It's Sharon! I'm super sad to be missing out on all the Colorado snow while on vacation here in Texas, but this year is one of the last years that Elise and I will be able to leave for a month and spend time with all our family in Texas. Living far away from family has its disadvantages, and we try to make a lot of them up in one short month. We visit until our family is ready for us to leave! ha!
We had an amazing drive down here to Texas. Both the dogs & Elise were amazing in the car. Elise only used the ipad once, just at the tail end of the 15.5 hour drive. Most of the time, we just sung Christmas songs and talked about things we saw outside the car window.
Since we've been here everyone has been a little more naughty. The dogs pooped on Nana's fancy rug, one of the dogs puked on her Restoration Hardware chair, and Elise drew all over a speaker with crayon that I had to use "goof off" to get off - it was harder to remove than I expected. She also broke a decorative glass bird. Eeeee. Good thing we are family, and Nana loves us.
I learned that I'm not a very good "elf on the shelf person". Our elf stays up too late, and forgets to visit Santa. Then early in the morning while everyone is getting ready for the day, he flies off to visit Santa and comes back. It's really ok because today Elise forgot to look for "Bell" even after I reminded her 3 or 4 times that she hadn't found him yet. She's not 100% into it yet either. But I really hope to add it to our Christmas traditions...not because I think she cares what Elf thinks of her behavior but more for the magic. Christmas is such a fun magical time, and I believe in anything that makes it more magical.
Every Christmas in my house we make what we call, Tree Cookies. Tree Cookies are homemade sugar cookies with homemade green icing put across them and a red hot on top. They all look the same. We love to make them, and love even more to eat them.
We are crazy about puzzles here too, and I'm proud to announce that Elise has the puzzle gene. It is seriously about the only thing she will sit still to do. She is naturally good at seeing how things fit together, and she's got mad puzzle skills. We love puzzles all year round but only bring out the big puzzles during the holiday season. Everyone will sit down and work on them together, and it's really fun.
We also play games together on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. You can learn so much playing games together with people. It is crazy fun to play games with lots of people with all different personalities!
On Christmas Eve we go drive around and appreciate the Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. We put out our cookies for Santa (Tree Cookies) and a glass of milk and we watch a Christmas themed movie. Last year we did The Polar Express, this year we may do The Polar Express again but haven't decided. Then you can open up 1 present before you go to bed (most of the time it's something to do on Christmas Eve).
Hope you have a wonderful and merry holiday and a happy New Year! We'll see you on Monday the 4th!