Have I mentioned how much I love Elf on the Shelf? I know that it’s popular for moms to complain or hate the elf, but I LOVE it. The boys are so amused every day. The jump out of bed to run downstairs and find it. And then they run back upstairs to tell Nate and I where the elf is and what silly thing he is doing. They notice small details and they think the elf is hilarious. It is absolutely magic every day.
Augustus continues to spend Mondays and Wednesdays with Grandma Debbie and love hanging out with her. Between painting, science projects, trips to the play area at the mall, and unlimited fruit snacks, it’s pretty much a kid’s dream. In January, he will be in school 4 days a week and I know he will miss having as much time with Grandma as he has right now.
On Friday the news was predicting blizzard levels of snow. Xander’s school cancelled at 1pm and it was good that they did as the snow was coming down! By Saturday morning, we had 21 inches! However, a blizzard didn’t stop neighborhood Friday happy hour. We bundled up and let the snow come down around us. The temperature wasn’t terribly cold, so it was a nice night to be outside (as far as blizzards go).
The remains of our remote control. 
21 inches of snow- bulldogs are way to delicate to be expected to climb through all that to go outside. 
Working from home is great for so many reasons. I don’t have to brave the traffic in a blizzard, I can do laundry throughout the day. I rarely have to wear real pants. And our sweet needy puppies don’t have to be left alone very often. However, when they were loudly playing in my office and I needed to be on a call, they got locked out for 30 minutes and in that time, they destroyed the tv remote, just in case I wasn’t aware how much they disliked being kicked out of OUR office. Other than that, they are wonderful companions during the day.
On Saturday, we had Skylar and Phoebe over for a very fun holiday playdate. First we made our own pizzas for lunch. They played while lunch cooked. After eating lunch and more playing, we decorated gingerbread houses. As if that wasn’t enough fun for a day, after all of that, we all met up with other KBH friends for the first sledding of the winter.
My pinterest/instagram mom aspirations continue to go well as I theme lunches (and many breakfasts as well). “Hey, what do you want to eat?” is typically met with, “something fun and surprising” by both boys. I did this to myself- Christine warned me not to make lunches too fun. But last week was fun, and I have a lot of fun ideas to try out this week, so that’s where we are at.
Today the boys played a lot and then we all went sledding in the afternoon. It’s super snowy, but also pretty warm, so it’s ideal sledding weather.
We are traveling for Christmas, so we emailed Santa to ask him for an early delivery, so he will be visiting our house next Saturday night. That means we only have one more week with the elf, the countdown calendar, Christmas themed meals and all of the excitement of waiting for Christmas! We’re going to cram as much holiday cheer into the week as we can!!