Perfect Christmas?

Our sermon this morning was from Luke and reflected on Mary, mother of Jesus, and her visit from the angel which informed her that she would bear the Son of God.  Our Pastor reflected upon his own Christmas experiences and recounted the typical kind of Christmas mornings we all experience but how that all changed when he turned 11 after his parents divorced.  He talked a bit of the mad dash and the engagements which were expected and how it just steals the joy out of everything.

It made me reflect on my own Christmas experiences, which were always full of commitments and obligations.  My parents were divorced before I had any memories of a home family Christmas, so all I ever knew was the Christmas Eve with Dad, Christmas Day with Mom.  The back and forth shuffles.  It didn't bother me because that's all I knew. 

Now it's even crazier however.  I guess the lucky aspect from my childhood was that my grandparents would come stay with us for the holiday.  So we didn't have to go to Grandma's house.  The downside to that was the presents from grandma and grandpa were combined with those from my mom and step dad and from Santa so there was this WOW factor each morning.  I'm sure they spent time strategically placing each gift to give the biggest impact.  (As I do now!)  I say this was a downside only because now I try to capture that same wow factor for my children but it takes A LOT of presents to do that.  My husband just shakes his head and sighs.  He knows there's no stopping me!

Now with the kids we find ourselves schlepping all over town beginning Christmas Eve dinner with my husband's entire family, home by midnight.  But the real work then begins.  The kids are put into bed and the presents are pulled out from every nook and cranny, wrapped, tagged and strategically placed.  Thankfully my kids often sleep pretty good that night.  Then we have our own small Christmas morning, then we hustle off to the Grandparent's house (my in-laws) once again because Santa also leaves presents there for our kids wink, wink.  We have left over tamales for a Christmas brunch and open presents and stay as long as we can without being rude.  Then load up the car and race home so we can host my own family coming over for Christmas dinner and more presents from my mother. 

There have been so many times I've actually wished we lived too far away...  Each year a Christmas Cruise to Hawaii or something sounds better and better!

But our Pastor talked about God's perfect plan which was in actuality man's mess!  Mary, a young girl, although betrothed, still unwed and pregnant.  The gossip, the rumors, the hurt she must have experienced being shunned by others.  Yet she had faith and she never said "Um...  No thank you." 

So every year I have to say is a perfect Christmas.  A perfectly messy, perfectly chaotic, perfectly exhausting Christmas. It's not Normal Rockwell, but it's our memories and my kids will have great ones!  Here's a little bit of the stuff we did this week...

As Bella and Lily called her, here is "Baby Gaga!"

The girls looked so pretty getting ready for church.  (Please dont judge me based upon our breakfast, this is what happens when I'm trying to get 4 kids out the door on time for church by myself!)

Then we went to go see Santa Claus!  He was one of the best Santa's I've ever seen!

After we saw Santa we got some Kettle Corn then went into Macy's where the kids wrote letters to Santa at the "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" station. 

 LOVE seeing my son helping his sisters!

Scarlett even scribbled her own letter...

So, what is your idea of a perfect Christmas?

Candys Troubles Are As Sweet As Her Name

So it's been another crazy week in the Ruvi house...  With major deadlines at work, tons of crochet hat orders to fill, and a craft fair it's all starting to blur together as if we've fallen into a weird time loop vortex in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  I can see myself spinning as I fall through a black and white swirl where the edges of the frame get all distorted and some ominous music plays in the back ground.

However, I've managed to keep up with Candy Cane, our Elf, quite successfully and creatively through it all.  Here are photos to inspire you with your elf stories perhaps...

First daddy even got in the fun by helping hang Candy from the ceiling...

The girls had a lot of fun finding her...

Then Candy Cane found the chocolate advent calendars that Grandma had bought for the kids, Candy tried to wrap them, opened and ate some, then got tangled up in the tape!

Then Candy Cane continued our annual paper chain tradition.  We hadn't assembled one yet, and normally I wouldn't spend money on something we could do for free at home, but it was late, I was out of inspiration for that evening, and was wandering aisles at our local Target, when in the $1 bins I found pre cut strips of Christmas paper specifically for paper chains.  In my mind $1 was worth my sanity.

But last night was great, Candy made mom a little mad because she got into the good make-up.  Then, not only did she use mommy's new lipstick, but after applying the lipstick, Candy Cane kissed daddy all over his bald head!

I was pretty proud of myself for relying more on my own creativity than those inspired by Pinterest.  Hopefully I can keep up the magic a few more days.  As my kids so kindly remind me every three minutes or so...

Only 16 more days left!

Oh the joys of being a kid!

It's been a very long week, one of those weeks where it feels like there never truly was a weekend because your weekend was busier than the work week and so I just know this week at the office will feel twice as long as well!  It doesn't help that I have been fighting some kind of virus off and on for the last 3 weeks now, it just keeps going around and around the office. 

But atleast we've managed to keep up with our Elf on the Shelf, Lilyana here is enjoying the Monopoly game that Candy Cane was playing vs. Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Scooby Doo and her Fijit Friend.

Several times during the day we've had to relocate our elf to keep her away from baby sister Scarlett, but any attempt I made caused major drama since it is said if a human touches the elf the elf will lose its magic, so I got creative...

I've been busy all week crocheting several hat orders which the money goes towards all the Christmas shopping which must get done when you have four kids.  Scarlett here is modeling one of my latest hat orders...

