Santa's Workshop

Speaking of Jolly Olde St. Nick...

We visited Santa's workshop at school last night.  The boys enjoyed some cookies and punch, and made a Christmas wreath ornament to hang on our tree by threading buttons onto a pipe cleaner.

I was really impressed that the boys could do it by themselves.  They were itty bitty button holes - much like threading thread into the eye of a needle.   Ryan in particular just whipped right through it. 

The boys also had a moment to visit with Santa.  Connor hopped right up in his lap and told Santa that he wanted toy fish for Christmas.  Ryan was a bit more hesitant, and had to be pried away from daddy.  But even he eventually had a seat on Santa's lap and even managed a smile at the camera while visions of the giant race car he told Santa he wanted this Christmas raced in his head.

Winter Wonderland

I am fairly certain when I awoke to the whisper of Christmas songs in the wee hours of the morning and went in search of the source that Elfie was sitting right here...

And the faint but lively version of Frosty the Snowman was coming from his general direction.

But when we woke up this morning, and by we I mean Ryan... at the CRACK OF DAWN... Elfie had either been prowling the house and got caught in the act of getting back to his perch, or he decided compliments of the snowman on the other side of the door that he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on us as we worked on our outdoor Christmas lights so he moved to get a better view.

And I don't blame him, blink around here and those elves sprinkle a little Christmas Magic and before you know it there's even more Christmas to be found.

A whole host of snowman appeared, though I am a bit worried about how long they might stay.  With the weather outside hovering around a balmy 75 they just might melt.

A family of gingerbread men also arrived, bringing their stockings in tow.

And before we knew it, the Nutcrackers appeared along with giant snowflakes.

The flakes latched onto and clung to the live oak tree creating a shimmery wonderland that these pictures just don't do justice to.

The only thing missing of course, other than chilly weather, a cup of hot chocolate, my Compact Flash card for my nice camera, and enough snow to build a snowman was the the twinkling of Christmas lights.  Something I had hoped we might give the elves a hand with today...

Jolly Olde Saint Nick

Elfie made himself at home on Jolly Olde Saint Nick's shoulder last night.  And I would have sworn I heard him whispering into Santa's ear...



The boys are getting pretty good at finding Elfie's new perch each morning.  Even when he thinks he has blended into the scenery...

Gingerbread Countdown to Christmas

When Elfie returned today he picked out a prime spot to keep an eye on the 1st day of Advent this year.

Christmas Songs… The New Waterboarding.

From the Peanut Gallery yesterday:

"No, Mommy!! Not another Christmas Song!! Not EVERY WEEK!!! TURN IT OFF!!!!"

I am not sure what’s up with Connor, but he apparently has quite the dislike of Christmas songs. It’s the end.of.the.world. NO MORE CHRISTMAS. MAKE IT STOP!!!  He is quite adamant that he does NOT want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today we found Elfie swinging around the top of the newly put up and lighted Christmas tree.  Wonder if we could convince him to stay because I have no idea where the actual tree topper is...

And I am sure Elfie had quite a story to tell Santa about the Christmas Tree assembly.  How often do you think it is that someone puts together a tree and has extra pieces?  In particular extra branches without any obvious graping holes.  Unless you know where to look that is... Note to tree makers: my husband cannot "count" letters.  Particularly when the lowest branches begin with the letter "K"  It took me 2 minutes to convince him that F was indeed the letter before G...  

As it turns out he managed to skip the bottom ring of the tree (uh... more room for presents right!?!).  And as you go up the higher branches require less pieces.  So somewhere around F we ended up with more branches than spots to put them.  A theme that would continue on throughout each subsequent row.  And then to top it off he also tried to putt the "B" branches on top of the "G" branches.  Thankfully I noticed as I was fluffing the first one so we didn't have to pull a bazillion branches back off the tree.

Once the tree was up Kevin suggested that I pick up new LED lights for the tree vs. trying to figure out and fix the variety of old lights in various states of disrepair.  Luckily Walmart was open and had some LEDs to try out.  I actually thought they turned out pretty nice..  Now if only there was a way to make them flash...

Ready, Set, Mail!

Elfie apparently thinks it is about time to get the Christmas cards out the door.  They have  been designed, printed, and even stuffed, sealed, addressed and stamped for a while now.  The boys and I will have to run by the postoffice to drop them in the mail later this week.

Deck the Halls

Elfie apparently decided that the Christmas dishes needed to be at our fingertips vs. stashed in an obscure cabinet somewhere.

So he did a little dish re-arranging after the boys went to bed last night.  He replaced my white Italian dishes with my favorite blue snowman and the boys' IKEA dishes with the new snowman and Santa dishes that he brought for our North Pole Breakfast.

I think he is trying to tell us something...

Thirst Quenched

Apparently spreading all this Christmas Magic really makes an elf thirsty...  Elfie must have helped himself to Kevin's Dr. Pepper last night!

Advent Books - Countdown to Christmas

Uh, huh... We definitely need to keep an eye on that elf.

Apparently while the boys were sleeping Elfie made his report to Santa and then came back, drug out and relocated one of the Christmas trees to the boys' room and wrapped up a whole pile of books to help the boys countdown to Christmas.

He then took up a new position in the branches of the tree to keep an eye on things today.

He left a note for the boys telling them that they could unwrap one book every night from now until Christmas.  And he already knows them well enough to know they could NEVER wait until tonight to open one so he left one unwrapped for them to read this morning.

And I was right, that elf definitely had plans for the new bookshelves.  He relocated all the books that were upstairs and replaced them with Christmas books.

After we read the Little Elf book Elfie left for us we read 3 others from the book shelf.

I don't know how he managed to get it all done in just one night - it must be the Christmas magic!  Because if I had to do it all myself I would have been up until 1:30 in the morning just wrapping all those books!  :)  Not to mention finding the tree, and hauling it all the way to the boys room.

And I am sooo surprised that he didn't wake the boys up as he banged around crashing into all kinds of things as he dragged the stand, the tree, and all those books in.  Not to mention moving the dresser to plug the tree in.  He even broke an ornament getting the tree in through the bathroom door.  It crashed on to the floor just inches away from Ryan and both of the boys slept right through all the commotion.  Daddy kept right on snoring, too.  Apparently mommy was the only one who heard a thing... :)