This week we were up early every day, excited to see what the Elf was up to. We’re reading lots of Christmas books, updating the list for Santa, and all things holiday cheer. The elf made a tiny gingerbread house, real life candy crush, brought “star-bucks”- never a dull moment.
Augustus is a combination of the sweetest kid I’ve ever met and also a tiny gremlin. When he saw the tiny gingerbread house, he rushed to wake me up first thing in the morning, whispering, “the elf did something so adorable!” And later in the day he said, “I hope the elf leaves the gingerbread house for us, because I want to put it in between our gingerbread houses!”
The next day, when the eld did leave it, he had it in his hand and said, “I’m gonna eat this!” I said it was fine as long as Xander didn’t care, and he didn’t care, so Gussie munched the whole thing down. “It’s crackers!” But it turns out that wheat thins and royal icing is a good combination because he ate the whole thing.
Also a Gussie quote from this week-
**Deep sigh, pensive look, out of the blue, “I’d like to catch a butterfly….”
“I’d eat it for protein.”
Maybe he was growing this week and needed some extra snacks.
The early mornings are making me crazy, but I am trying to savor every moment of their excitement. Recently Xander said, “I’m wondering if maybe you aren’t the elf” and I had to force myself to stay calm, but also not lie to him. I said, “and why do you think that?” and he said, “I don’t know, I’m just wondering.” But then he moved on and didn’t say much more about it.
I don’t want to lie. I also don’t want my children to be weirdos who believe in Santa at a much too old age. But I don’t know what age that is- it’s not 2nd grade though, is it?! I hope not! I’ve been hopping out of bed since then, trying to savor the moments of excitement and awe.
Also I bought a non-religious book about the true meaning of Christmas being that people are the reason behind the magic and that holidays bring out the best in people. I wanted to have it on hand for the day that one of the boys really does decide Santa’s fake. It’s a gorgeous book and while I did almost burst into tears while reading it, I think it will be a really good way to transition them when they eventually figure it out. I hope more than anything that they will understand that the elf and Santa and the easter bunny (also tooth fairy and leprechaun) really were magic, just not in the sense of a real life creature sneaking into our house. But that I have put in hours of planning, crafting, and effort to try to surprise and delight them every day. I’m not sure it will translate, but I hope some day it will.
On Friday night, we had an impromptu dinner for 10 at a nearby Mexican restaurant with Silas, Kelly, their kids, Aaron and Melissa. We laughed, we ate nachos, had happy hour drinks, it was fantastic.
On Saturday, the boys played all day while I spent the entire morning working on the magazine.
Saturday night, our neighbor Olive came over to babysit the boys, which they were super excited about. Nate and I went to our neighbor Rachel’s Hanukkah party, which was fantastic. The food was amazing- the best brisket I’ve ever eaten, latkes, dips, desserts. We ate, drank, laughed, and stayed up way too late for how early we are getting up.
On Sunday, we joined Grandma Debbie, and also Christine and Lucas for the North Pole Express. You board a train at Union Depot, and ride to “the North Pole”. My mom bought the tickets and I have been so buried with work, I didn’t even bother looking up what we were doing. I think I ended up enjoying it even more than the kids- they were given stationary to write letters to Santa, hot cocoa, and then a series of performers (a magician, a musician, a singing fairy princess) came through and entertained us. Outside the train was decorated like the North pole, so there was Santa’s workshop, elves that were doing silly things, etc. Then Santa arrives and each kid gets to visit with him and give him their letter.
It was such a cute experience and I was just utterly delighted with each new part.
When we got home, the whole family scattered- Xander went to see if Joe wanted to talk about Pokemon. Gussie went to play with Sam and Abby. Nate went to watch the football game with Silas and Kelly. I was exhausted from our late night on Saturday, but I ended up making some cookies and then heading down to Kelly and Silas’s house. We ordered pizzas and watched the game and the kids ran around and played. It was super fun.
At this point, we’ve had too much fun and holiday cheer and I’m exhausted and ready for a quiet week.