The first of December brings the Advent calendar and our Elf on the Shelf, Jingle, to our house. I was out of town the first day that the kids got to open a drawer and get reacquainted with Jingle so Joel took some pictures.
Jingle wasn't too mischievous this year...which is to say that Joel and I were very tired this year and our creativity was pretty much all tapped out by the Jingle staging time of the day. I was also operating in near just-in-time mode on getting the Advent calendar all filled in.
Sometimes the calendar was a small present for the kids, sometimes it was a little piece of candy and sometimes it was an activity. Here's a few pictures of some of the things the calendar brought us this year.
Family Game Night - we weren't exactly playing the game correctly here. But with a 3 and 5 year old plus a 6'5" kid at heart, sometimes silly things happen.
Festival of Lights Parade followed by cookies and hot chocolate at home to warm up. The kids polished off the cookies before I could get the camera out...can't say I blame them. They are delicious and best eaten while still gooey from the oven!
Snowflake craft. Lily ended up making every single snowflake in the package and then filled out Christmas cards for everyone in her class and gave them one of the snowflakes she made. All her idea.
Gingerbread House.
Hot chocolate in snowman mugs.
Several books. Here's us reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
I mentioned that Jingle wasn't too imaginative this year, but he did lay down the law in our house once. One Sunday, Lily was in a wicked bad mood ALL. DAY. LONG. Pretty much like one continuous tantrum. So after we (finally) got her to bed, I had the idea to leverage ol' Jingle. He left her a note taped to her mirror.
Upon waking up and finding Jingle in her room with a note, Lily was at first excited and then suspicious. "Look! There's Jingle in my room with a piece of paper.......wait, is that a good paper or a bad paper?"
So I read her the note and I didn't get through the first little paragraph before her eyes filled up with tears. By the time I got all the way through it, she was crying this heartbreaking cry. Not like loud, wailing sobs but the kind of cry that is not at all for show and attention but the kind that represents real heartbreak.
So, at first, I felt like a TOTAL JACKASS for doing that to my kid. But after reflecting a minute I realized that stupid friggin elf is the first thing that actually seemed to REACH my child. She has never really been phased by time out, spanking, losing toys, losing privileges, etc. But this. THIS. It got to her. And her tantrum frequency went from once every 3-4 days, to only one more time during the entire month of December. Incredible.
The kids Christmas program at the daycare church was called Christmas Shoe Tree or Barefoot Bluegrass Christmas (or something like that). The kids practiced and practiced (we had a CD of the music that we pretty much listened to everywhere we went for the entire month of November). On the day of the program, the kids actually sang. All of it. That we could see. Unfortunately, the little play that went along with the singing program had the big kids staged right in front of the little kids for the majority of the performance. I was heartbroken. They were actually singing. And signing. And all I could see was a random hand wave by every now and again in between other kids.
The program is pretty long - the kids are up on that stage for nearly an hour. That's a long time for a 3 year old. These two of Tyler say it all.
Afterwards, we had cookies, donuts and milk. And selfies with Daddy.
And then we went to see Santa. That went over great. Tyler wouldn't approach at all. Lily only got as close as she did because I'm standing just outside of the picture and she was promised a candy cane if she went over there. She left poor Santa hanging....
And then she started to cry. Because she wanted so bad to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, but she just couldn't be brave enough. And not being brave enough made her even more sad. Downward spiral. Took a lot for her to muster up this half smile for our family selfie.
And then we went to Walmart. Every time we went there, Lily asked me to take her picture in front of this sign. Could not go to Walmart without this picture and a cruise through the Christmas department to look at the lights and decorations.
We tried ice skating. That was interesting.
We tried to rent one of these "assist" thingies, but they were all out by the time we got there. So the first 30-45 minutes we were there was pretty much the definition of misery and we made it approximately 20 years down the straightaway before we had to exit the ice for the Zamboni to come out. But once we got back out on the ice we were able to get a couple of these things and THEN we had a blast. For the whole remaining 30 minutes we had left in the session.
And some randomness....
Lily arranged her stuffed animals and babies around her bed.
Tyler: "Mommy! Is my tongue blue?"
Me: "Yes. I'll take a picture and show you."
Tyler: "Ok, but just one picture and then NO MORE."
And then Lily needed to get in on the action.
Tyler was exercising with me one night. I think he's better at it than I am.
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