We also had a major life milestone for little miss Lily, she lost her very first tooth!  She was so excited, but guess what?  The tooth fairy got stuck in the major storm that came through our area.  She didn't make it.  (Well, you know that just means mommy messed up!)  So the second night Tooth Fairy left a lovely note explaining how she can't fly when her wings get wet...

We finally got the interior decorated and ready for Christmas which is always a major undertaking.  Our artificial prelit tree has seen better days and half the strands were burned out, so we still had to string lights on it.  Of course the older an artificial tree gets, the more time you must spend fluffing and artfully arranging each branch, and the larger the ornaments get to hide the gaps.  But in the end, it's always beautiful.

Once she, (she as in our tree) was completed, I had to go back out into the storm with my two older girls to get invitations for their upcoming birthday party.  Yes, 2 kids in December.  That was poor planning, or really, no planning on our part!  So off to the party store we went to get iCarly invitations and adhesive fake mustaches for party favors.  The girls are getting excited, can't you tell?

Elf Trouble!

Candy Cane has been in some big pickles this past week and momma is not happy with all the messes she leaves behind.  It's been a busy week and the postings haven't been as constant as we had originally planned.  But Candy has been on the move, no doubt about it.

We'll catch you up on the latest happenings...

First there was the Monopoly game, Mickey & Minnie were able to score Disney World as their first property

  

Then there was Elf Graffiti...

Then Candy was roasting s'mores

 Then she was losing BIG TIME in Mario Kart Wii, it's hard to see her in this picture...

Miss Candy Cane must have gotten cold on those nightly trips back to the North Pole to report on all to the Big Guy so she crochet herself a scarf! 

Then both of us over did our selves friday night and completely forgot!  (Oh No!)  Mom woke up early Saturday morning in a panic and with little creativity so early she just stuck elf at the top of the tree since we hadn't trimmed it yet and there was no tree topper.  

However, tonight we made up for it, and our creative juices were flowing!  Candy Cane is wearing Santa's boots and she's walking on the ceiling!  

Dad even joined in the fun tonight, making sure mom had used enough duct tape!

People have been sending us other creative ideas that we're looking forward to trying out real soon!  Remember, if you have any good ideas, please comment and leave them below, if we use your idea we'll feature it.

Only 23 more days!

Day 4: Reflections

Our home has 4 full bathrooms.  (Please know I'm not bragging, more like complaining, especially since my 5 year old is scared to flush a toilet right now, so you might end up with an unwelcome surprise).  The most logical place to do the elf graffiti would have been the girls' bathroom but that would have been too difficult to manage since it's right next to their bedroom.  So we set it up in my son's bathroom.  

Although my son is setting up each scenario, he is still playing the part in the mornings.  So when the kids got up in the morning to get ready for school, he stumbled into his bathroom and instantly called for his sisters.  They came flying down the stairs, tousled hair and pj's.  I think it took them a minute to figure out what Candy Cane had done.  Their first reaction of course was almost fear, like they were going to get in trouble for the markings on the mirrors.  I huffed and puffed and grumbled about how elves better start cleaning up their own messes.  However, there's not enough magic in the world for that to happen!

(Now, I must confess, this might not have been the brightest idea because it might give the kids the idea that it's ok to color on walls and other inanimate objects.  I'll let you know if that comes to fruition!)

Although we're really good at taking pictures of each set up, I'm horrible in following up with pictures of the girls discovering Candy each morning.  The morning work/school routine just makes it too difficult.  

Night 4: Elf Graffiti

So the other night little Candy Cane got very naughty and was tagging.  We actually had alot of fun using white-board, dry erase markers to graffiti all over the bathroom mirror.  We saw this idea on pinterest originally.  My mom drew a Santa beard and moustache right above the sink, so when you stand there it looks like it's on your face. 

Notice I am on the naughty list with my two older sisters and yet Miss Scarlett is the only one on the nice list?  My mom did that, but I protest, it should be the other way around!  My dad got a laugh over the Santa beard though when he went to wash his hands because it lined up perfectly. 

 

My mom put on a big show in the morning proclaiming that Elf needs to start cleaning up her own messes. 

Day 3: Elf Hunting

Yesterday morning was the first day back to school for my kids following the week long Thanksgiving break.  My 5 year old, Lilyana, is always a bear to wake up in the mornings.  I come in to their room each morning singing, "Good morning, Go-o-od morning, ain't it great to stay up late?!"  The lights are turned on bright and I do a body rub down to start to stir her, and she normally finds the edge of her covers and pull them over her head and pulls it tight so I can't remove her covers.  Then we transition into a full-on tickle war so she loosens her grip on her covers and I yank them off.  It takes the two girls about 20 minutes simply to get dressed.  However, yesterday was different.  I went in to wake them up and they both popped up like bread out of a toaster.  There was a rush of sleepy words, "Can we go find Candy Cane before we get dressed?  Please?  Pretty Please?"  I used my cell phone to capture video of them searching the house and I told them they only had 3 minutes to find her.

They raced downstairs and first searched near the fish tank where Candy Cane was fishing the morning before.  I gently hinted that she might be in a different room this time.  They each passed right by her at least 3 times.  Time was up, I told them to start getting ready and maybe they'd find her when they weren't exactly looking for her, and just then my 5 year old let out a squeal and a giggle as she spotted Candy Cane stuck in our vase.  I was still capturing video and caught my 5 year old gingerly touch Candy Cane.  

I'm trying to find a way to get the video loaded to share, but it's not working right now.  But as we played it back my 7 year old, Isabella caught Lily touching the elf on the play back.  Lily denied it, until she saw it herself on camera.  She was embarrassed.  It was cute.