Twas the Night Before Christmas...

And all through the house, the creatures were baking and wrapping....

 

How is it Christmas Eve already?  This year, despite a few set backs, we were going to do Christmas up right.  So our Christmas tree only lights up halfway this year (new tree is on the list for next year, insert sarcastic "yeaaa" here please)... Charlie Brown's Christmas tree wasn't perfect.  We know the meaning of Christmas.  And per Alex, its more important that our tree look pretty.  And by pretty, he told me it means "lots and lots of ornaments all close together everywhere".  Okay, check!

 

So the Christmas lights that are only put up on half the roof will not light up... Daddy tried really hard.  Who knew when he was breaking up the ice from the storm that the cord was under there?  And is now cut in half.  We can pretend that the Grinch came to our house and stole the lights...

 

So gosh darn it, we are fighting through.  And keeping up traditions we started when KK was a baby.  So first on our list for Christmas Eve traditions: baking cookies for Santa!  In our PJs!

 

KK decided to make Peanut Butter kiss cookies after having them over the weekend at a Christmas party.  She did a great job - and we have a TON of cookies.  I hope Santa is hungry.

 

After KK and I had our girl time together to bake, it was AJ's turn.  He chose to make my chocolate chip cookies, but with a twist: adding Ninja Turtle M&Ms to the tops.

Here is the real reason he wanted these cookies: Mommy raised him right, it's all about the cookie dough!  Yum!

But he was a hard worker, he made sure to place three M&Ms on each cookie.  Blue for Leo, Orange for Mikey, Red for Raph and Green for all turtles.  Ninja Turtle cookies - a first for our house.

They turned out great!

And just in time, our little cookie monster woke up from her nap to sample our hard work!

I think we passed the "quality control" test based on her smile and saying "yummmmm"!

 

Well after cookie tasting, it was time to get gussied up for Christmas Eve services at church.  It is official, somebody is big enough to demand quite loudly to be included in the big kids tub.  So she and her bubby (AJ) got to splash around together.

 

And after we are clean, we walk around the house saying "hellloooo" into the phone like a big girl!

 

 

And here we are - ready for church, dressed in our Christmas clothes and taking a quick picture for Mommy before we walk out the door.

So stinkin' cute!

Kins even started blowing us kisses during the pictures

I always ask to attempt a family picture - how often are we all so dressed up and happy?  You have to capture the moment.  Well Kins thought it was so silly that we were all yelling "CHEEESEE" into the camera and kept turning to see what in the world we were doing.

She decided she didn't like being turned to face the camera instead

So bribery with a candy cane did the trick and we got our family shot. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 

Since our church cannot accommodate everyone for Christmas Eve service, we go almost each year to a neighborhood service.  They do an amazing candlelight worship and the kids join us for "big church" as they call it.  This year we bumped it up a notch and let them hold the candles.  Note: no one was lit on fire.  I call that a success.

 

Little Miss Kins was pretty in awe of the pretty lights, but she didn't attempt to touch them.  She was way too happy being loose to walk around the aisle and show off to others how pretty she looked walking around in her little Christmas dress.  Never say our girl doesn't like attention hehe!

 

After church we headed home for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Another family tradition: Papa Murphy's pizza.  I know, nothing fancy.  But after baking all afternoon and knowing we have a long night ahead, we decided years ago to take it easy on ourselves so we can enjoy the evening more.  Less pressure, more time to enjoy the fun and magic of the Night before Christmas :-)

 

And since we just couldn't wait a second longer, while our pizza was baking in the oven, we decided to do the next tradition: our Christmas Eve ornament exchange.  Each year my hubby and I find an ornament that reminds us of something big the kids did that year or were really into that year.  We love opening the ornaments when we decorate our tree and telling the kids over and over again why we chose certain ones and how old they were when they received them.

No surprise this year - AJ got a Ninja Turtle ornament!  He love it!

