Christmas Preparations

Christmas magic was in the air! Owen was asking to get the tree up early this year so the weekend following Thanksgiving, that's exactly what we did. It took a bit of coaxing, but everyone eventually pitched in to hang the final ornaments.

Then Owen carefully placed the star on top. The tree looked beautiful filled with so many memories from years gone by.

Our elf friend Ely arrived a couple days later on December 1st. Just like clockwork, he popped into the stocking hung on our front door with a special letter for the kids. There is usually quite the debate on who gets to be the lucky one to remove the letter from Elfy's arms. But this year Kate was the only one eager and up to the task. She carefully pulled out the note and read it to her siblings who gathered around to greet Elfy back for his long stay.

Elfy's arrival caused daily excitement as the kids would come downstairs each morning to search for him. And "almost" every morning he'd be hiding in a new spot waiting for them to find him. There were a couple instances when Elfy decided to stay put in the cozy spot he had picked the day prior, but Rose and Kate were not at all impressed with Elfy's laziness. Elfy can be a bit mischievous. A few times he got himself into quite the mess like when he was caught red-handed eating the chex mix from the container.

On December 6th, we enjoyed breakfast with Santa hosted at our local golf course. Nana Judy, Popi Dave and Uncle Jason came along with our entire crew to have brunch and say hello to Jolly Old St. Nick. 

We even got our photo taken with him. But Rose and Kate knew that this Santa wasn't the REAL Santa. He was just Santa's helper ready to report to the real Big Guy in Red everything that they wanted for Christmas.

December 7th was el Dia de las Velitas (the Day of the Little Candles). But we just so happened to be double booked that night. We enjoyed our traditional yummy take-out from Chimborazo, and then Rose and Kate were off to Winter Fest. They had fun in the frigid cold while the rest of us stayed home in our toasty house. We had planned to put our candles outside when they returned, but due to how late and cold it was, we unfortunately never did get them setup. Hopefully next year!

On December 17th, Kate had her Christmas concert at St. Odilia's entitled "A Night of Nights" portraying the Holy Family's journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. The second and third graders participated in the concert. They all did a fantastic job performing to a packed audience.

On December 19th, we had an early Christmas celebration with Nana Bev and Popi Jerry. We usually celebrate on New Years' Eve with them, but they happened to be in town early this year. Of course, all the kids were chomping at the bit to open their gifts a couple weeks earlier than they had expected. Everyone received fun items from their Christmas lists.

A couple days before Christmas, Kate surprised me at home. She decided to dress up as a real life Elf-on-the-shelf quietly waiting for my arrival. When I walked into the house, she sat as still as possible and tried her hardest not to crack a smile. She was so stinking cute!!

Later that day, our last piece of Christmas decor went up. While Owen had requested that the nativity be put on display, no one seemed to want to help, except for Kate. She carefully placed each piece exactly how she wanted it. It looked perfect!

We were now finally ready for the big day to arrive!