The Elf

Three elves, very similar to the ones in this picture will be on our door step, sent straight from the North Pole when we get home today. Emma Claire is sooo excited! Yesterday, while she was napping, an elf brought some presents and put them under our tree (yes, I'm decorated for Christmas, more on that later). The elf told me that Santa himself was sending the 3 elves, (one for each child) that would be living at our house and watching and reporting back to Santa, today. I hope Wilson will understand the whole concept, b/c he is the one who really needs to know that someone is always watching him!!!! This elf, I've been told, does some crazy things at night when he returns from the North Pole. This will be a fun time -with lots of memories, I hope!

Now, why have I decorated for Christmas so early? Well, for one, there are just a little over 5 weeks left until Christmas. Secondly, I LOVE Christmas and all that comes with it. I love walking into my house in the afternoon or evening and lighting up my tree and garland and just sitting there looking at the twinkling lights and shiny ornaments. I love the excitement that it brings out in my children. I LOVE to enjoy this time, not being so stressed out by DOING. I have not decorated the outside of the house yet, but plan to begin that this weekend. All my Christmas shopping is done and now all there is to do is BE. (Well, and work 32 hours a week and clean a large house and do laundry and iron and cook and take care of 3 children, a dog and a husband) - I am also hosting Thanksgiving for my side of the family at my house this year, which will include 15 adults and 5 very young children, then I will celebrate Thanksgiving with Will's family the next day, then spend the next day out on the quad all day for the AU/AL game, then the next weekend is packed full of Nutcracker, SEC championship game (which I hope to be at) and a preschool choir program. So in a nutshell, I decorate when I can (which is NOW) and I enjoy it (immensely) for quite a while. I hope to do a Christmas Open House post soon to share with all of you out-of-towners! (picture is of Christmas 2007, hence no Henderson)

To add to this post, we had a great weekend, on a WARM Friday we celebrated my SIL's b'day at her parents' house and the cousins played outside in shorts and teeshirts and no shoes, jumping on the trampoline and playing on the swingset. We ate a fabulous dinner of pot roast, poppyseed chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, and cupcakes (made by EC and I). Emma Claire wa surprised by a last minute invitation to spend the night at her cousins' house - she never turns down an invitation =) They stayed up til 10:30 and had a great time! Saturday it got VERY cold (wind chill of 40 degrees all day) - that's the SOUTH for ya! We did not brave the quad for the Miss St. game, but rather stayed home and decorated and cleaned. I even got to go for a run at 8:30 am (this is LATE for me). My dear friend, Ashley, and her 2 girls, Mary Alice and Sarah Davis came over to play around 5:00 along with Ellen, my SIL and her 4 children. The children had a BLAST and we moms had even more fun chatting and hanging out. We watched the first half of the ball game together, then they began leaving and I began cleaning up. Emma Claire and I got to bed around 9:30. Sunday we went to church, everyone napped while I cleaned, then we went to Will's parents house to visit and built a cozy fire, drank hot chocolate and played some more. My SIL came over (with her 4 children) and we ate leftovers from Friday night - it was truly a DREAMY weekend - everything I love - family, friends, food, football and Jesus!