GREAT NEWS, Christmas and the "shelf elf"!

On New Years Eve day, Max had his cystogram at the hospital. Late in the afternoon, we received a message from Max's Dr. that Max's test came back good!!!!! Her office is closed for the next few days but she said if I had any further questions to call her on Friday.
As I was shopping at our local market New years eve, I saw her and thanked her for the happy news (what a great ending to the year and hopefully a sign of the good things to come in the next!) We celebrated the New year with a party!!! Sparkling grape juice all around!!!





Next is the story of our Christmas elf.

This is the shelf elf.

When I was a little girl, my parents had these shelf elves. We had two larger ones, one was silver lame' and one gold lame' and also two smaller ones, one red felt and one green felt. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of these little guys. I'm just surprised it took so long!
My mother still has the originals and I'm going to be the happy recipient of them, but I purchased the one above this holiday season for the kids, as I wanted them to experience the "magic" I experienced when I was a child.

A few days before Christmas, the kids were allowed to open a present and this one was decorated very attractively, so of course, they picked it. When they opened it I read them the story of the shelf elf and Sonja came up with "his" name. She named him Kalpin because she thought the boy in her new favorite Christmas movie "Home Alone" was named "Kalpin" (instead of Kevin). I decided I'd place him atop the curio in the great room. Later in the afternoon, we were decorating the gingerbread house and Dan took a quick break. After we finished decorating the yummy house, Sonja went into the great room and discovered that the elf had magically moved from the curio to over on top of my decorative houses. She yelled "Mommy! Mommy! Come here QUICK!!!! When I entered the room she told me that the elf moved! I told her that SHE must have moved him and she said "NO I DIDN'T!!!" I told her that Max must have and I asked Max if he did, to which he said "NO"!! I told her that she was fibbing and she was adament that she didn't, getting a bit mad that I was accusing her of such a thing!
The elf moved from there to here and back again over the next few days and it was always a fun game to see where he was hiding (usually somewhere he could get a good view of what the kids were doing, as to keep Santa well informed of their deeds, good or bad!) until Christmas. On Christmas day he was happily sitting in the tree watching us open the presents Santa left.
Here are a few more pictures of the munchkins in their holiday duds.


Bear just HAD to get in this one! Our "little" puppy! He'll celebrate his 1st birthday on January 15th! He can easily rest his paws on my shoulders when standing on his back legs and he's almost as tall as I am!!

Sonja sitting on Nana's (my mom's) lap at Grandma G's house. My Mom spent the night at our house Christmas eve so she could watch the kids open their gifts Christmas morning.
Some of the goodies left on Christmas eve before being opened. Sonja will be soo surprised!

I'm trying to instill in our kids that they can't always get what they want and especially to expect it without some hard work. Every time Sonja would see something on T.V. she would say "I want Santa to bring me that Mommy!" I told her that Santa can't bring everything that she wants AND things for ALL of the kids in the world. So I told her that she could make a list but it can only have four things on it so she must choose wisely. Everytime she wanted something new she would have to decide what on the list was staying and what was going. After many changes she ended up with the Quinny 4 in one stroller, Baby alive, a mermaid costume and roll over doggie. She was extremely surprised when she woke up Christmas morning to see all of those presents, and grateful for each and every one of them! Everytime she opened a gift, whether it be from Santa, Nana or Daddy and I, she would say "Thank You so MUCH (insert name). For Santa's gifts she would say "I've been wanting that SO much. How did he know!" Santa knows everything!!!

Max came down and immediately went right to his tool bench. Notice how many pictures he's wearing his "safety goggles in!

Putting down his safety goggles to better manage his power tools. Even Sonja got in on the action!
Putting goggles back on.
Safety first! No safety violation here!
Max took forever opening his gifts. He would open one and play with it until we'd tell him to open another. He ended up refusing to open anymore so I had to finish for him.

We now have too many toys, so Sonja decided to give her old ones away. She knows that there are kids that would love them just as she did when she first received them (like the land of misfit toys!)

I was delighted and really surprised with the present "the kids" got me....a complete day at the spa with a one hour massage, one hour facial, manicure, pedicure, hair color, cut, style and a few other things!!!!!! It's a little distance from were we live but Dan said he'd drop me off and take the kids someplace while I get pampered (have I mentioned what a wonderful husband I have!). I always joke and say that I would love to have a day at the spa, but I didn't think I ever would actually get one! Santa truly does know everything!


Well, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that all have a wonderful New year!!!