Christmas Time Catch up

I know, I know...I've been MIA lately. You know...its a busy time of year. When I'm not working I'm shopping or hosting a party or resting (which I'm apparently not doing enough of...I say I'll rest in January!). Anyway, first of all the next couple pics are of our "Elf gifts". This is the first year I've done this. I bought an advent box and every day Elijah gets a gift from the Elves. (Luckily he's only 2 and doesn't realize that he's only actually gotten a gift about every 4 days! Ha!) I'll have to do much better next year I guess. Here's the box, I put it in a cubby hole walking into the living room. It's kinda neat because it has a light that shines right on it and it looks really special. Mamaw...do you notice the cup and saucer? Mamaw gave us this tiny cup and saucer and we will start the tradition of using it for Santa's milk and cookies this year...

Here is Elijah with his first gift...Its Dinky the Donkey.

What? You don't know Dinky the Donkey? Then you must not be in my family. This is a book that was my mom's favorite growing up and we read it as kids. Dinky the Donkey was a donkey that knew he was special. He just knew he was "not meant to carry water up the hill like the other donkeys". Well come to find out, Dinky realizes his special purpose...he is chosen to carry Mary to Bethlehem! Its such a neat story, but hard to find. If you ever find it, buy it.

We also had our Children's Christmas Party at church. Elijah had a great time this year. Here he is with Beau singing Christmas carols with the kids...

Then came time for the Hay Ride and Elijah wanted to sit with Amy Jo...

He did, at one point, sit with Beau...

During craft time some one special showed up. Elijah had talked about Santa for days and told everyone at church that morning that he was going to see Santa, but I was still worried we might have a repeat of last year...

But no! He loved Santa (maybe he subconsciously knew it was Rayford). He wanted to sit in his lap and not get down...

He had a great time and talked about it for days.




The next week I got off work on a Friday night and Beau was out with the youth group caroling. I came straight from work and met Beau to get Elijah so I could take him to the Fire station. I had heard they were having an open house and you could see Santa. I just knew with Elijah's love of big trucks and Santa he would love it. It was the only night we could go so unfortunately Beau couldn't come, but we made the best of it.



He's saying "big trucks, Mama!" (Notice how Elijah is dressed when Beau is left to pick out clothes. Solid red, two different shades! Ha! Can't wait to see how he'll dress Sadie, probably about how my dad dressed me!)




He got a fireman's hat...

He wanted to go in and see Santa, but I wanted a picture of him in his hat. I said take a picture and we'll go see Santa. This is what I got...


A little better, after coaxing...





He got hot chocolate...

Mmmm...


He got to sit in the firetruck...(sorry about the rear shot of the fireman)

Sitting on the bumper...

I'll have to scan the picture he took with Santa. I couldn't use my camera at the same time because we were trying so hard just to get him to sit still and look at the photographer. He wasn't quite as comfortable with this Santa (he was really big) so he sat in Mrs. Claus' lap for the picture. The next day we showed Beau the picture and I pointed to Santa and asked Elijah "who's that?" ..."Santa"...pointed to Elijah..."who's that?"...."Ligy"...pointed to Mrs Claus..."who's that?"..."Mary"...he's really getting his stories mixed up!!

Last weekend we had Progressive Dinner. I hosted appetizers at our house for 16 people. Aimee and Bibby helped. I forgot to take any pics of what all we did, but it was really good.



The next day at church Beau led singing and asked if any children would like to come up to the front to sing a few songs. This was the first time Elijah went up there and he loved it! I don't know what the Bible says about taking pictures during church, but I couldn't resist!...

Since then Mandy came to visit (she took a belly shot I'll post later), I went in for a check-up, and we hosted the youth group Christmas party. So I'm still not 100% caught up, but I'll work on it!!