Phew!

I managed to find the motivation to finally get the remaining things needed for Christmas.  I have also addressed, stuffed and licked 73 envelopes containing our Christmas cards.  Now all I need to do is wrap gifts.... :-(  MOM!  Come and help, please?

Danny is working so much that I have to do everything without him and it makes me feel like a horrible wife.  But if I wait for him to be here, we'll have crazy crowds of people and empty shelves to deal with.  I can't win I tell ya.  I know one thing though, he'll be just as surprised as the kids come Christmas morning, haha.

I was supposed to have a photo shoot tomorrow morning while Danny is at his VA appointment, but the shoot cancelled due to some sick kiddos.  I understand and am not upset at all about it, which is weird for me, usually I'm a little bit bothered by having a cancellation, especially with less than 24 hours notice.  But, since tomorrow is actually one of Danny's rare days off, I'm not bothered at all.  It gives me a little more time to spend with him and the kids and that's okay with me.

Speaking of the kids, they've only been on Winter break for like two days and they are already "bored".  This is going to be a long two weeks.  I did get one thing out of them so far though, clean rooms!  I told them Santa was bringing them anything unless their rooms were spotless!  (an hour later, all three rooms were clean).  And this "Elf on the shelf" thing is working pretty well.  My kids are actually helping out more and getting along better.  Every morning they wake up quickly and see who can find the Elf first.  His name is Jinx and he's a bit of a trouble maker, but he's pretty funny as well.  Even my husband gets excited to come home and hear the kids tell him what the Elf has been up to while he was away.

But coming up with fun and somewhat unique ideas for the Elf is a challenge.  I like to think I'm a crafty person, but I don't want to sit for hours trying to come up with some elaborate ruse for the kids every night.  So, I resort to Pinterest.  I have found loads of really fun ideas and I think to myself, "I can do that, that'd be awesome!"  Then, I lose my motivation to actually gather all the required materials together to make that idea happen.

So, we are excited for Christmas to get here in a few days.  We do wish that we had some family or friends coming to help celebrate with us, but hopefully next year we can make something happen.  But for this year, we'll stick to enjoying our little family and do our best to make some amazing memories in our new home.  We still need to bake and decorate cookies, but I think that's Tuesday's to-do item.  Wednesday we are having the Elders over for Christmas Eve dinner.  I have no idea what I'm making yet?  Then, the toughest part, keeping the kids in bed until Danny is home from work Christmas morning.  That should be fun!  Our kids are usually late sleepers, which is weird because me and my siblings never were and I know my mom wished we would have slept in at least once.  My four just have never been early risers on Christmas, but watch, because I need them to sleep in this year, they'll be up at like 6am!!

I should probably get to wrapping so I'm not up until 2am, but I think I'd rather stalk my friends on FB.  Night!