This year, Santa must have decided with all the shenanigans that go on at our house, he needed an extra set of eyes. December 3rd, we walked into our living room to discover a wrapped gift under our tree addressed to the Glass family.
The boys tore into it to discover our very own Elf on a Shelf. Callie and Bryce have one, so the kids knew basically what it was.
Lance was NOT pleased. The idea of a little person watching him didn't sit too well. You're supposed to name your elf when you get him and Lance wanted to name him "Creeper". We bounced around a few different names and finally agreed on "Ze" (an affectionate shout-out to a favorite video blogger of George's named "
Ze-Frank" and his
hilarious online show from back in the day).
So what does Ze do? Well, during the day, nothing. He sits, he watches, he listens. At night is when the magic happens. According to the book that came with him, once everyone is asleep, Ze flies back to Santa and reports to him about all the good and bad things that happened in the Glass household. Then, he again magically flies back to our house and positions himself in a new place every morning. When Lance learned this, he almost tearfully said that if he ever found Ze in his room when he woke up, he'd throw him away. Poor guy. I'm sure Santa had no idea his little helper would cause such anxiety.
It was fun! Every morning the kids (mostly Jude) would wake up and ask where Ze was. They'd run around the house trying to find him and would get all excited when they finally discovered his newest hiding place.
After a couple weeks, Ze did, in fact, sneak into Lance's room one morning and while he didn't get thrown away, Lance wasn't very happy.
This little girl continues to bring joy and laughter to our lives. She has so much personality bottled up inside her tiny frame.
Love this thing!
Remember all those leaves we had? Well, a week later, most of them were still in our yard. Never again will I wait until the trees are bare to begin the job. One day I convinced the boys to have a contest to see who could bag the most leaves, promising a $5 reward to the person who won.
It was amazing how motived they were after that! It was fun and kept them motivated for 30 minutes before it devolved into throwing leaves and shooting each other with bazookas they made out of sticks.
Bender has hit that crazy age. You know how people talk about the moody, rebellious teen years? I totally believe dogs go through it too. Bender has been beyond obnoxious lately. It's no wonder that most of the dogs up for adoption and on craigslist are between the ages of 6 months and a year. It's tough! I can understand how someone would throw in the towel, but we made a promise to Bender and we're sticking it out.
He really is a good dog--smart, very loving, willing to please. He's just crazy. He chews up our things and will destroy just about anything we leave on the ground. Every time I turn around, he has something else in his mouth. All I can say is, it's a good thing he's cute.
The kids sure do love him. Cole is constantly crooning about what a good dog he his and how much he loves "my little puppy". He'll try to snuggle him whenever he sees Bender laying down. Bender's usually a good sport about it and endures the love as long as he can before getting up and walking away.
Even Lily gets in on the action. She'll laugh and laugh while she chases Bender around.
Buddies.
Really, these two share a special bond.
Mid-December, our friends invited us over for a Christmas party and a very special guest arrived.
Santa! Jude and Cole were both a little hesitant to sit on his lap, but were brave and told him what they wanted for Christmas.
Jude asked for "Trap Team".
Cole walked up and stated "Thomas" even before Santa could ask his question. :)
Yeah, Santa is kinda scary.
Since we live so close to the woods, we get a lot of visitors to our back yard. One day I looked out and saw a couple woodpeckers and several blue jays. So pretty.
And it wouldn't be the Christmas season without some Christmas cookies. One day while Lance was at school, I sat on my hands and fought back my perfectionist self and let Jude and Cole roll out their own cookies.
They had a ball.
Trying his hand at rolling.
Once Lance got home, we decorated them.
Cole mostly squirted icing on his cookie, licked it off, and squirted more.
He did this several times until he had a plate full of moist, blueish cookies.
We let him just keep his cookies.
Jude worked hard.
Jude told me his cookie was covered in "lava and moose eggs". Um, yum?
Lance pays attention to detail and did a great job on his cookies.
Here are mine!
George had been working nights, so when he got up he joined in the fun and decorated his own cookie.
He grabbed a snowman cookie and set to work.
At least it's original. :)
