Christmas Elves

If any of my neighbors received queso last night - or at any point this week from two little boys and all they say is "Happy Birthday", please know it was my boys. Also please forgive the packaging if the chips come to you smashed or the queso lid is cracked. It meant they fell on the way up to your house - and don't feel bad - it's probably not icy, it's just them!

Crazy...

My magical, stress-free holiday season has snowballed into crazy chaos for another year. All this end of year tasking is making me lose my mind - gifts, accounting, perscription refills, trips to the doctor, regular life, etc.

Why do we do these things to ourselves?

I just finished and mailed out Christmas Cards. McKell was helping and Safari has the stamps to prove it. Now, if Safari ever gets lost someone will just have to look at her back or her head to see where she lives.

I'm in the process of making queso and chips for our neighbor gifts, I've spent all week working on the bookkeeping, realizing I'm terribly disorganized, attending to a three-year-old's needs - she's had a staph infection in her leg and a croupy cough and cold. For some reason I was determined to make (or copy) my friend's cranberry wreath - which I LOVE and is so pretty, but time I should have spent doing other things..

I have so much to do that I start getting frustrated and get that balled up feeling in my chest where I don't know whether to scream or cry. And as I'm typing this, why does the dog have to bark so much? She must be protesting her new look.

But I'm done, I need to slow down and enjoy time with my kids. So tonight we'll make some hot chocolate with candy canes 'stirrers', watch a Christmas movie, and I'll drink up my kids Christmas excitement.

I'm going to take a cue from the weather outside and be still...

So much to catch up on, yet so little time

I have much to post about - Fall Festival, Halloween, Disneyland trip, and Thanksgiving for the main events, and lots of little stories to remember every day life over the past month. Since this is my journal of sorts, I really should spend some time backlogging for memories sake. But, there will be time for that later. Right now I am going to record my evening so I can pull up these memories when my kids are older.

I always thought our house was crazy loud. Tonight I think it took the cake. I'm not sure why the kids are so wired - could it be Christmas excitement already? It's only December 1st. Is it the anticipation of Prince Caspian coming out on DVD tomorrow? I think that's partially the answer for one little boy of mine. Post-Thanksgiving return to school? Maybe. If this is what the kids were like at school today, I should send an apology note tomorrow.

I fell asleep reading with Tyler on the couch this afternoon. He has the most boring 'reading mastery' books for school. I don't remember how or when this happened but when I woke up McKell had put herself in bed and was napping and Tyler was having some sort of pretend Transformers battle (for those worried souls, Ellie was safe in her bed).

This evening as I was preparing dinner I had four crazies underfoot: one baby who was screaming and trying to get away from a sister who was trying to put her in a box, and the other three playing in boxes pulling each other around the room saying they were on a cruise and arguing as to whose turn it was next.

During dinner I had one boy proudly declare, "I can eat my noodles without even chewing them". Which was great fun and then I turned to him and all the noodles were spit onto the ground because he was 'choking'. He then went to get a drink and spilled it all over the table, onto the ground, and all over his brother's homework (which was supposed to have been put away). He then was jumping around and knocked his plate full of food all over the ground. He then blamed Austin, who then blamed Tyler, and then McKell piped in and said it was a ghost.

I started the night with a clean house - spic and span. Now, well, the kitchen looks like it usually does every night - like a tornado, with sticky noodles and juice on the ground.

Thankfully, in the process of this post, the kids are now all working together on decorating the boxes, they are even including Ellie. This is usually how the day winds down, they end up playing together. It has become quiet and the dog is in her kennel. It will be a good night... The baby just toddled up to me with the third blow out tonight and the kids are running around saying, "Gross, her diaper is leaking".