Holiday Fever

Our annual Holiday Party at the Barn was yesterday. Tanner and Faith told me several days ago, in no uncertain terms, that they would STAND by Santa this year but would NOT SIT ON HIS LAP. It was like a deal had to be negotiated, but given their hysteria last year, I figured this was as good as it was likely to get. And, true to their word, when our turn came they walked up to him- no tears this year- and stood by him. However, once I walked Faith up there, she refused to let me leave her alone- even with her brothers. So, I was unable to extricate myself from the picture. When Santa asked them to tell him what they each wanted for Christmas, Jake told him "a guitar", Tanner said, " a coloring book" and Faith shook her head, looked down, and refused to answer. Even after he gave her a candy cane, she didn't warm to him. Still, she loved the present he gave her (a Dora puzzle) and we quickly left the party to come home and work on it together.

The excitement of the season is heightened by the weather- snow the last 3 days! We bundled up today and took the kids out for a sledding trip behind the Merc. The boys of course both loved it, and Faith was really into it this year, too. I started out having Tanner or Jake stand at the bottom of the hill to "catch" her in case she was going too fast, but she quickly decided she wanted to go further and go off the "jump" (really just a curb) at the end. Both the boys tried their hand at standing on the sled and trying to snowboard down the hill- both crashed, got up laughing, and had to have snow picked out of their eyelashes!

In addition to the morning ritual of the advent calendar, we are doing The Elf on the Shelf this year. It's a stuffed elf that comes with a cute story about an elf that stays at your house throughout the holiday season and watches if you're behaving, then flies back to the North Pole each night to report to Santa. The next morning he returns (prior to the kids waking) and hides somewhere in the house. Tanner and Faith are really into it- and even though Jake knows he doesn't really fly there each night and that we actually hide him he has liked waking up to see where he will turn up next. So far he has been on a ceiling fan, in a stocking, on the coffee maker, and even in the refrigerator. For several days he didn't fly anywhere (whoops!) and luckily the little ones were very satisfied with our explanation that it had been too snowy/cold for him to get to the North Pole those nights. I will be so sad the day my kids stop "believing".
Now that work has slowed down I am enjoying the season so much and can't wait for family to arrive to help us celebrate!