Elf On The Shelf & Trimming The Tree

This morning Autumn & I got up and I got dressed in grungy clothes so we could go over to the old house and clean some more.  Mom had used an overnight oven cleaner, so we went over to wipe it all out.  There was some black crystallized stuff in the back of the oven from the previous owners that was still stuck on, so I cleaned out as much as I could and then resprayed it w/ the oven cleaner so it could sit overnight again.  I also vacuumed Nick’s room & Autumn’s room and by this time it was 11:00 & we were both starving since we hadn’t had breakfast.  We went over to Mom & Dad’s and Jon had just gotten back from the store w/ a surprise for the kids.  It’s the video about the Elf on the Shelf.  So, we watched the video together and then tomorrow morning they are both going to find their very own surprise elf on the shelf b/c I have direct connections to the North Pole!

(I have no idea why one of my eyes looks wonky).

Since Thanksgiving is over, Autumn has been asking non-stop if it’s Christmas yet and I keep telling her no.  So, I decided that we would make a countdown to Christmas chain so she could have something tangible to count down the days.  We cut out all the red strips and Lexie & Andrew cut out all the green strips and then we shared with each other.  Andrew did so good and even wrote his own numbers!  Autumn was so proud of her chain and I know this will be fun for her to rip a chain off every night.

Autumn has been on a singing kick lately even though she is way off key.  Mom said she would play the piano and let the kids pick songs they wanted her to play out of the Children’s Song Book.  They had fun singing along to her playing.  Then she played “O, That I Were An Angel” and Lexie sang to that.  It was really beautiful and Mom said that used to be one of Grandpa Jay’s favorite songs and too bad he wasn’t alive to hear Lexie sing it.  I’m glad that we’re such a musical family.

Even though we were both super tired, we bit the bullet and started to put up the Christmas tree.  We have our system down…we put a layer of branches and then a layer of Christmas lights and then the next layer of branches and so on.  We also play Christmas music on a little CD player while we work.  You can see part of Jackson in his bouncy chair in the bottom right hand corner of the picture.  Every time we walked by him, we had to smile and say his name so he wouldn’t be fussy.

We ran into a little problem b/c we ran out of lights since we had 4 long strands where only 1/2 of the lights would light up.  So, we took a break until Dad got home so he could show us where some more lights were.  I finally got tired of waiting and wanted to finish so we could be done, so I put the lit part of the lights on the tree and hid the part that wasn’t lit in the back of the tree where you can’t see it.  It’s super ghetto, but oh well.  I told Lexie she had to climb up on the step ladder to up on the top of the tree b/c I am too heavy and would break the ladder.  She said I had to hold her legs while she leaned over and next thing I know, her butt is in my face.  We always have a good time putting up the tree!

Once we were done, we let the kids put the decorations on the tree.  We always put on some little lanterns that Mom & Dad got in Turkey when we lived in Germany.  Then we always put white starched crocheted snowflakes that Great Grandma Taft made.  This is the first year we let the kids help, and even though they put some of the decorations too close together, who cares?  They had a great time doing it and now when they look at the tree they can be proud that they had a part in making it look so festive.  This is going to be a great Christmas b/c they are old enough to understand what is going on and be excited about it.

Mom & Lexie & I put the hanging hooks on the ornaments and then the kids would put them on, or hand them to Dad to hang up high.  He decided that mine & Lexie’s ghetto lighting job needed to be fixed so he added some lights to the top of the tree.

Once the tree was up and we had vacuumed up the “needles” that fell off, it was time for Andrew’s favorite part…the train.  Dad set up the track and they all laid on their bellies to watch it go around.

The train made it around twice and then just started spinning its wheels but wouldn’t go anywhere.  So Dad looked at it to see what was wrong and in the process it broke beyond repair.  It was a sad day, b/c that train has been part of our Christmas tradition since 1993.  So, we gave it to the kids and let them play w/ it.  You would have thought from the look on their faces that it was already Christmas morning!

Mom made 2 huge pots of soup and we ate that for lunch & then for dinner b/c it was so good and hit the spot.  Lexie & Jon took the kids and went home tonight so they can go to church tomorrow.  It was so fun having them here this weekend.  Autumn & I came home to unpack some more and relax from all the fun we’ve had the past few days.