KK was screaming in excitement when she opened her Taylor Swift guitar that plays a full song - to commemorate her first major concert she went to this year and her passion for music that she seemed to discover even more this year.  She is definitely our Christmas spirit/cheerleader this year.  No matter what we are doing, she is requesting Christmas music be turned on or else she will just start singing Christmas songs out loud.  (this is also comical as she usually only gets about three lines in and then the words starting getting fudged a bit haha)!

Kins got a picture frame ornament with a big 2 on it as this is her 2nd Christmas.

Daddy surprised me with a heart ornament that says Christmas 2013 :-)

And we got Daddy the next ornament in the series he is collecting that has Santa's Sweet Rides... this year a dump truck made of candy.

 

This year was the first year the kids drew names to buy each other gifts.  They were so excited to go shopping for one another and we even managed to keep AJ from spilling the beans to KK about everything.

KK did great and found AJ a practically life size Ninja Turtle stuff animal to snuggle with - Mickey his favorite!  I can report this turtle has not left his side since he opened him!

This year KK had a school gift store and purchased me and Daddy a few special items all by herself.  Daddy got a magnet that says "Daddy of the Year".

AJ got Kins a fun little baby camera.  Kins was so smart and got KK an earring holder and some soccer ball earrings.  They did a great job giving gifts to one another!  Definitely a tradition we will keep on doing each year from now on.

KK also surprised me with some sweet gifts from her school store.  I got a #1 Mommy bookmark and a "Jesus Cares" keychain.  Love this girl!

Here is Kins waving bye bye - time for PJ's, pizza and a few more Christmas Eve traditions as we await Santa's arrival.

 

So sprinkling reindeer food on the front lawn was step 1 after a yummy pizza dinner.  We want to make sure Rudolph can find our house and have something to eat.

 

After dancing, I mean sprinkling our food, we loaded up in the car and went to look at Christmas lights.  This year I found a fun scavenger hunt for us to do as we drove around, searching for Frosty or Rudolph as we listen to Christmas tunes. 

 

Then it was time to come home and get the house ready for the man in the suit!  The kids were in charge of preparing the tray for Santa and the Reindeer.  They did a great job:

 

Then it was time for stories.  First the Nativity store from our storybook Bible, then it's into bed we go and Daddy reads "The Night Before Christmas"...

 

 

After hugs and kisses and a quick search on the Santa Tracker to see where the big man was (he was in Brazil when we finally got tucked into bed), it was time to go to sleep.

 

Well for the kids.  Mommy and Daddy still had several hours of work to do to get everything ready before Santa arrived!

 

So from our house to yours: Merry Christmas to Y'All and to Y'All a Good Night!

Flynn-nanigans

So every December 1st our morning wake up routines are transformed.  Children whining about getting out of warm beds disappear.  In their place are new children who are giggling and laughing.  Children who jump out of bed before their alarms and race around the house.  They race around the house in a mad search for a tiny little elf.  A tiny little elf we named Flynn (yes, after Flynn Rider in Tangled - that is what happens when you get an elf the same week you see a Disney movie).

 

So this year was no different: Flynn arrived with bells and whistles.  Well, actually two little messages for three little beings that were already on the verge of the ~GASP~ naughty list and talking a little too much about gifts under the tree at this point in the season.

 

Our first message was simple and sweet - I love you! 

Our second message was a letter that Flynn had brought directly from the Big Guy, a.k.a. Santa Claus.  Yes, he did spell his name wrong on his own letterhead above.  He is a very tired man who stays up too late doing things like this when he should be in bed.  But the message was clear to both my little ones: as exciting as a visit from Santa is and as much fun as we have with Flynn, we should always remember and be thankful for the real gift we celebrate.  The birth of our Savior!  Thank you Santa for the reminder.

Day 2 of the Flynn hunt was easy to find - he chose to celebrate KK's birthday by attaching himself to a balloon in her room.  He also gave her a gift: a Lego Friends advent calendar. 

 

And to be fair, he tied some ribbon from KK's room to AJ's room and gave AJ a Star Wars advent calendar too!  AJ thought getting a gift on his sister's birthday was very sweet!

