Pre-Christmas Randomness 2018

Another better late than never post courtesy of Moi....

In other December happenings (before all of the celebrating)

Ella must have had an update on her braces (can't remember what, but her smile is looking fantastic!)

We visited with Santa Claus at....wait for it....HY-VEE!!  

He is a busy guy but we were so glad that he was able to meet with kiddos at the store!

On December 15th, Ella had her Winter Dance Show at FHS. 

She performed high kick and hip hop and she had some sweet friends attend both shows, 

so that was a fun and busy day!

Of course we had to bake up Christmas treats!

Let the Christmas parties begin!

Smurf Elf 2018!

Need to document what happened with our Elf over the Holidays 2018!!

He arrived on December 1st with a new Lego Advent Calendar for Ms. Ella!

Ella wanted to check-in with Smurf Elf and decided to leave a note!

December 2 - He's back with answers for Ella!

December 3 - working on a Word Find!

December 4 - Peeking under the tree - uh oh!

December 5 - Ella got a new Ornament with Smurf Elf on it!

December 6 - Just hanging around with a pair of Tiger Basketball Pants!

December 7 - Crafting to add more Holiday Cheer!

December 8 - Checking out the Christmas Cards we have received! 

(And Smurf Elf shared with Ella that he is 210 years old!)

December 9 - Checking out the Christmas Lights with a friend!

December 10 - Hiding in plain sight on the fridge!

December 11 - Taco Tuesday!

December 12 - Reading a Christmas book by Lego candlelight

December 13 - Tower of Toilet Paper!!

December 14 - Knock Knock…

December 15 - Getting close to the big day and loading up on some treats!

December 16 - Let's go Vikings!

December 17 - Found some yummy Oreo cookies!

December 18 - Sledding!

December 19 - Smurf Elf loves getting into mischief and loves Christmas bows!

December 20 - Pop Quiz to remember why we celebrate Christmas

December 21 - Smurf Elf brought Ella a fun needlepoint craft to make of Santa!

December 22 - We made it to Grandma Deb's and Smurf Elf found us there too!

Also, Ella left a little note for Smurf Elf about stealing donut holes and hoping to confirm that she is on the NICE LIST! We left donut holes and milk early for Santa because we were celebrating with Grandma Deb and of course Santa was making a special trip for this celebration!!

December 23 - Smurf Elf sat by Santa to watch over our early Christmas party!

December 24 - Smurf Elf decided to hang out in Ella's stocking to await his ride back to the North Pole with Santa!

Whew! Another fun December with Smurf Elf! 

(better late than never posting!!) 

HA!

December weekending....

Hello!  We have been busy enjoying the month of December around here!  

Let's see....

Our Elf on the Shelf, Smurf Elf, arrived on December 1st!  

Ella was pumped to get a new Advent calendar (Lego Friends)!

What else...we were Target shopping and Jay was so pumped because he found the game Crossfire which as you will see in a minute he received back in the '80s and it was so awesome (he says).  LOL!

Amazing...he spent some time digging in old photos and found the '80s Christmas picture 

when he received Crossfire for the first time.  :) 

Last weekend was a busy one! Ella started rec league basketball!
This is her first time playing basketball, but she is looking forward to it!
Her first game is this Saturday!

Also last weekend was our new annual tradition - Cozy Cocoa Christmas Cruise!! We headed out in our Christmas PJs for dinner (Panera), hot chocolate (Caribou) and then took a cruise around to check out Christmas lights!  It's so fun!  Next year though, Ella doesn't want to have hot cocoa so we'll just do cookies instead!

(Caribou selfie)

(Car selfie - off we go!)

 All the light displays we saw were awesome and choreographed to music...

 (Home selfie attempting to get a better PJ picture)

And because it's part of who we are...a few of the not great selfies...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Ella also had the church Christmas program last Sunday. She didn't have a speaking part (whew!) but she was in the choir. It was so fun to sing all the great songs we have at this time of year!!

 She was the first in line this year and she thought that was so cool!

 Jay's parents were able to join us!

So they snapped a picture of us too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!