Elf on a Shelf

Jenn ordered an Elf on a Shelf the other day. The elf arrives sometime before Christmas Eve and stays with our family and observes the children's behaivor. This behavior is reported every night back to Santa.

It is an activity for the entire family. It is based on the tradition Carol Aebersold began with her family in the 1970s. It includes a cleverly rhymed children's book that explains that Santa knows who is naughty and/or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. The elf watches the children's behavior and reports it back to Santa each night. By morning the elf returns to its assigned home and hides in a different location, allowing the children to play a delightful hide-and-seek game.

It comes with its very own elf doll enabling others to begin this fun-filled Christmas tradition themselves. The Elf on the Shelf includes a hardbound children's book, a vintage-like pixie elf doll, and a certificate commemorating the adoption of the elf by our family. It also includes a keepsake box for storage (yay! so we can use it again and again).

I cannot wait to get it and see what the boys think!

My nephew...

is just a cutie-patootie! He will be 2 in March! I cannot believe how fast he is growing up. My sister and nephew came up from Dallas to my parents house and spent several days, while my BIL was out hunting.

My cousin, her husband and 4 children also came, so it was crazy-wild with kids! But it was so much fun. My grandfather seemed to really love having all the little kids running around the house, playing and being wild! All the boys sat down with me and watched Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Even T, the little 3 year old. He was all about E and followed him around all day long. It was so cute!

E decided he wanted to stay with Nonnie and Pop for a couple of nights, so I ran to the store to get a few things and while I was there, picked up a TON of clearance items for all the kids. E had taken his iDog and J was fascinated by it and I found him one, too. He was so excited when he got it! I was glad.

Christmas Boots!

We were in Chickasha on Sunday, to see IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE at the Community Theatre. While we were there, my dad took the boys down to Hick's and bought them each a new pair of boots for Christmas. K got John Deere boots that are green on top and brown/tan on bottom. E got some that are similar, but they don't have the rubber soles. They look just like grown-up boots and are blue on top and brown on bottom (like K's but blue). They think they are pretty awesome in their boots!

E is so proud of his. He has worn them NONSTOP since he got them! I was afraid he would want to sleep in them. He did last year, when he got some! But luckily, he took them off before bed!

My Crazy Kids

They are singing and dancing in the back room.... "shake, shake, hula"... I guess it is something they made up?! LMAO It is so cute and funny.

They had a great Christmas. They got their Moon Sand that they wanted so much and about a million other things. They got a Cars bedspread for the bed in their toy room and a Cars table and chairs for that room, too. It is crazy messy, though, since they have been playing NONSTOP in there!

It was a great Christmas. I cannot wait to go to Home Depot and look at flooring and paint! Also, we are going furniture shopping (again)!! Gotta love the holidays!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas at our house. Jenn's mom spent Christmas Eve with us and she and the boys put out reindeer food and cookies and soy milk for Santa. We had a little "suprise" when looking at the fireplace, as there was a squirrel in there and Jenn screamed and ran! LOL

We went to my parents Christmas day and had fun, then K went to his dad's and we went to Sonya and Chuck's house for dinner. It was just a very nice weekend.

Office Party

Well, our office party is today at noon. We all brought food to eat and gifts to exchange. We did a 'secret santa'. No one is feeling like working today! We all have next week off (paid - yay)! I am so glad. I know I just took vacation a few weeks ago, but I got spoiled being home with Jenn and the boys and miss it already!

It would be nice to figure out how to work from home. I wish that were a possibility. I just don't know what I would do?! I have thought about it and thought about it, but I just cannot come up with any kind of business that I could start. I really don't even mind if I could find a part time job somewhere, as long as it paid as much as I am making now.

On top of all that, I called my friend who is a contractor to come over to the house next week sometime to see about giving us an estimate on the things we need fixed/changed. I am looking forward to that!

Christmas time is here....

I am so excited for Christmas. I cannot wait for the boys to open their presents and to see all their cousins and play and have fun and be silly! We have spent a couple of evenings driving around town looking at lights and one night last week the boys and I made a gingerbread house.I have our house decorated in lights and the tree is up and the boys decorated it themselves! We have family coming in on Saturday and will be back and forth to my parents house on Saturday and Monday and Wednesday and who all knows how much!

Happy Feet

Well, we finally made it to the theater and took the boys and Maggie to see HAPPY FEET and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. The boys loved all the songs and dancing and were singing and dancing along in the theater. It was so cute!Jenn and I really enjoyed it, too. The cast was great. I was really impressed. We still haven't made it to see FLUSHED AWAY yet, either. I want to do that over Winter Break.We spent the weekend watching Christmas movies on tv. We watched THE GRINCH and CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and one about Rudolph saving the new year baby. I don't recall the name. It has been fun to watch all the Christmas favorites.

