Elfie and Red Are Back

After returning from Oklahoma over Thanksgiving the horrors of Christmas decorating began. Normally I love decorating. Its supposed to be a fun special time but lets just say that on decorating day this year, multiple precious ornaments were broken (multiple), it was a rush job, arguments were peppered throughout the day and everyone, except Cody, was in their room crying at some point. Thank God that day is over! The decorations are up and we are settling into the real Christmas spirit.

With Christmas spirit comes Elfie our Christmas Elf who watches over the boys and reports back to Santa on their behavior. Case gets up before 6am every morning and inspects the house for signs of the elf. He isn't afraid to travel downstairs alone in the dark during December because he knows Elfie is there somewhere. Our elf arrived a few days ago and has been keeping the boys on their toes ever since; little elf cookies, hiding under the tree skirt, taped to a clock, sleeping in the boys rooms with them, encouraging bath time and even delivering a warning message when Cole was perpetually naughty one day. Every day is something new.

Other holiday festivities have included; making gingerbread trains and houses, decorating a few new ornaments and watching Christmas cartoons. One evening with the fire burning in the background and the boys snuggled in blankets I finally convinced Case to watch the classic Christmas cartoon,  The Grinch. This is a major holiday milestone because Case shuns anything with a bad guy in it. However once he watched it, he realized it was a fun show. We ended up watching every Christmas show taped on tv; 2 frosty the snowmen, rudolph, santa is coming to town and a couple more. And since we didn't have time to finish our outdoor decorations boys and I decided to put the light show shower inside instead of outside. We watched Christmas shows under a shower of red and green lights that night. Christmas, here we come!