Eli's Entertainment

My child is very imaginative. We listen to him talk to himself all day long some days, totally engrossed in his own play schemes. Sometimes he does things that seem odd, and then upon further inspection is pretty inventive.... Enter: Today's video!

I had come upstairs to get started folding some laundry and Eli hates, i mean HATES, to be on one level of the house all by himself. So, naturally, he picked up his cars & headed upstairs with me. This is where he ended up....

Our Elf, Pip William

Tis the season for our elf to return & keep watch over two little boys behavior! The last 2 years, we had a larger (much chubbier) elf come stay with us through the holidays but this year he sent his new, younger friend to stay with us because he was retiring to the North Pole. Apparently, our new elf, who we named Pip William, has more magic & can fly faster to the N.Pole to give Santa updates each night. Isn't he a cutie!?Our old elf also left a book for the boys to read all about Pip and how special he is & how he works so closely with Santa. Apparently he really likes the games he gets to play with little kids during the holidays!
His name was not easy to agree on. Eli was adamant from moment one that his name should be Willie. (Because the head elf in the movie, Fred Claus is named Willie). Jackson liked Fred, Freddie, Albus, and Weasley (The last 2 were straight from Harry Potter). I thought he needed an original name that was just his. So I tossed out Pip since he is quite a little pip squeak. Jackson loved it, Eli stuck with Willie. Hmmm, how were we going to agree?? I asked Eli if he liked Pip William since Willie is short for William and we could call him Pip for short. He agreed! Can you believe it!? Randy liked Weasley too since our elf has almost red-like hair & Ron Weasley from HP has red hair too. I would've agreed to Weasley, because it was kinda cute too. But I do like Pip a lot! I think it fits his little personality! He is quite cute too and silly. He has done some silly things around the house!

The boys get up & hit the floor running to search for him. They have found him hugging our little angels...
He also has been found peeking out of the top of the kitchen cabinets and hanging on our mirror leaving dry erase messages, too. And then on Sunday, they found him in the fridge! He was hanging on the milk jug that he had turned green with our food coloring!! It was a super busy day Sunday so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of him. I am disappointed that I forgot! Jackson thought this milk thing was hilarious but it rocked Eli's world. He didn't think that was a funny game at ALL. In fact, he refused to drink the milk for 2 days. I finally turned it to chocolate milk & he didn't hesitate for one second! I am not sure Pip realized how persnickety our Eli is! I hope he learned his lesson! (Or maybe he is the perfect match for Eli! Show him a thing or two!)
The boys decided that they were going to build Pip a house out of Lego's but they barely got started before it was bedtime. I think Pip is sending them a message that he likes the idea of a Lego house, because he built them a Christmas tree the next morning! Here he is showing off his Christmas tree! We will keep you posted on all of Pip's shenanigans! I have a feeling he has some fun games up his sleeve this month! Stay tuned....

Our Thanksgiving: 2 weeks later!

Here is our Thanksgiving, posted 2 weeks late! Whoops, sorry about that! We made a day trip to Wilmington to have lunch with Nanny, Peto & our family there. I just love Thanksgiving and I think it is mostly about the traditions. Every year, Peto and Uncle Ed book a community building by the river and it is just so much fun! We do the same thing every year: Arrive around 11ish and get our food set up & mingle. For some that means meeting new friends.... (The look on SB's face is precious!) Eat at 12 sharp, followed by desserts (Can anyone say, "Smore's Pie?!" It was delish!)

Then onto crafts....

And black Friday ads...

Eli took a special liking to Ms.Faye this year! He sat & looked through those ads with her for a good hour!And we always end up oodling over the albums of Thanksgiving pasts...

These albums are always a hit! It's just so great to see how everyone has changed over the years! Here is my mama looking all young & spiffy!

I just have so much to be thankful for and the Lord, as always, takes care of us. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday too!

Our Tree

Sunday, we decorated our Christmas tree. It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Getting out the tree & looking at each ornament as we put it on the tree. We don't have one of those "themed" trees like most people do nowadays. I love the look of those & maybe one day I will have a second tree somewhere like that, but our tree is special to me. It is the story of our lives together. See, we always get an ornament as a souvenir when we go to special places and each year the kids get a new ornament for the tree. It usually has something to do with something they have done that year or something special to them.

Today I took some pictures of some of our ornaments just because I couldn't help myself. There's my all time favorite ornament from our honeymoon... (a very glittery seashell)...

And there's some old ones that just make me smile remembering my Memaw- this one was her ornament & it was very thin fragile glass.... I love it!

And she made so many special ornaments, but this red bird is my favorite of those she made. Even though this is technically not a cardinal, it makes me think of her because she loved cardinals...

All the ornaments mean something on our tree and that is just the way I like it! Like the one I got for being in Meredith's December wedding...

or these two special ones from Theresa (she shares my love for ornaments!)...

We have some symbolizing sports the kids have played each year...

And some that remind us of their current interests that year...

Some remind us of rites of passage... like that first year of Kindergarten! Some freeze their sweet little faces in time... (Jackson)

(Eli)

And some that help us remember our pets over the years... (this was Opie!)

Ornaments for baby's first Christmas (this one was Jackson's first ornament)...

This one is the very first ornament I ever had that I kept in my hope chest. It was from the first ornament swap I went to with my mom in 1997. I have been to one every year since!

Some others have been brought to us from special places... like Alasksa!And this one was handmade from my late friend, Karen. She passed last year & this ornament made me smile today when I thought of her...

Here are some ornaments that are representative of Randy on our tree...

and some that remind of special places:

Our first trip to the NC mountains as a married couple...

2 trips to Disney!

Grove Park Inn....

A trip on the Polar Express!And some that I have bought because I just love them (so I guess these are "mine.") Like this adorable manger scene (cutest baby Jesus, ever!)...

This one I bought our first Christmas in our new house...

And this one I bought once we became a family of 4... (It has 4 elves on it, each one labeled with our names)

There are definitely less that I bought just because & way more from ornament swaps throughout the year & gifts & souveneirs. Either way, I love them all & I love our tree! See the story we have going on here!? To me, this is so much more special than having a green themed tree or a theme of glass & silver. They are beautiful & appeal to the organized side of me, but for now, I like remembering the story of our family!

Merry Christmas All! I hope you all have great memories to sustain you this holiday season!