Christmas Festivities in a Nutshell

 Our December was filled with fun things!

Here the kids are after decorating the Christmas tree!  We got a new tree this year and it was so nice to just be able to plug it in. The old tree's pre-lit lights had gone out many years ago, so it was fun to have a nice new one.

Aren't they the cutest Santa's little helpers?!

Our local high school put on a production of Beauty and the Beast so Jared decided to take the girls to see it for a Daddy/Daughter date.  Kaiya was pumped and Chloe....well, she didn't take a nap earlier in the day like she was supposed to and then fell asleep right before it was time to go. Jared said she perked up though, once they went to Panda Express for dinner and was happy by the time the show started.

Kaiya and I went on a Mommy/Daughter date to go see the local production of The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is put on by her dance studio. She had the opportunity to try out this year, but we were gone to Disneyland during try-outs. She was completely fine with not being in the production until she realized every girl in her class except for her was in it. Then she was sad and felt left out. Is that Kaiya or what...Anyways, we had a fun evening together and went to Olive Garden after.

Here we are ready for our date:

I wasn't going to buy the girls Christmas dresses this year...but I caved when I saw these 2 dresses and they were marked down super cheap.  Here they are, ready for church...

Chloe:

Kaiya:

Carson:

All 3:

We always have a slew of Christmas traditions during the month of December. I love it! It is what makes December so festive, in my opinion. Usually we do the Last Straw, Salvation Army boxes, family slumber party by the tree, going to Leavenworth, etc.---sometimes we do the 12 days of Christmas for a family {if I'm super organized}---but this year we started Elf On The Shelf--which kinda outshone all the other traditions this year.  I wanted to do it for a few years now, but never got around to buying that darn Elf. After seeing it on Pinterest a bunch towards the end of November, I decided to do it.

December 1st our Elf made his first appearance in our home.  The kids had a hard time naming him so he became David "Tommy" Biggins, or as Jared nicknamed him, "DTB!" {said in a wanna-be gangsta voice}.

The kids absolutely loved the Elf. Everyday they would run downstairs and immediately try to find the Elf. It was actually a fight sometimes. Lots of mornings you would hear, "No fair! Carson found the Elf first! He always finds him first!"

The first thing David "Tommy" Biggins did, after introducing himself, was wrap the Christmas tree in toilet paper. I wasn't so great at the taking of pictures every day, but here is a sampling of some of our Elf's actions:

::TPing our Christmas tree
::making a snow angel out of sugar
::writing on the mirror with toothpaste
::spelling out Merry Christmas with Scrabble tiles
::making Chloe a Happy Birthday sign on her birthday.
::writing a message on the art easel
::drinking the syrup in the pantry
::making a snowflake out of Q-tips
::listening to the iPod shuffle
::eating Christmas treats
::in bed for our family's Christmas Slumber Party
::in the light with a Merry Christmas sign on Christmas Eve

 

One of my personal favorite things the Elf did was read Christ's Birth from the scriptures to all the stuffed animals in the house. It was perfect since that was what we were doing for FHE anyway!

 

Far and away the funniest Elf moment was due to Jared. Ok, so I wasn't that fantastic at moving the Elf everyday so sometimes Jared would have to pick up the slack and move it in the mornings before the kids would get up. That is the downside of having an Elf...sometimes forgetful mommies {ie: me} have to scramble at the last minute to put the Elf somewhere. The worst Elf moment was when I going to move the Elf somewhere so I picked it up and then must have gotten distracted by the computer so I put the Elf face down by the printer. Kaiya came running in to find the Elf and he was just face down. I was like, "Oh, looks like the Elf is sleeping! He must have been so exhausted that he crashed right here!"

Anyway, Jared decided to move the Elf onto Chloe's Rapunzel birthday cake. He propped up the Elf so that the Elf was hugging her and kissing her cheek. Well, the Elf must've fell a bit during the night, because when we woke up and the kids ran to her....

She loooked like....

This.....

Yep, that's right folks. Our Elf, David "Tommy" Biggins was motorboating Rapunzel!!!!


The kids were like, "What the?!?!"

