Chinese Christmas

One of my favorite parties at Christmas time is when we have our Chinese gift exchange with my dad's whole extended side of the family. We have a great family full of lots of laugh and love. This year was bittersweet because we lost my Great-Uncle Perry a few months ago. I know it was hard for his kids and my Granny but they made it through the day. I remember the first Christmas after my dad passed away and how hard I knew it would be. I seriously didn't even want to go to family events like this because I just couldn't imagine my dad not being there. It was hard but after i sucked it up and went it actually ended up being very comforting for me. My family is my life-line and I needed them like they needed me to make it through. I know that this year will be so hard for my Aunt Winnie, Brian, Clayton and Nicole - I will have some special prayers coming their way. We have done this exchange since I was a little girl (seriously WAY before anyone had ever heard of it) We used to have to explain what type of gift exchange it was all the time. I think my aunt is the one who heard about it and wanted us to start doing it. I am so glad that we do! It is one of the only times that we get to see all that family. After this many years we have had a lot of great gifts and then a few of the worst gifts including car wheel spinners from Wal-Mart, a GIANT black bra that my 14 yr old cousin opened, this nasty dollar store cologne called "Talley Ho" and the famous adult sized pink onesie! Hilarious! This year did not disappoint! The good thing is that we always pair those awful gag gifts with a gift card so no one is stuck with crap. It was hosted by my aunts this year at Granny's house and there was SOOOOO much food - seriously ridiculous!! I should have snapped a picture. Here are a few that I did snap...

Jingle Bell Run 2011

Another year down...another year where we did not run the 5k...maybe next year??? Oh well, we still had a blast!

Surviving Santa

This year (like last) has been a little out of control with the Santa. Last year we received an elf named Marty that came from the North Pole to watch the boys and report back to Santa each night on their behavior. Now there are a few things we have learned about Marty that I thought other families with elves might appreciate knowing.

Incident #1 -
One morning Nolan woke up and Marty was in the same place as the day before. This is not a good situation because he is supposed to go to the North Pole every night and when he comes back he is in a different location in the house. This caused a short meltdown followed by a quick response from dad. You see, the elves have days off just like people do. They don't have a set Saturday/Sunday (because this is their busy season) but they do get a few days off during the holidays and we never know when they will be. Must have just been Marty's day off! (We also heard that friend's elf just likes to "play tricks" sometimes and goes back to the same location just to see if the children are paying attention...this could have been the case as well.)

Incident #2 -
One day Marty decided to sit on top of a little lamp in our living room. Since elves are magical, the rules state that you are not allowed to touch them. (They would lose their powers and they would not be able to get back to the North Pole.) The elves are always perched up high on shelves and on top of ledges for that reason. When Marty decided to sit on that lamp it was a little to close for Hudson to resist. He threw a fit over Marty for most of the day. He wanted to hold him and ended up melting down and calling the situation "stupid" which then made Nolan flip out because Hudson was throwing a fit and saying bad words right in front of Marty! Gasp! He was sure that Santa was not going to come to our house after this report! We had to explain to Nolan that Santa goes to all houses. He just doesn't bring presents to the kids that are on the naughty list. He was satisfied once he realized that Hud's bad behavior would not be his problem. Ugh! (This little ordeal prompted a personalized video from Santa for Hudson where he specifically told Hud to "Stop throwing those silly tantrums!" and to let him know that there was a note in his file and Hudson is currently on "naughty watch" over those fits. That was some scary stuff for Nolan to take in. (Hudson couldn't have cared less.) When he saw that Santa knew all about Hudson it made him think about things. Yikes! Good thing in Nolan's video from Santa he told Nolan that he knew he was "trying" to be nice to his brother - but he thought Nolan could probably "try" a little harder. The videos were awesome and they came from this new magical site that Santa has set up called www.portablenorthpole.tv.)

Incident #3 -
Hudson's best friend from school Eden has an elf named Jordy. One day her mother was putting something up in the book shelf where Jordy was sitting and it caused the shelf to move and Jordy fell onto the floor face down. Poor little Jordy! Eden wanted to run and pick him up but the 7 year old knew this was not okay and began screaming because Jordy would lose his magical powers!! What a dilemma! Luckily their mamma knew just what to do and she called the North Pole Hotline. (This is the same number sometimes used by parents to call in a bad behavior report - they just route you to a different department for the Elf help desk.) Thank goodness they were able to give her prompt advice - use kitchen tongs! If they could pick the elf up with some tongs and place him back on the shelf quickly he would not lose his powers. If you don't have a pair of tongs you might want to invest in a set because it's going to be a long month!

I hope these little tidbits that we have learned over the past week will help alleviate some of your holiday Santa stress. :)

Advent Calendars

MiMi bought the boys Advent calendars last week to start off the season and count down the days until Christmas. We are also doing a blessing tree from church. (Where you write down a different blessing on the tree everyday leading up to Christmas and then celebrate those all those blessings on Christmas.) Hudson threw a huge fit over the Advent calendar as soon as he figured out there was candy behind every little flap. As you can see from the picture below - looks like Christmas came early this year for Hud. Ugh! What are we gonna do with this kid?

Astraea and her Nana

My aunt Patty asked if I would take a few pictures of her with Astraea so she could send them with her Christmas cards. I think they turned out super cute - of course how could they be bad with two beautiful models?

Christmas Lights

Scott pulled down all the yard stuff on Saturday when it was actually a little warmer. Hudson came out to "help" but ended up spending most of his time lovin on Rox and hammering a tree. :)




She always looks so sad but I promise she isn't. She is just very "chill".

Obama's Homework Policy

Nolan found an Obama mask that Scott bought last year for Halloween (don't ask!) and thought it was so cool. He asked if he could wear it to play "president". Hilarious! Of course Scott told him he could have it. Nolan has been wearing it off and on over the past few weeks. Last week I told Nolan to get started on his homework and I went to change the sheets on my bed. When I came back this is how I found Nolan, dead serious doing his homework. Um, right!