to see his face!! I'll get pictures for sure. :)

We've been asking around about lessons too, and have a few names to call on. One lady, who's supposed to be really good, IF she has an opening (sounds like she's in high demand though) charges $50/month from what I hear. That sounds pretty fair? I don't know what lessons are supposed to cost, but Billy thinks that's really reasonable.
I just hope Brayden continues to be as enthusiastic and excited about the piano and learning to play the piano as he is now. Knowing his personality, I assume he will be. When he takes a liking to something, it usually sticks around. He never once got bored of soccer or complained about going to practices at all. He went through a craft/art phase awhile back and he STILL loves nothing more then to get out craft stuff and makes something, or to get out the markers and crayons and draw something. He'll literally be at it for hours even after his brothers get bored and leave to go do something else. He absorbs himself in things that really interest him.
So I hope this will be one of those things. :)

On other notes (I better wrap this up because it's already really long!), we ALSO got a Christmas tree!!!
Billy came home with one today and surprised us. It was in that $40 price range I said that I didn't want to spend on a tree...haha BUT I think it's worth it. I read an article in the local paper about a man who's dying of cancer and sells these trees that he gets from the west side of the mountains (aka the wet side) and brings back in a semi-truck. So it's very green and full of all of that wet side, errrr west side, rain. It's 6 ft tall and looks way better then our artificial tree we usually use.
I'd take a picture but it's naked right now....no ornaments or lights on it yet.

Tomorrow I'll post a picture of our tree. :)

~Bethany