Sunday Best: Christmas morning edition

Merry Christmas!

A preschool Christmas party (as boring as it sounds)

Jack's preschool Christmas party was last Friday. We have attended the past several years with Ellie and have always had fun. This year, with Ellie in Kindergarten, I went for Jack's party and Tom went to pick up Ellie from school. Jack has been singing "Bingle Bells" for weeks now so I knew he was excited about the party. But when I showed up, he started crying and insisted on sitting in my lap instead of joining the rest of the class for their performance. When it was time for Jingle Bells (Bingle Bells!), I was able to convince Jack to join the other kids, but as soon as I snapped his picture he was back in my lap.
I knew that decorating gingerbread houses would cheer him up.

But he was more into eating than decorating. I tried to put a few pieces of candy on his house and he got mad at me because he preferred the quicker method of eating straight from the bowl.

We ended up being the first to leave because I wanted the other kids at the table to have some candy to decorate their houses. The whole thing was actually quite stressful. I don't know why I am even documenting it except that I always documented Ellie's Christmas parties and I feel like poor Jack doesn't get enough blog-mention. Being Child #5 out of 7, I am very sensitive to that sort of thing!

My tiny teenager goes to high school

I have been missing a lot of work lately due to my kids and their disappointing immune systems. About a month ago, Jack ended up having to come to school with me for 1st period because his daycare refused to admit him (apparently, if you get sent home for diarrhea you can bring your child back the following day, but if it happens again they will deny admittance). My students in my 1st class acted as though they had never seen a small child before. They kept trying to pick him up and Jack kept trying to crawl back into my uterus. I went home that day and was telling Tom all about it when suddenly Ellie perked up and started insisting that I take her to school, too. She then continued to ask me every other day if she could come to school with me. Well, today, her wish was granted. She woke up this morning crying because her head hurt so bad. Ellie has an unusually high pain threshold, so I knew she was serious, but I gave her Advil and proceeded to get the kids ready for school anyway. As we were walking out the door, she started vomiting. "See, I TOLD you I was sick, Mommy!" With such short notice, I had no choice but to take Ellie to school with me while typed up a lesson plan and waited for the sub to show. My 1st period was again overjoyed to see another small human, but this time they had someone eager to accept their advances. First, she wrote "boys" on the chalkboard and put a frowny face next to it and then wrote "girls" with a smiley face. My students loved this. Then, she drew pictures of Christmas trees and candy canes for all the girls (smiley face!) in my class. I tried to warn my students that she was sick, but they still insisted on hugging her and sitting next to her. Clearly, we got a lot accomplished. When it was time for us to leave, Ellie (who had miraculously recovered from her mystery illness) started begging to stay at school and meet all my students. I have always felt like Ellie is a teenager masquerading as a 5 year old and her total comfort in the high school setting just proves my point.

A REAL Reindeer: Part II

So, you remember how last year we crashed another neighborhood's Christmas celebration and I was so excited because they had a real reindeer even though that reindeer had only one antler? Well, we went back today and this time the reindeer had TWO antlers. But there were also two antlers laying on the ground in front of Santa's sleigh and I found this very disturbing because somewhere out there is a reindeer walking around bare-headed.

Ellie was so excited to sit on Santa's lap. The whole time we were in line, she did her bouncing thing. Ellie likes to jump and she can jump up and down for a whole hour straight if she is excited or bored or just feeling bouncy. When it was our turn to see Santa, Jack went into full on meltdown mode and so Ellie ventured into the sleigh alone. Really, it is a shame she isn't an only child because this would have made a perfect Christmas card picture. I am a little stressed about the whole Christmas card thing. I always put it off til the last minute and this year was no exception. I ran out and picked up the kids new Christmas sweaters today and figured I would snap some pictures for our cards while we were crashing this Christmas thing. Why do I always forget how uncooperative my kids are when it comes to pictures? It went a little something like this:

That naughty elf!

Oh my gosh, y'all, we have been having so much fun with Elf on the Shelf! I wish I had started it earlier! The first night we just had it sitting on the mantle of the fireplace. The next night I forgot to movie it, but luckily Tom was on top of things and I found Elf sitting on the camel in the Nativity! I told Tom he was the official Elf-mover from now on because, not only is he more creative, but he has a better memory than I do.



This has been my favorite, by far. Such a naughty elf!
Ellie said that it looks like the Elf is "marrying" her Barbie.

So, obviously Tom and I have been enjoying ourselves, but Ellie absolutely loves the Elf, too. She named him Jingles and each morning she excitedly leaps out of bed and begins her search. And all I have to do is mention that the elf is watching to prompt a change in her behavior. On Sunday, she was acting up a little during church and out of habit I whispered, "Don't forget the elf is watching you." Then I remembered where we were and quickly added, "And Jesus, too!"