We now interrupt this bevy of flash-back posts to bring you breaking news: Logan just left with his friend Sam for his very first sleep over. He’s been psyched about it for at least a week now. Hopefully they actually sleep ;)

Sam came over to help Logan carry his stuff down. Camera-happy mom snapped a pic (these two are obviously planning a heavily-armed set of activities for the evening!)

Google eyes….

Due to various social commitments, holiday parties, Bears games and one 4-year-old’s rocking birthday party, we were unable to get our Christmas tree until the 11th of December (gasp!) But, we reasoned, that is perfectly acceptable for a live tree, right?! You don’t want it to get too dry…and it will still look pretty for all the company coming for Christmas! We headed over to our favorite boy scout’s lot after the older boys had lacrosse one Sunday afternoon.

 

speaking of lacrosse, I’ll take a moment to share these (so cute) pics Brian took that day:

 

Ok then…back to the tree!

Here we are at the lot…coat-optional in this unseasonably warm winter

Decorating and fun shots of the ornaments

Brady’s only wish was to be the one who put the star on. I don’t know where he heard it, but he insisted that, being the littlest in the family meant HE got to put the star up. Well…as you can see from this picture, that just wasn’t going to happen in a safe manner. I ended up climbing on a chair to reach the top

Here’s a picture of the tree during the day with all of “my” gifts under it (aka: before the family arrived and the sheer number of presents exploded like a happy Christmas bomb!)

Phew – Christmas is over and I finally have time to go through all the pictures we took! I have a lot of catch up to do! This year, as always, we went with our neighborhood friends to the Polar Express (Holiday Express) on Saturday, the 10th. For only the 2nd time in 5 years, there was actually no snow “at the North Pole” (which is strange because WE don’t have any snow either…interesting). That’s OK though…the kids know that if there is no snow at the North Pole, the elves must be busy testing all the bikes, skates and other things that need to be outside….without the slippery white stuff….so they melt it all away for a few days!

This year, all the trollies to the North Pole departed, so conveniently, from the school in our subdivision! While we waited for our trolley, the kids could write letters to Santa or color

 

On the trolley

We were lucky enough to have one of our favorite friends from the park district preschool as our conductor, Mrs. Dawn

Brady’s crew: Bray, Matt and Jackson

There was a reindeer waiting to greet us at the North Pole. The kids were allowed to feed her some bread. I didn’t see it, but this little darling tried to literally eat Brady’s mitten off of his hand.

Here he is recounting the tale….

..as you can see, he thought it was pretty funny!

Pictures with Santa! Brady:

All the boys

Aiden…probably requesting the video game Skylanders. Santa needed a little help from mom on interpretation this year (Logan, for example, requested a DS and the game Scribblenauts)

Smiling for the picture: Aiden!

Logan (who chose to stand next to Santa this year instead of climbing on)!

A pretty picture of the snowflake lights in Mrs. Clause’s cabin where they serve hot chocolate, cookies and coffee

The bonfire outside

Santa comes out of his tent to wish us farewell and Merry Christmas!

Logan smiles through the pain. What pain, you ask?

Well, he hit his head pretty bad while playing on a park that happened to be near the North Pole. He got a bit of a goose-egg on his forehead. A little TLC when we got home had him feeling much better.

Bye Mrs. Clause – thanks for the cookies and cocoa!

On the way back home (and then over to Anna and Chad’s for pizza and playing)

The other day I was about to do a post on Loady and his latest adventures, but I first logged into facebook to check out what was going on. One of my friends posted this link: http://peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.blogspot.com/2011/12/over-achieving-elf-on-shelf-mommies.html <—People I want to punch in the throat – Over-achieving elf-on-the-shelf mommies

 

I read it, and after I stopped hysterically laughing, I realized that I might be in danger of getting punched in the throat. Yes, I do some crazy stuff with our elf, but I don’t make giant messes for myself to clean up, that’s for sure. AND…while I started off strong, I did a trick one night that the boys didn’t get…and didn’t appreciate, so the next day I gave Loady the day off and then he sat in the playroom for a week…and no one questioned it. So see…I’m only crazy like once or twice every 2 weeks! ;)

Here is the trick I did that the boys didn’t like so much (and said things like, “that’s it? no candy? he doesn’t have a job for us to do?” (eye roll). See…Loady replaced all the pictures at the top of the stairs with pictures of himself. They are still there because I haven’t gotten around to taking them out yet.

So then we gave him the day off

 

Loady isn’t our only elf…one day, Brady and Aiden played mommy’s little elves. That was a good day! They helped me stamp the Christmas cards….

 

…and make 6 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange!

 

 

This is just a cute picture of Brady thrown in for fun. This is him sleeping the birthday hat they gave him at school. He wore that hat for like 2 days straight!

Ok…so back to the elf. One night last week, the boys watched Home Alone 3. They were on the couch with Brian while I was doing stuff in the kitchen. I have never heard them belly laugh so much as when they watch those movies! Every time they see one, they want to start setting traps and doing crazy stuff. So…I was inspired and Loady came out of the playroom…and made himself a zip line from the top of the stairs down to the fireplace. Someone (me) had the idea to tape a long tinker toy stick to his hands and someone else (not me) had the idea to use a carabineer so Loady could go down the zip line all day long…and he did

I was actually sitting down to document Loady’s zip line adventure when Brady appeared in the office and asked me to dictate a letter to Santa. He’s got some crazy stuff on his list (like a golf club that hits 11 balls at a time…no, 100 at a time)!

Yesterday morning, Loady was out again and had jobs for the boys to do. Logan was allowed to dress up for the last day of school before break (they actually had a theme every day like jingle jeans – wear bells on your jeans, pj day and wear your favorite holiday colors day. The last day was pretty much anything goes)

 

I bought a small string of battery-powered lights to wrap on Logan. we ended up with them on his hat, but he had no pockets so we tapped the battery back to the waist of his PJs. It didn’t last long. He took them off, according to his teacher, during calendar…which I think is almost the first thing they do every morning. I worked his class party at 2…the lights were in his bag and not even working anymore. They were terribly shoddy and fell apart even before I got him out the door. Thought that counts I guess. Under his santa hat, his hair was 1/2 red and 1/2 green (thank you left over spray from Brady’s party)

This morning Loady was just sitting up in the highest living room window….chilling out. He climbed up there last night I think…around 1….when Brian and I got back from a fun dinner downtown with friends.