Decorating for Christmas and Jingle's arrival

The next two weeks of track break we were LAZY.  I mean so very lazy.  There were days we never got out of jammies... naps (if the happened) took place at odd times of the day.  Bed times were never at the normal time.  Hair didn't always get brushed.  It was kind of awesome, but at the same time it was a kick in the pants to get back on  schedule once school started.  Yikes!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Charlie's family and just took it easy.  Nothing much to report there.  Just oh so thankful for family to spend the time with!

The winter like weather was brutal for us to come home to.  We left when it was fall and then came home to massive snow.  All it did for me was make me ITCH to want to get ready for Christmas.  I used to wait until the Fri/Sat/Sun after Thanksgiving and I'd spend all three days decorating.  Last year Charlie placated me and let me put up our tree early and then I just went to town on the house.  This year I was just as bad.  Our neighbors behind us put up their tree really early and I was jealous!  ha ha ha.  Anyway, he brought in my massive amount of buckets the weekend before Thanksgiving and then we got everything up over the next few days.  Natalia and Lydia loved helping me pull things out of the buckets and being assigned spots to put their items, it was super cute.

Remember my supposedly awesome 9ft tree I got on Craigslist after Christmas last year for $20??  well, it's definitely not 9ft, maybe it's 8ft, and it's so freaking wide that we had to rearrange the living room to have it fit.  The spot we put the tree in last year wouldn't work because this tree would have completely blocked the TV.  But, once up and decorated I actually really like it, massiveness and all.  The girls loved putting on the ornaments and I had to do everything in my power to move their ornaments around to comply with my OCD ha ha ha.  Over the next couple of days Charlie was a trooper and put up the outside lights on not only the first floor but also the second floor and I love it.  I did my usual stuff down below, but got some extra color lights on clearance last year to help fill it in.  Because I used all my extra white lights that I had bought last year on the tree this year I didn't get to try and put garland around the dinning room windows like I had wanted. So that will have to wait another year again.  =)  But otherwise I love how the house looks and I know once it  all goes away it's going to seem so bare to me!! (I need to get decent pictures of the whole interior/exterior of the house all decorated.  I just want it to be clean for more than two minutes so I can get it done! When I do get around to it I'll be sure to post them in the Facebook album Christmas 2014, so keep an eye out for that!)

Something really big and new this year was new stockings for the family.  Back in college with roommates we had those regular red fuzzy stockings and we used green felt glued to the white fuzzy to spell our name.  When Charlie and I got married I made one for him as well, then Natalia and Lydia too.  Last Christmas some soap or something spilled on mine in the bin and it was pretty gross.  I knew eventually I wanted to have nice stockings with embroidery etc, but didn't want to spend the money just yet.  This year I felt like now our family is complete so why not go for it and get us the fun new official family stockings.  They came the same week I was decorating and I LOVE THEM.  They turned out way better then I had imagined and I love how it looks on the fireplace.

We had the chance to go out on a date together while my mom was home with the kiddos so we thought we could get some Christmas shopping done.  So I took the girls to Target to check out the toy isle that day and then when we got home they made their Santa wish lists.  Natalia asked for Princess Twilight Sparkle with rainbow wings (which I had actually already bought on a whim thinking she would love it, score!) and Lydia following sister's footsteps wanted Fluttershy with rainbow wings.

I love that given the option of, very good, quite good, or a little bit naughty Lydia chose a little bit naughty!  ha ha ha

Natalia thought she had been all three; good, quite good, and a little bit naughty ;) 

Sunday after Thanksgiving, was our scheduled arrival of our Elf, Jingle!!  This year's Jingle jammies were a special order from the same lady who made our custom shirts for Disneyland.  And, I loved them so much that I wanted some of my own.  I didn't know how to explain to the girls if Jingle only brought me jammies and not daddy, so Charlie got stuck with some.  He was a good sport and wore them though.

Along with jammies Jingle brings them socks and an ornament.  

Waking up to find Jingle had arrived and checking out what she brought them

My babies!

 With Jingle's arrival is our traditional reindeer pancake breakfast to celebrate and welcome her into our home.  This is our third year doing this and each year has gotten more and more fun as the girls get more into it.

Lydia gets the concept of Jingle this year and is loving finding her.  Natalia of course is totally into it, and has been waking up WAY TOO early every day with excitement to find Jingle's new spot.  I started finding ideas a few months ago and kept a running list so that I wasn't scrambling for ideas each night.  Some of them have been way too over the top, I'm aware... and some I've tried to take it easy.  I've got both on my list for busy or slow nights.  Either way the excitement in their faces each morning finding her has totally made it worth it!
I'll try and do a blog post of all I've done this year at the end of the month instead of doing weekly posts like I did last year.  In the mean time I post on Instagram every day where she is.

**Natalia was SUPER naughty this year and cut her hair one afternoon.  It was a particularly tough day all around and while I was upstairs putting Quinton down for a nap she cut her hair.  I came downstairs to find her with the scissors and she was cutting crayons.  She got in trouble for that, and it wasn't until I went to throw something away did I find the hidden evidence to her indiscretion and found all the hair in the trash! UGH!  So Jingle left her an official warning that night!!

I'm finally getting caught up on my blogs!  WOO!  More Christmas fun to come.