 

The following days were a little crazy around the house - Flynn did his job of hiding in different rooms and making the kids work for finding him.  Then one weekend the Great Ice Storm of 2013 hit our home.  And that's when Flynn decided that we needed something to do that was fun:

 

Message received Flynn - we invited over our sweet neighbors and decorated some cookies!

Kins couldn't wait to eat one....

The group of cookie decorators!

 

She thought they were awesome!

 

Well the next weekend was KK's big birthday party.  I guess Flynn felt like he should have a party too... 

Because he decided to take over KK's doll house and invited every friend he could think of.  He decorated with streamers and even stole one of KK's cupcakes and a candle for himself.  It looked like quite the par-tay!

That wasn't the end of Flynn's antics... 

One night he decided they should have no stockings for treats - instead we woke up and found the kids underwear on the mantle...

This provided us with a lot of giggling - and a little concern about our stockings being returned in time for Christmas eve.  Whew!  Good thing Flynn decided to bring them back the next day.

 

But he wasn't done yet .... He got into Daddy's shaving cream and got a little messy...

But I think he was telling the kids to be nice to one another... at least I think that's what he was saying :-)

Later this month, AJ got a bad cold and was in bed sleeping for two days.  Flynn was so upset by this that he too put himself to bed on AJ's nightstand.

Tissues, Vicks, a band aid on his head for his headache just like AJ had... sleeping on a heating pad and covered in blankets.  Poor Flynn!

 

But don't feel too bad for him.  A few nights later he was not only his old self, he was feeling a bit feisty again.  KK lost yet another tooth this month.  She placed her tooth under her pillow and was awaiting the tooth fairy's return with some gold coins and of course the cloud of glitter that the tooth fairy always leaves when she lands in our house....

Flynn apparently knows the Tooth Fairy quite well - we awoke to him covered in red lipstick kisses on his face, fairy glitter all over him and the two gold coins that never quite made it to KK's bed.  Seems the tooth fairy got a bit distracted when she arrived... naughty little elf!

This of course, got even more giggles than the underwear episode.

I guess the closer Christmas got, the feistier Flynn decided to get.  We woke up another morning to our Santa pictures getting a touch up - KK and AJ were turned into puppies and Kins a bee.

And Flynn even added himself on Santa's lap... AJ was not amused, he was actually pretty upset with Mr. Flynn and told him not to do that again.

 

Sadly the antics just got worse in the home stretch before Santa's arrival.  We almost tripped over Flynn and his friends one morning as they hadn't finished their races before the sunrise.

Apparently he found a few fast friends and were racing down the hallway all night long...

Using the snowmen and some ribbon for the finish line!

 

But please, it didn't even stop there!  Oh no, he decided to practice his backup career as a circus performer the next night...

He might have learned his lesson as an elf dangling over a living room where a little boy with a ninja sword plays is not a safe place to be... as you can see by the end of the day he was dangling by a leg and probably needed a body cast!

 

The last night the kids were dying to see what Flynn could possible do before he left us for another 11 months.  Seems he knew we were doing some baking the next day for Santa...

 

An elf-angel in flour

 

A snowball fight with a snowman

 

And a note from our sweet elf telling us goodbye and to be good.. with a few chocolate kisses to ease the sadness of him leaving.

 

With an extra note in the "snow" saying "I love you" and a surprise on their doors when they woke up that morning:

 

So goodbye Flynn the Elf - tonight he rides off with Santa to the North Pole. 

 

 

And after the Christmas morning cheer, after the presents are opened, after Christmas day... those kids who don't want to leave their warm beds in the mornings will return.  Morning giggles will be replaced with moans that it is too cold to get up or too dark outside to be morning.  And as 11 months is too long to count down, instead this Mommy will just choose to remember the laughs we had together, the wake up calls from children demanding help finding Flynn or rushing in to tell us of his latest escapes in loud excited voices with little hands pulling on us to get up and see for ourselves.  The excitement of Christmas that woke us up each day for a month.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Sweet dreams Y'all!