December!!

Hanging up the last ornament!

It's December.  December!!  How did that happen?  The tree is up, the decorations are up, and Sam thinks it's Christmas....like the actual day.  As soon as the tree was up and I brought out wrapped presents to put underneath, he immediately ripped into them.  I caught him in time but then had a 10 minute argument with my darling 3 year old that it wasn't Christmas Day and that he had to wait nearly 4 weeks before he could open presents.  That did not go over well.  He's come to terms with it now, or has at least been distracted by his advent calendar goodies and Jingle, the Elf on the Shelf who is here as a spy from the North Pole.  If you are unfamiliar with the Elf on the Shelf, he's a stuffed elf who shows up after Thanksgiving to watch and make sure you're being a good little boy or girl.  Then he flies back to the North Pole each night and reports to Santa Claus.  Each morning until Christmas he is back, and in a new place....usually doing something funny.  Parents have been doing Elf on the Shelf for years and years, but this is our first year.  And I love it!!!  We got our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, and after getting it up in the stand, Jingle appeared on a branch with a letter from Santa explaining his arrival.  Sam didn't really understand at first, but the next morning when Jingles was perched up on the ledge of the loft spelling out Sam's name in letter blocks, Sam decided he was an alright guy.  I'll add some pictures so you can see some of the places Jingle has been.  One thing you have to do when your Elf on the Shelf first arrives is name him.  It took us a while to get Sam to agree with a nice Christmas-y name.  He really wanted Stinky Pants....

We've had some fairly decent weather the last month, allowing us to get out and do some hiking on the weekends.  We've had a few days of snow which was a big deal with the little ones.  The kids even managed to build a snowman in the backyard.  They put a cowboy hat on his head and named him Tex.  Unfortunately for Tex, the next few days were warm and rainy, and he was nothing more than a soggy hat by day 3.  I'm hoping for a white Christmas, so the temperature needs to drop just a bit.  Our friend Sandra is flying in to spend Christmas with us, and since she's coming from Russian Mission where it's been below zero for the last few months and she has to trudge through feet of snow every day to get to work, I think she'd welcome the rain.

Sam wasn't too happy to see Jingle eating his candy.

We spent Thanksgiving home alone this year.  We were invited over to Joe's principal Ben's house again this year (like last year) and agreed to go, but were asked a few days later if we could change the day to Friday since Ben wanted to go hunting Thanksgiving day. He figured all the other hunters would be home with their families on Thanksgiving, so he'd have all the deer to himself.  So we stayed home, I cooked the whole shebang, and we just enjoyed our time with each other.  Sam shared with us what he's thankful for (His mommy, because she kisses him all the time.  His daddy because he plays with him.  His brother Hen because he is his best friend.  His school because he loves snack time.  And our thanksgiving dinner, because he really likes mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, but not gravy because he really doesn't like gravy, and maybe we could heat up some chicken nuggets or a hot dog instead of turkey because he would really like that better....and so on and so on.)  On Friday we went over to Ben and his wife Maggie's house where Sam played with their two boys and Henry pulled all of the toys out of the toy box and spread them out all over the living room before deciding he didn't want to play with any of them.  Good times.

Our trip to California in March is talked about daily.  Sam can't wait to go to Disneyland and swim in Auntie Di's pool.  I told him it probably wouldn't be warm enough, but he assured me it will be.  We bought the Disneyland Sing-Along DVD and have watched it at least twice a day for the last month.  It was made in 1990, so the clothes and hairstyles are pretty awesome.  Joe and I thought maybe we should dress like the people in the video when we go, so keep your eyes out for stirrup pants, white Levi's, and fanny packs.  For the last 4 days Sam hasn't been able to find the Disneyland DVD.  I don't know if it's actually lost, or if Joe just made it disappear for a while.  I don't know how many more rounds of "Walking Down Mainstreet USA" or "The Great Outdoors" I could handle before I just canceled the trip all together.  It's probably best that the DVD is gone.

We finally, after 2 1/2 years, got internet at our house so it should be way easier for me to blog again.  I'll try to post again before Christmas.  We love you all and miss you!

He wasn't ready to say goodbye to the pumpkins.

Nice and tidy...and sam with a bucket on his head.

Apparently Bode likes carrots.

Thanksgiving morning

Henry loves taking selfies.

Dress up with his best girl

Playing legos

The kids' Thankful turkey

Thank you Amazon, for days and days of entertainment.

Bode thinks we brought the teepee out just for him.

Driving out to the end of the road.

Hiker buddies.

A few pictures from our family photoshoot.