The Queen's Rambles

Just when I think I have things figured out, I realize I know nothing.

I wasn’t going to do our yearly Christmas Countdown activity thing because I thought Erik was too old for it and that he’d be jealous if I did it for Elsa. I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work for both of them.

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to can the project because it is one of my favorite things about December. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I cut up a bunch of squares, number them 1-24 and then each day we do what is written on the back of the square. The first year I wrote out all our activities at the beginning. Erik couldn’t read so I could modify things if necessary. The next year I wrote the activities the night before. This year I didn’t write anything on the backs of them and the elf is coming in each night, writing with “grown up ink” that only an adult can see. Brilliant, if I do say so myself. Last night Erik left the elf a regular pen and the elf used it. Mike thinks Erik is going to hate me when he finds out that I’m a big ol’ tricksy liar. I think he’s going to love me for making his childhood so magical and fun.

Can I just say, keeping the magic alive when your kid can read is soooooooooo much harder? Because it is.

Erik is completely obsessed with the countdown and Elsa could not care even one teensy bit less. I was so, so wrong about how this would go. Now I just have to think of easy activities that can be done after school. I have a feeling my old stand-bys of “read a book about a snowman” are going to fail in a big way. He wants to make cookies every day.

Our first activity was going to a local town’s “Jingle Jubilee.” It turned out to be a very small event with music by the local high school band. I’m glad the weather was beautiful because the kids basically ran like wild things for an hour and slept really well that night. Santa rode in on a fire truck, Dora and Diego were walking around, and the band was playing in the background–very nice evening for everyone!

Here’s some blurry pics because I like forcing you to look at out of focus pictures of my special snowflakes:

Jumping at a Christmas Concert. Perfectly normal, right? I probably would not have let Elsa jump off that thing because it was giving me heart attacks, but I’m reading a book about two year old development and it says they need to jump off things.

Didn’t know there clothes would get so dirty at a concert!

Bonus blurry picture because this is one of the only pictures I’ve ever taken of Elsa with a real, genuine smile! She is completely in love with the Christmas tree and likes to sit and look at it.

Btw, I totally ruined Erik’s Christmas and made him “sadder than [he’s] been in [his] whole life,” by buying new ornaments so we could have a red and white tree. I am over my old blue and silver decorations. Erik is not, apparently.

My mom went home on Saturday. It was nice to have her here, but it is really nice to have my house back. She thinks she is being helpful and tries to organize my things, but it is not helpful to have my perfectly organized clutter stowed away in places I’ll never look. Or tossed out altogether. Grrrrr. At least she admitted that she needs to book two week trips because she can’t seem to stay any longer.

It truly is nice having her here. The kids love her so much and it is fun to see them enjoying their grandma. When Elsa would get angry with me, she’d run over to bury her head in my mom’s chest. It’s the only time she’s cuddly, silly girl.

I guess I better wrap this up. The girl is getting anxious for some attention.