Some Catching Up To Do

It's been a while, Folks.  Thanksgiving has rushed by, along with most of the Christmas shopping season (in this house? HA), and now it is time for all of those wonderful Christmastime Traditions that everyone knows and loves.

It started off the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, when we woke to find that Santa had sent an Elf on the Shelf to keep an eye on us over the next few weeks, after much debate we finally chose to name him Alvin and searching for his latest hiding spot has become somewhat of a morning ritual.
That same Saturday we decorated the house for Christmas, spreading over a dozen Santa's throughout the house, putting up the tree and hanging Christmas ornaments-and after having the tree stand break, the tree fall over, and a yellow light bulb burn a hole in our carpet, I'd say it looks rather glorious.-Though somewhat Blurry in this photo.

There has been many a beautiful snowfall up here (this photo was actually taken back on the eleventh of November.) currently there is over a foot of the white stuff on the ground, offering up endless hours of sledding, snowboarding, fort building, snowball fights, and endless other adventures for any excited child (or adult!) the best part about this snow? (At least in my opinion) The fact that it creates the perfect background for stunning pictures of my sister.

Two Sundays ago was the annual Yacht Club Christmas Party. All the Little's were given some awesome gifts by Saint Nick himself, (Thank You Santa!) They had a ball, though you couldn't tell from the looks on Lili and Livvy's faces in this picture.

Oh how I adore this photo.  It's been added to the file of "Blackmail for the Little Sisters".

Next up on the list of "Family To-Do's" was to take the family Christmas picture that would be sent out to the masses.

Do you see that? All of the Littles are smiling! Including Lili! For those of you who don't know why this is a feat, a short back story on Miss Lili:
Lili, though very loud and generally a more energetic child, is rather shy. Unless I am doing a 'private' photo shoot of Lili and only Lili, will she smile. In just about every family picture we have she is on the verge of tears.
So this year, I decided to offer up a bit of a bribe to the child who loves crafts and baking: "Lili, If you promise to give a pretty smile we'll bake and decorate sugar cookies." We got a stunning smile out of the munchkin! Yay!
She held me to my word though, not more than four hours after the picture was taken she comes up to me, sassy as ever, shrugs, puts her hands up, and says: "Sam. This is weird.  I did a smile and there are no sugar cookies." Safe to say we made some sugar cookies after that.

Can you see the icing next to her left eye?

After several hours of present wrapping, stamping, addressing, signing, and sealing one hundred and forty some odd Christmas cards, and going through several boxes of candy canes, Christmas preparations are in full swing here at the house of the Eight, up here there is an under current of Christmas excitement so contagious you cannot step into the house without catching it. But the stockings are hung and the lists have been written, a new tree stand has been bought and the demon light bulb removed, Christmas carols are playing and The Spirit of Christmas is in the air. So without further ado, Warm Christmas Wishes to You and Your Family this Christmas Season. We'll be sending some Christmas magic with your cards!

Cheers,
Sam