Countdown to Christmas: Hug a Tree

Week three of the super fun and exhausting holiday season is over!  I feel like I'm on a runaway train speeding towards Christmas and the breaks are out.  I'm looking forward to the Kindergarten holiday parties being over and Christmas break beginning.

 Our elves have been a little subdued this week.  I think they are anxious to go home and sleep in their own beds.  

They had a great time zip lining across the living room.

Mallory was thrilled to find out that she'd been invited to a classmate's house for a Gingerbread Decorating Party!  They spent a couple of hours eating pizza and attaching candy to adorable little houses.  Later that night, Mallory would awaken at 2am with a horrible stomach ache because she hid her house in her room and then ate half the candy off from it.

Saturday morning, we found the elves hiding place pretty quickly.  They needed to spend some time with Jesus.  I completely understood.

What a friend we have in Jesus!

I had big plans for Saturday night!  I drove to almost Kansas to a Christmas Party with some of my best internet friends....many that I'd never met before.  We exchanged cookies and had a white elephant exchange.  You have not fully experienced a white elephant gift exchange until you've stolen a sonor g-spot detector (if you don't know what I'm referring to...email me) and then had it stolen from you and ended up with a sweet cinnamon candle with Penguins on top of it.  This did actually work out to my advantage because iKeith collects Penguins and now I have one less present to buy him.  Click here for my Cherry Tassie recipe.

Boobs and Crack

Sunday, we decided to finally get our Christmas Tree!  We found an adorable little lot in a putt putt gold course that is closed for the winter.  It was interesting to stumble around the course (i kept tripping on the raised surfaces) and find the perfect tree.  I loved it so much....I hugged it.

I got great mail this week!  My BFF Jessica sent me a present of some of her favorite things.  I think I'll call her White Oprah.  

The kids woke up this morning to find total shenanigans!  The elves got tangled in the tree AND got into the pantry and laid out a bunch of pop tarts for the kids breakfast.

What did your elves do this week?

Countdown to Christmas: Chocolate Festival

I'm joining Liz from Sugarplum Creations every week to recap what my crazy little elves have been up to AND share what we've been doing for the holidays.  My kids have now spent a ridiculous amount of time learning about Hanukkah and Kwanza so I hope this week they get to learn about SANTA!



We had a super fun week that started out with Vincent and Poe bringing the Christmas Jammies! This was the day that I found out that Alex actually hates sock monkeys and that the decal is too scratchy. For the record, Mallory loves her sock monkey jammies which is a huge relief after what happened a few years ago. (if you click on that link you will see that this is my 3rd year linking up with the amazing Liz)

Mallory is a budding fashion designer and talked to Poe all day about making her a dress.  It's obviously a BIG job for a little elf to make clothes so they did the next best thing.  Barbi is no longer naked!  I wish they would have made me a tin foil hat.

this is all iKeith's handywork. he even glued on bling!

Over the weekend, we were VERY busy!  We had the second annual LEGO Holiday House Building and watched Army lose to Navy for the 11th year in a row.

The next day was THE day I'd been waiting for!  The day of the Holiday Chocolate Festival at The Broadmoor in beautiful Colorado Springs.  I judged the cake competition and it was one of the most fun and interesting experiences of my life.  To read more about it click here.

The next few days, the elves were messing around in my kitchen.  They just love it in there!

My mixing bowl was full of broken candy canes.  I think they were trying to turn the mixer on with the hook part of the cane and they kept them breaking off.

I deeply regret leaving the flour out! What a mess!

We have another fun week planned and I'm sure there will be more shenanigans!

What did your elves do this week?  

Disclaimer:  Some Moms are getting a bad rap for using elves at Christmas.  This is starting to feel like another Working Mom vs. Stay at Home Mom situation and I really don't want to see it come to that.  The things my elves do....takes minimal time to set up, five to ten minutes to clean up and just requires a calendar and some great ideas to execute. My budget for the elves is $50 and this includes the jammies I buy every year.  Call me an overachiever if you'd like but I believe this is time well spent.

Countdown to Christmas: Crash Landing

Again this year, I'm joining the ex-pageant queen and baby making machine known as Liz at Sugar Plum Creations for her Countdown to Christmas!

This is where I will discuss all things Christmas and Elf related. But it's not all elf business. There are so many exciting things coming up on my calendar that I can hardly contain myself!

 

If you have a weekly wrap-up post you should link up with us.  I love seeing what other Mom's are doing with their families because it's the best way to steal get ideas.

The first idea I stole this year was from Jessica at I finally Did It!  She had let it slip that she was having a North Pole Breakfast so I decided to do that too.  Our elves crash landed into our home on December 1st.  Note to you Mommies that let your elves arrive after Thanksgiving...you are jumping the gun and setting yourself up for disaster.  You CAN NOT maintain the magic for more than 24 days.  It's a proven fact.

A little tip if you're using the Starbucks Frapachino containers for your breakfast.  Try to drink the coffee beverages a few days before so that you don't have to slam two of them the night before.  It makes for a long night.

A few hours after the elves arrived, Cindy Lou Hoo came to me with questions about a craft store we like to go to.  I thought the Christmas spirit had gripped her hard but it turns out that she was questioning a label she found on Poe's ass.

Damn Kindergarteners learning to READ!  I concocted an elaborate story about how some elves have their Mom's names sewn into their clothing because they can't carry drivers licenses and yes, Poe's Mom named JOANN is from Hudson Ohio. EDITED:  The kids now think that JOANN is Santa's girlfriend, which would make POE Santa's illegitimate son.

One dark and stormy night, they got into the tape and accidentally taped themselves to the entertainment center door.

Mallory soon decided that she was going to start writing to Poe because I told her that Santa emailed me and said that they had learned to read.  She has mastered the spelling of shenanigans.

According to my friend Christina, one bag of mini marshmallows doesn't fit in the sink.  If you put them in a hot tub on the stove...you can re-use the marshmallows and they don't get toothpaste on them.

I had been complaining about our lack of mantel for the third year in a row.  And wouldn't you know it....those elves heard me and solved our problem!  EDITED: I knew I was forgetting something.  See the pencil that Poe is holding?  He was eating it...because that's what elves do.  They EAT pencils.  Keith was kind enough to gnaw on it.  Totally his idea!

I could feel that the elves were going a little stir crazy....we've been having unseasonably warm temperatures and they love snow.  I just didn't know that they were going to go a little nuts!