Elf on the Shelf & Christmas Eve/Day

 We had a "unique" Elf on the Shelf for the first time.  Most of the time, he was nice & not naughty.

 It was fun to see what the elf would do each day after he had reported to Santa back at the North Pole.

 Drinking milk on the lazy susan.

 Drinking syrup & eating candy, candy corn & candy canes (he loves the movie "Elf")

 going fishing--with the bowl of goldfish crackers Ben left on the table.

 making snow angels in a bunch of sugar.  By the evening, Benjamin had "licked" with his finger a lot of the sugar.  Next time the elf should make angels in salt.

 naughty--t.p the antelope skull (2 days until Christmas)

 The elf (who the kids named Bob the builder elf) took our baby Jesus from the Christmas tree for a day--looking down on the baby Jesus.

The elf turned Rusty's deer into Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

 Emmalee's present from Zane.  The kids' draw sibling names for their "secret Santa" gift that they get to open on Christmas eve.  And the gift(s) have to be hand/homemade 

 Brienna baked brownies for Callum, Ben colored "I Love Zane" w/a photo of him & Zane for Zane, Callum made the awesome giant snowflake for Brienna.

 Emmalee's holding the "Emmalee" poem & "E" from Zane & Ben loves the sock monkey that Emmalee made at school for him.

 The stockings all filled & presents from Santa.

 So many presents they all don't fit under the tree.

 Brienna Christmas morning.

 I love watching the excitement of little ones on Christmas morning.  Benjamin was so excited about everything.

 Emmalee seeing what was in her in stocking.

 The beginning of the "Christmas morning mess"

Emmalee & Zane opening presents.

 Callum

 Dad is just as excited as the two little ones.

 a good view of our "Christmas morning mess"

 Benjamin loved playing in the paper all over the floor.  He loved showing Grandpa Stewart what he got for Christmas

 The view from our house Christmas morning--all the trees were frosted.

Playing with the cool light sabers from Aunt Pamela.

Polar Express, Cookies & Gifts

 The elementary school did the "Polar Express" play for Christmas.

 Emmalee really wanted to be a reindeer--and so she was excited when she got the part.

 The cutest reindeer ever!

 Emmalee is pulling Santa's sleigh.

 She ended up being behind a few kids, so I didn't get very many good pictures of her.

 Santa came to visit after the play.

 I love this picture of Benjamin whispering what he wants to Santa--and how Santa looks like he is really concentrating on deciphering the message.

 Emmalee waiting in line to see Santa.

 She was quite honest and told Santa that she has been both naughty and nice.

 What Benjamin made for his classmates

 What we gave to the teachers, aids, and some friends.

 Emmalee's presents to her classmates.

She took them to class in the box.

 Present for some of the teachers.

 Making sugar cookies

 and gingerbread men.

 I couldn't find the container of cookie cutters.  Luckily, I have a couple that I keep in my drawer year-round, and I picked up 4 new cookie cutters on sale at Seagull Book.

 Decorating the cookies

 and putting them on the plates to give to friends and neighbors.

 Emmalee's Santa cookie.

Eating cookies 

More Dec. Recap--Part 4

 Emmalee made a mustache & beard for her.  Cute!

 Benjamin loved to play with the Little People nativity set & arrange (and re-arrange the people).

 Rudolph, the red-nosed Benjamin.

 More nativity play

 Benjamin's Christmas party/program.

The kids were so cute singing their songs & saying their Christmas poem. 

 This was his "smile-for-the-camera" face

 Santa came and visited them.

 Linking their arms and singing, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

 His "smile" face!

 Emmalee's Christmas party.

It was pajama day at school, so everyone was in jammies. 

Benjamin standing by some toilet paper left by the class elf. 

Making ice cream cone trees with frosting. 

 

Emmalee likes having Benjamin come to her parties.

Happy New Year--First Post of 2013

We spent New Year's Eve & day at my sister's, Pamela, house in Wyoming.

 We rang in the new year with the east coast--Benjamin thought it was awesome to be able to make so much noise (he won the hand-clapper at white-elephant bingo at Grandma & Grandpa's).

 More noise (we saved the packing air pockets from Christmas)

 

 Benjamin hanging out with Thing 1 & Thing 2 & big & little The Cat in the Hats.

 the kids wrote Ben's name out of Aunt Pamela's ducks.

School started on Monday (the 7th).  Brienna shut the passenger door on our van...

 and the rear windshield shattered.  So on Tuesday I called to find out how much it would cost to replace.  

January & February always seem to be a bit of a struggle for us financially--and it also seems that is the time when additional expenses pile up.  Wednesday I loaded the dishwasher & tried to start it with no luck.  So Rusty tried--and said that his "surprise" repair a year ago (see post here) finally gave out & hopes to look at it in the near future.

And then on Thursday morning I woke up to the sounds of Rusty throwing up--and calling for a sub.  He has to be quite sick to call for a sub.  He felt like the world was spinning unless he was laying down.  Thankfully he didn't throw up again, but he has laid around all day Thurs. & Friday.

 Benjamin learns about a new letter of the alphabet each week at pre-school.  This week was "R"--so they made robot (or Ben-bot) costumes.

 Emmalee immediately wanted to make one too after seeing Benjamin with his.

And both of them decided to vacuum the couch after they took the cushions off to play "sapce" robots (jump from cushion to cushion & not touch the floor).  It was extremely dirty--so they had a blast cleaning it!

Today was spent in town getting the van's window replaced, shopping & having Brienna's foot x-ray-ed again.  The good news is the break/fracture doesn't look any worse--but the bad news is it doesn't look any better either.  So it's another few weeks of wearing the walking boot before we get another x-ray.  Dr. Baker wanted to know how she was feeling & was surprised that it doesn't hurt/bother her at all.