Ready for Christmas

Jenn and I sat in the living room and wrapped presents for several hours last night after the boys went to bed. It was so great to put them under the tree and not see that bare little tree anymore. We still have some more things to wrap up, but we got a really good start. We wrapped all the kids gifts (except the boys) and got my families stuff finished. We still have a couple of things to buy this weekend, but then we are finished! She talked me into letting her open her gift early. It wasn't all that hard, since I was wanting her to see it and make sure she liked it. She does! :) I got her an anniversary band. She has been wanting something more dainty and feminine than the rings we got this summer. I am just glad that I did ok. *whew* LOL

Hangin' with my boy

We are home alone tonight and just hanging out in my room, watching Sponge Bob and talking about Ninja Turtles. He really wants to play his TMNT Xbox game, but our XBOX is broken. I am hoping to have it fixed for Christmas. I miss playing it too. Also, I bought both the boys an xbox game (several months ago) for Christmas and now they are useless, unless I get it fixed!I have been meaning to Google about xbox repair. I know what is wrong with it. There is a straw inside it and now the door won't open! I would love to blame it on the boys, but it is all my fault!

Productive Weekend

I spent the weekend cleaning out the garage! OMG! What a crazy day. Our garage is crazy and full of all kinds of stuff. Jenn's mom is keeping some things here, Jenn has stuff from when she moved here in Feb, and I still have all kinds of stuff from moving here four years ago! Crazy, I know. But... one of the best things, is that I got rid of junk, shifted boxes and furniture around, to make enough room for Jenn to have one of the stalls for parking! Wow! What a thought... parking a CAR in a garage! LOL

The garage door has been broken, but I spent an hour messing with it and rigging it up and it works now, so she won't have to run kids through snow or rain to the car to take and pick up from school and the like. I am so glad that I got that done. That was my biggest goal of the weekend.

I replaced light bulbs around the house and now we have light! What a thought! Hehe. (The porch light, garage door lights, back porch light and bulbs in the boys rooms all went out this week!) I got the living room and den re-arranged and the tree is pretty much finished.

The boys picked up their room and their toy room. I vacuumed and did a little laundry. Jenn did the dishes and worked on her Algebra homework, took a quiz and did the review. She has a final this week. ugh I was really proud of her, though. She figured it out all by herself. She is rockin' as a student!

Tomorrow I am going to start hanging the lights on the house. I cannnot wait. They are the lights with the screw in bulbs. I think they are going to look awesome!

Awesome Project

My friend told me about this really great project - marble magnets! They sound really amazing! I cannot wait to get some supplies and the kids and I (and Jenn if she wants!) can make some marble magnets for Christmas presents, maybe?

I thought they were so adorable and all it takes is some glue, some magazine cutouts, a magnet and a marble! How awesome is that?

Spending

Ugh. Just thinking about the holiday season is giving me stress. Every time the boys see a toy commercial it's "I want that!". I hate how the holiday season has just turned into a big money suck and is more about presents than spending time with family.

I seriously do not have more than a couple hundred to spend on Christmas this year and it is just going to have to do and I hate feeling guilty about it or upset that people might feel slighted. How crazy is that!?

I also want to go to Sears or Penny's and get the boys pictures made soon. Cards with pictures are what this year's gifts are all about! :)

Christmas is coming!

I cannot believe Christmas is almost here. Not only am I giddy as a child with all the snow and holiday festivities, but I am intoxicated by my lady-love. She is everything I have ever dreamed of. I am so happy to wake up next to her each morning and end my day by curling up next to her. Life is perfect.

Freezing!

Ok... I am freezing my ass off at Northpark Mall at the ridiculous Oklahoma County CASA "reindeer store". I have been here since 10 am and have about 45 minutes left until I can leave. It sucks. At least my Dayquil has kicked in, so I am not totally miserable... and of course, thank the gods that i have wifi or I would be dying. Only one person has stopped in, and they looked around for about 30 seconds and left. They are overpriced, wooden reindeer that no one wants. I was half-way thinking that it would at least be interesting to sit and watch women across the hall at the lingerie shoppe, but oh no... it is all old ladies going in there and all their bras are white and beige. Ick... no fun.

Mostly the mall is full of "mall walkers"... young moms with strollers gossiping together as they walk, little old couples who hold hands and smile knowingly at each other. There are many older women who go next door to the tap dance classes. There are many grandmas with toddlers - which means I have sat and listened to the screaming of small children for several hours now. *rolling eyes*

I wanna go home.

I pick up M today - yay! I don't know what we are going to do for dinner. I swear, if I have to go to the grocery store AGAIN! I haven't really done well with getting things that I really need. Looks like it might be a sausage and eggs kind of night! I might start up the crock pot in the morning and make a pot of beans. It is so cold, everything sounds good.

I soooo need to be thinking of getting my house in order. The Christmas party I am hosting is in a week and a half. ugh! I really need to steam clean the entire house. Perhaps the kids and I can start getting everything put away in hopes that I can get it totally cleaned next week.
I am so dreading housework.

On the best note, my day started wonderfully as I woke up with my lady-love beside me. It is crazy to me, since I haven't ever really been a "spend the night" kinda girl, but I love it. I hate waking up alone anymore. I want to end and start each day curled up next to her.

Til next time....