Christmas break

I do love Christmas, but am very ready to take down the decorations and return my house to slightly less chaos. Hopefully that will happen this weekend before my return to work after a lovely week off. My list of things to accomplish this week (i.e. clean/organize house, complete projects, catch up on "me time"...), well, those didn't really happen. BUT, I did get lots and lots of quality time with my sweet (and sometimes not-so-sweet) girls. And I guess that was the most important thing to accomplish. As an added bonus, my time with the girls has allowed Farmer Allen to make lots of progress on the playhouse. Pretty soon Emma will be asking to move in out there! I am looking forward to moving quite a few toys from my house to the play house, so I'm not complaining!

We have had an eventful Christmas with 11 new baby chicks and the first calf arriving. Hopefully Farmer Allen will report back two new calf births soon.

Oh, and for the picture - girls' new matching pj's thanks to Granny and girls' new bunk beds thanks to Santa.

Santa!

The girls were lucky enough to visit with Santa at cousin Reid's Gingerbread Housing making party!!! Emma and Reid seem to be sharing the same expression; Olivia and Mary Claire seem to be sharing the same slight bit of distrust. Merry Christmas!

Almost Christmas!

What crazy warm weather we have had for December. Of course every few days it gets quite cold and begins to feel like Christmas! This years Christmas card photo (below) was taken December 5th on a gorgeous day.


And the runner up photo:

Goodbye Elf-Elf!

We received an Elf on the Shelf last year around Christmas time. Emma was NOT a fan. After reading the book and hearing about how Elf on the Shelf works, she immediately requested she go to her room, shut her door, then we open a window and let the elf fly out and go to someone else's house. She was not okay with the idea of a flying visitor in our house. The elf was short-lived because of Emma's fear and went to live in our attic for the remainder of the Christmas season. This year we decided to give it another try. The moment she saw the box descending from the attic she let out an exasperated sigh, "Not the elf!" She then went on to remind us that she does not like the elf. We made every effort to calm all her fears and even managed to have the elf out for a full 24 hours. The girls named him Elf-Elf. Unfortunately, Emma just still was not comfortable, even though we assured her he couldn't really fly and that it was all pretend. So, into the garage went Elf-Elf. As of today Elf-Elf has been shipped to another home to live a happier life outside of his box. Emma gave a little cheer and happy dance as I escorted him out of the house this morning. So much for the Elf on the Shelf Christmas tradition! Emma did inform Allen that if we really want to move something around, we can move around the nativity scene. "So we would move it to different places in the house?" Allen asked her. "No. You can move the people around the baby Jesus."

Sweet.

Oh Christmas Tree!