best intentions

I had this thought at the beginning of December to do 25 days of blogging.  A sort of countdown to Christmas, with a little hiatus at the end of the year.

Ha! Silly me. 

Because in between the Christmas shopping, the doctors appointments to get Logan's bronchitis less "itis-y" (he sounds much better but still not 100%), having guests over the weekend, and trying to just keep up with life, we bought a new car yesterday.  Well, a used car but its new to me.  A fancy new swagger wagon, full of bells and whistles including a double DVD screen system the boys are just flipping over.  I used to cringe at mini-vans when I was in my 20's, who didn't. But once you experience the amount of stuff kids cart around, having a vehicle with tons of storage and sliding doors is a tremendous invention. 

The timing of it all wasn't perfect... adding more stuff on the to-do list for December.  But alas, my old van was breaking left and right and the girl just needed to be put down.  She served us well but it was time to move on.  I have to say I felt pretty fancy today driving my new grocery getter.

So while all this has been happening, what hasn't been?

Well, I have yet to bake a single holiday cookie.  Clearly, I need to get crackin'.  Maybe Tyler Snowy, our magical Elf on the Shelf, can help me with that.  He's been pretty busy. Yesterday we found him in my stocking, and today he's in our tree!  One morning he was in the bathroom and I know I saw him blink.  He looks so innocent, right?

As a sidebar, Logan made this ornament in preschool last year. Then it snowed  big and by the time we had it, the tree was down.  So this year it was a new addition.  Love it!  I absolutely love the handmade ornaments the boys make every year and when we decorate the tree, those are my favorites to pull out, reminisce over and add to the branches.  Dylan is kind of moving out of that stage at school, so I'll have to get some arts and crafts going at home to make sure we keep having  new homemade ornaments every year.

And how about naked people on your Christmas tree?  I love these ornaments.  If I recall, my Mom got these for us in Arizona at a craft fair.  Hey, they kind of look like Paula Deen and her husband Michael don't they?

So yes.  Cookies.  I will be starting some cookie baking soon.  In between the shopping, the gift wrapping, the classroom parties, the trek to see ICE! this weekend....yea, yea, I'll get there.