Our Boy and His Cricket

We are in full Christmas mode around here and we are having a blast this year with our little cricket!  She is into the holiday spirit like any small child would be...she is in awe and her eyes are full of sparkle and wonder.  It is SO much fun to experience Christmas through the eyes of a toddler!  We had set up our tree last Monday but didn't get a chance to decorate it until this last Saturday and our little girl was SO patient in waiting!  She kept asking all week long, "is it time to decorate the tree yet mommy?"  When the time finally came she of course grabbed a Winnie the Pooh ornament as the first to go up.  I look forward to decorating the tree every year because our ornaments are all different and from all over the world and go back to my very first Christmas...the memories are always so wonderful as I open each box and pull out the next one and we remember where it's from.  

This year we've started a new tradition and I am having WAY too much fun with it!!  The Elf on the Shelf thing is a big deal all over the world but I wasn't a big fan of the little guy so I set out to find our own girly elf...She's a sweet little thing this year and is having fun making our girl spill belly laughs each morning.  :)  We still haven't named her yet so we're just calling her Elffy which I guess is her name.  She's been found reading books, dancing with Mickey Mouse, playing in a stocking and yesterday she was hanging upside down on the Christmas tree.  Little miss just thinks it's the funniest thing and now Elffy is the first thing she looks for when she wakes up.  Cute stuff!

We also put up a tree in the crickets room so that she can decorate and undecorate it as she pleases instead of undoing the big tree.  

She was so proud to put up her ornaments.

There has been so much happening around here I haven't been able to keep up with it all here...my kids will look back in years to come and wonder what we did for Thanksgiving 2011...well we went to Oregon and I took a total of 13 pictures but got to spend time with family and just relax.  We rushed back to town so we could make it to church services Sunday morning to find out if our pastors goal of raising 1 million pounds of food was accomplished...that goal was exceeded and 1.2 million pounds was raised! (if you have a moment you should read how some of the kids at church raised funds...amazing!!) It was such an emotional moment for the church and for our family.  We had given half of what we saved during the 30 Days of Nothing challenge to this lofty goal...it was worth Mike and I forgoing Christmas presents this year.  Then we celebrated my hubby's birthday last week and I surprised him and took him to dinner at the restaurant that we went to on our first date 15 years ago.  And then on Saturday my mom, two of my sisters and myself enjoyed the wonderful Christmas Tea at church and had fabulous  time together.  It's been a busy few weeks but they've been full of joy and many blessings!!  We hope you're enjoying the spirit of Christmas and taking time to stop and relish the season.