I mean you are always going to find tons of fun creative things that Elves are doing at people's houses, after all there are all sorts of fun, creative mommies out there, but how many people can say that their kids woke up to their Elf motorboating Rapunzel?!

Not too many.

Guess we must be special... :)


Here is Chloe's Preschool Christmas Program. It is held at Miss Molly's house. It's informal and completely adorable!

Here's a few pics of the kids:

I even posted some videos.  Now I'm sure you won't bother with them unless you are family...and let's face it, if your family, you might bypass them too. But, they are pretty funny because it really showcases Chloe's personality.

When Carson did these little singing programs he would always sing loud, word for word, and do everything precisely right.

When Kaiya would have these little programs, she was so shy she wouldn't even get up there. If we somehow got her up there, then she would have her hands in her mouth, be looking down to avoid eye contact, and of course, not make a peep.

Well, take a look at Chloe:

Yeah, she's our free-spirit in the family. She just lives in her own little world. I'd like to visit her world sometime, because I'm pretty sure it's fantastic!

Here she is with her little graham cracker house she made:

Here's Christmas Eve at Grandma Earl's house. Carson was Joseph, Kaiya was Mary and Chloe was....Baby Jesus?!  

I know. That is all sorts of crazy. I would say that the Earl family needs to start producing some more babies if my 4 year old is baby Jesus, but then I was told by Kacey that Kaiya informed her that Asher's services were not required because Chloe would be playing baby Jesus. 

Well, baby Jesus IS a plum role in the whole nativity performance, so I guess I gotta give mad props to Kaiya for forcefully getting that part for her sister. After all, I'm pretty sure four YEARS old is the very last time she'll get to be baby Jesus...

I gotta say that this 4 year old Asian girl baby Jesus was definitely something you don't see everyday. A creative decision not often seen, but an inspired choice nonetheless. :)

Here we are at my parents' house Christmas Eve. The kids got to open up a few presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

One of the best parts of the night was when Carson gave the girls some "gifts" he had wrapped. Jared and I were teasing him about regifting things from his room. After all, the kids each picked out something for the other from the store so they had gifts to each other already. In response to our teasing, Carson responded with, "Hey...they say one man's trash is another man's treasure!"  We were all laughing because it was so funny.

Then the girls opened their "gifts."  It ended up being stuff that the girls always play with in his room and that they LOVE. He knew how much they loved those things so he wrapped the things up for them. It was actually REALLY sweet. It made Jared and I feel a little bad for teasing him about it. The girls were super excited too.

Another super sweet gift was this little bear figurine Kaiya gave Chloe. At school there were special Christmas prizes/gifts that Mrs. S. had for the kids if their name was drawn from the bucket. To get your name in the bucket you have to have good behavior, working hard, etc. Earlier in the month, Kaiya had said that she knew Chloe would love one of those so Kaiya said she was working extra hard at being good.  Everyday in December she would come home dejected because she hadn't had her name drawn out of the bucket and was getting worried that she wasn't going to have that gift for her sister for Christmas. Finally on the last day of school before break, Kaiya's name was drawn and she was so excited when she came home from school that day. She promptly put the present under the tree for Chloe and was super excited for Chloe to open it. It was a really sweet moment. And of course, I forgot to take a picture of it...

The rest of Christmas Eve---Craig reading Chloe her new book.

Kaiya playing her new game from Craig:

Carson doing his new puzzles from Craig:

Christmas day!!!! Here the kids are inspecting their new toys:

Carson got a Nook Color from Santa:

Kaiya got an American Girl doll from Santa that looks just like her!

Here's Chloe with her Santa Gift---It was a dollhouse---a Modern one...isn't that a hoot!

Chloe was pretty funny with her gifts. Just like her birthday, she would silently open them, stare at them, not comment or smile or anything, and then move onto the next one.

 

Other gifts included an XBOX 360/Kinect with games. The kids were so excited and eager to get home.

Once we got home, they were thrilled with all their new gifts. They have been loving the Xbox and Kinect. The girls have been playing the dollhouse together the whole break and Kaiya has been doing everything with her new doll, which she named Claire.

Christmas break was really nice this year. It was definitely full of the Christmas Spirit. The kids got along and we thoroughly enjoyed each others' company. It was very bittersweet to go back to the daily grind.