Some of our Favorite things this Christmas season....hanging out by the fire at night, reading Christmas stories, watching Allie look at the tree ornaments, making the kids hot coco in their new metal coffee mugs, setting up my little green tray with a hot coco station and treats for the kids, and getting lots of Christmas goodies to munch on after school and at night.
Our elf "Clyde" came to us this year by way of a large garbage bag. He appeared on our porch and knocked on our door while we were decorating the tree. The boys were so excited to see him and have been having fun finding him each morning. Clyde puts goodies in their Advent house each morning. We did have our first "note" in the Advent house this year. After a difficult day with some not so good behavior Clyde left a note that said, "Listening ears and respectful behavior will get you treats in this house. Have a great day kids." Now this was not so easy for "Clyde" to do, but he really wanted to get the point across that we need to listen and act kindly. Hopefully we won't get anymore notes. I love seeing the excitement in the boys. Andrew loves telling his friends about Clyde and showing them him hiding in our house. A lot of the kid's friends also have an elf, so it is so cute to hear them all talk about their elf and find them in each other's houses.
Luke is a "gift giver" He loves to give people things and make them things. At this age he mostly likes to give gifts to daddy, mommy, Allie, and Andrew. I took the boys shopping alone this year so they could pick something special for each other for Christmas. Luke was the first one to wrap his gifts for Andrew and Allie. He also colored them pictures and placed them on their gifts. It was very fitting that he had the first presents under the tree. He was very excited to show everyone who came to our house the gifts he had wrapped. I love his gift giving heart!!
Andrew started going to kindergarten all day. He is gone from 7:50-1:20. Last week was an adjustment for us. It feels like he is gone for so long. He is loving taking his lunch to school and buying hot lunch. Mommy is sad that we don't get to each lunch together anymore. I was the crazy mom who went over to the school at lunch time just so I could see him carrying his lunchbox to the cafeteria. Luke and Allie miss him too. Luke asks all morning when it is time to go get Andrew. He waits by the window when a neighbor brings Andrew home just looking for brother. I am having to really try and figure out a new schedule. Allie is dropping her morning naps, but has a hard time staying up until we go get brother...it's just a phase and it will pass soon is what I have to keep telling myself. It has made some nice mornings for Luke, Allie, and I. I don't feel like we have to rush to get our stuff done in a 3 hour window. We miss our boy though!!!
We got the house all decorated for Christmas....we love getting all the decorations down the day after Thanksgiving. Mommy works on the inside of the house and daddy works on the outside. The kids go back and forth with excitement. This year was great because the boys are starting to remember things so much better. As we unpacked the boxes I kept hearing, "Oh, I remember this, I love this." We got our 11 foot tree for $9.97 at a local Wise Buys store. It is beautiful and fresh and a blessing that it only cost $10. The picture below is after it tipped over while we were decorating it, hopefully this will only happen once this season. We lost a few ornaments and lights, but luckily there wasn't much on the tree yet. Allie is very gentle with the tree and loves looking at the ornaments, a much different reaction than her brothers had at her age.
