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Jolly Elves

A Merry, Magical Christmas to all of you from all of us. Be well, my friends, and I'll see you back here after the festivities.

(Also, a special Happy Birthday is in order for the kiddos' Auntie Alix! Enjoy your day, Alix. We'll see you soon!)

Gifts: Exchanged.

Oh, we had fun...

Busy Little Elf

Ms. Eva has embraced the role of gift giver this year...I think mainly because it means she gets to wrap lots of presents. Wow, does she love the wrapping. Eva's perfected an original "squash and tape" method for folding in all the paper edges, and that, combined with her preference for a "no box" approach to wrapping, has made for an interesting gift landscape under our tree this year. There are flaps and poofs and funny sticking-out edges all crammed in there together, and everthing's wrapped up tight with curly ribbon and topped with at least a couple bows. She frequently needs to use extra gift tags because her (awesome) new-writer letters don't quite fit in the tiny To and From spaces on those little tags.

Because we travel each year on Christmas, our little family exchanges gifts on solstice evening...and tonight's the night! Together we'll settle in among all those (wonderfully) imperfectly wrapped gifts, snuggle each other close, and revel in how very blessed we are.

Happy Winter Solstice to you and yours. On this darkest day of the year, I wish you warmth and light...and some lovingly wrapped gifts of your own!

Creating Traditions

For the past few years, Mike and I have chosen a night to surprise the kids with a nighttime drive to look at the holiday lights around our town. After dinner, we announce our surprise, bundle them up in their jammies and coats, tuck them into the warm car with a cup of hot chocolate, tune in the Christmas music, and head out in search of the best lights displays we can find. 

This year, that night happened to be Friday night, and it was by far our best trip yet. Eva was so excited, she kept yelling out "Mama! Mama! There's going to be a beautiful one out your window! Look Mama, it's coming!" (Or some variation of that.) She took great care to show Sully all the sparkly lights out his window too, and she gave us play-by-play updates on how much hot chocolate she had left in her cup. Even Sully got into it, imitating his sister and pointing and squealing whenever he saw a twinkling tree or lit up house.

I'm pretty sure this is one tradition our family will look forward to year after year after year.

A Christmas Miracle!

Both kids. Sitting together. Looking semi-pleased to be there. Do you know how long I've been trying to take a picture, ANY picture, where they're both in the frame, looking toward the camera? About 4 months.Yep.

Apparently, the key is putting Sully up high in a chair so he can't run away so quickly. Now. To work on the smiles...

Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend!

Snowflakes, the Jingle Kitty:

(Apparently, that's her full name. You can call her Snowflakes if you'd like.)

Teaching her brother how to play Chutes and Ladders:

Seriously?

I walked into the kitchen yesterday morning to find this happening:

Just when I think our house may actually be more or less Sully-proofed, he finds new territory to explore. I should mention that he opened the dishwasher himself.

I. Can. Not. Keep. Up.

Twenty-Two Inches.

Well, we had a blizzard this weekend.

That's our house and yard with nearly two feet of snow on it. Luckily, our wonderful neighbor came over with his snowblower and helped us cut through that gigantic snowbank. I love people.

Look closely, and you'll see one of our poor sweet boulevard trees, buried in snow up to its branches.

Sully-man was not allowed to go outside with his sister and daddy during the storm, so he kept an eye on things from inside with me (which was smart, because that's where the hot cocoa is kept.)

He got to go out the next day, though, and he began his training as a Wisconsin snow shoveler.

This one mostly rolled around in the snowbanks. Good thing she's cute.

Yep. twenty-two inches of snow. A record in our neck of the woods! And it sure made for one cozy, slow-down, remember-what's-important weekend.

I hope yours was just as lovely.

Chaos.

I thought I'd take a picture of the kids in front of our Christmas tree.

Heh.
Ha Ha. (snort)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Hoo!

Ahem. Sorry about that. Excuse me.

This is the best one. At least they're both smiling.

Happy weekend, all!