The 2014 Wrap Up

Way overdue wrapping up the year of 2014!  My last post was early November after one of Silas' soccer tournaments.  Since then, soccer lead to the holidays, the holidays flew by and now it's 2015!

So...November...
Ella had her first 6th grade social.   This is her "Stop! In the Name of Love" move.  I think I mentioned before but she is REALLY loving 6th grade!  She gets herself up at 5:50AM, makes her breakfast and gets me up to pop her contacts in and walk her to the bus stop. The extra 30 minutes of sleep does wonders for me :)

Justin's old white truck finally (pretty much) bit the dust.  It still drove like a champ but the radiator spewed fumes into the cab and there was no heat...it would cost more to fix than the truck was worth. So...it got donated and Justin got a new old truck!

He loves the cap and he loves having heat again!

I went on 2 works trips in Nov/Dec. - One to Tucson and one to Boston.  Both were pretty quick trips and I would have loved to have spent more time in Tucson taking some pictures!

I still never tire of taking picture of sleeping kids. This boy has to have the book yanked out of his hand every night - he's re-reading the Harry Potter series now and on book 3 or 4 again.

We got a beautiful November snow - perfect, beautiful, fluffy snow.  I took a walk on the Mudsock Trail and it was gorgeous.

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year - which we love to do.

I love having my family all together.

And lots of cousin love!

and some sister love too :)

Thanksgiving was late so Christmas came early...

We had Santa come for a little visit too (even though there were MANY moments that he has marked them in his naughty book this year).

Felix (aka Buddy) came back for a visit. Not sure how many years it's been now but it gets more complicated each year! His friend, Gino, now hangs out with him and they roam...around the house.  Usually around 4am or so. But sometimes they are just too damn tired to move. Or respond to the notes that Silas leaves for them.

We had a wonderful family Christmas party at Greg and Tracy's - and we celebrated Dad's 80th Birthday!!!!

So blessed to have parents that are happy, healthy and wonderful :)

And then it was Christmas! I tend to be the first one up now on Christmas - though I fall back asleep until Ella (who is generally the first one to wake up and then wants to get everyone up). Another year with all 3 at home which I'm thankful for.

Justin did surprise me with a little Happy Birthday party.  That was nice even though I was in pj's and hadn't showered - but then again so were a few of the attendees!

And it's never boring after Christmas either - we get to celebrate Silas James' 9th birthday!  He really wanted to go ice skating this year on his birthday...so we did.  And it was painful!!

Two hours doesn't seem like that much time but strap some ice skates on your feet and it can seem like an eternity! I cried uncle quite a few times.  

And we did have some cake and ice cream for the 9 year old (even if it was my leftover cake). He'll get a party and a real cake...maybe in FEBRUARY?

Ella edited this fantastic photo of Silas in his new Superman pj's. I love it!

He was laying on our couch in the family room and then she did the cloud edit.  So cool!

And then it was time to ring in the New Year - it was spent at some different neighbors (because of the OSU game on New Year's Day!) and then at home with the kids after 10pm.  It was nice and relaxing and felt like the perfect way to start 2015!

Happy New Year!  I feel like this one is going to be GRAND!

Fa La La La La

We are busy little Christmas bees around here.  Sometime over the last week, the Christmas tree lost its top strand of lights...at first a few lights went out and then by mid-week, the whole top strand was gone.  Justin was content to let it be but it bummed me out every time I would look at the tree.  So yesterday we took everything off the top half of the tree, pulled off the old lights, put on new lights, got covered in tree sap and then put everything back on.  In the process, we discovered that the tree was not very sturdy in the stand.  Justin tried to tightened it up but it kept leaning like crazy...enter fishing line tied to the curtain hook and curio drawer knob.  Voila - a perfectly straight, fully lit Christmas tree!

We have an official name for Mr. Elf.  The kids really, really want to call him Buddy.  So Buddy is his nickname.  I've named him Felix Navidad because I think that is much more clever than Buddy.  So I call him Felix, they call him Buddy.  This Elf thing is a lot of work!  I woke up to 5 post-it notes worth of questions the first night he was with us, and 3 the next night. "Can I bring you someplace on Christmas Day?  Just this one time?  Pleas pleas pleas" "How do you get down when I can't reech you?" Felix/Buddy didn't  answer the 2nd round very promptly so she added "Y did you not write back on my notes??"

I bet Felix/Buddy at no clue he was getting into such a high maintenance situation when he came a-knockin'.

We had some additional name suggestions from an "anonymous" source:

Snitch, Quisling, Willard - Famous Movie Rat, Ben ( Sequel to Willard), Elfis, Finkus (Fink on Us), Squealer,  Weasel.  I do think Squealer is kinda festive.

We also made some Christmas cookies yesterday.  The kids iced and decorated some for Santa and I made some very yummy chocolate crinkle cookies...while we watched Elf (as you can see from the TV!).

We wish that we could be with ALL the family at Christmas - but we'll be thinking about you all - near and far - and wishing you a blessed and magical Merry Christmas!

I Gave In...

...to peer pressure.  I was swayed to the "Elf on a Shelf" darkside!

He left this little note:

December 2010

Dear Mason, Ella and Silas:

Santa received a letter from Ella requesting an Elf for your family.  I am the Elf that Santa is sending to be with your family for Christmas each year.  I am excited to meet you!

Each day, I watch to be sure you are doing your very best to be good, and then I go to the North Pole and report back to Santa each night.  I will come back to be with you again each morning.

Do your very best to be good – I hate giving Santa bad news!

With Christmas Cheer,

Your Elf

P.S. – please name me soon!

Let's hope I don't regret this!!