A Very Hallmark Saturday

The magic of the Christmas season has begun! As soon as December 1st arrived, so too did the Elf in Aunt Megan's office at school. Emmy was excited and also a bit apprehensive. Megan told me that she did not want to be left in the room alone with the Elf, but she sure enjoyed the candy that also appeared with him. 

And much to my surprise, we had a magical visitor at home, too. Unbeknownst to me, Boomer on his own set up Deacon Elf enjoying M&Ms in our kitchen. I was just as surprised as the kids! Emmy remembered seeing the miniature Deacon at Daddy's office, so we are not sure if perhaps he snuck in Daddy's car to follow him home or if it is another Deacon Elf here to make some Christmas mischief. Emmy had several questions about touching him, moving him, and if he was magic. Mommy and Daddy didn't know the answers, so she wrote a note to see if he would write back. He did write back with instructions not to touch him. We'll see what shenanigans Daddy, I mean Deacon, gets into over the next three weeks!

Today, we had what Boomer described as a "very Hallmark Saturday." We may have even gone a little overboard with all of the Christmas activities. The morning started with meeting Santa #1 at the Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast at the Yadkinville Methodist Church. Then we set up our chairs along Main Street for the Yadkinville Christmas Parade. The kids got a haul of candy from all the floats, tractors, and fire trucks that passed by. After the parade, we made a stop at the Shiloh Amish General Store in Hamptonville. Several of our coworkers have recommended going there, and so we had added it to our Summer To-Do List. However, the summer went by too fast, and we had not made the trip out there. It wasn't too far from downtown Yadkinville, and it was the perfect stop for lunch. The General Store is known for its fresh donuts, baked goods, and delicious deli sandwiches. We even saw a horse-drawn buggy. After a quick stop to mail our Christmas cards, we came back to Winston for our annual cousin picture with Santa. Yes, Santa #2 of the day. Mom and Dad's neighbor who owns a State Farm Agency has a toy drive each year with the same Santa, so it is pretty neat to see all the photos with him over the years. Eli's Christmas spirit was fading at this point, but he cooperated at last once Grammy held him for a few pictures. There's one photo that I snapped with Eli on Santa's lap and Emmy close by, formulating her response to Santa. Although she had previously been asking for a bike, she changed her request to a Barbie doll house. Eli's request has remained the same: race cars. The last event of the day was a Christmas party at our friends, The Huff's, house. They also had a Santa there, and so we posed for photos with Santa #3. I should be receiving those photos soon to share in a later post. It was a very "Hallmark" Saturday indeed!

In other updates, the month of December has brought a temporary break in gymnastics. Emmy will start again on Wednesdays in January, but for now, there is a short time off for the holidays. She has continued to improve in her front- and back walkovers, elbow handstands, roundoffs, and cartwheels. She has even begun working on her back handspring. She is the youngest in the advanced class, but she is doing a great job of keeping up with the bigger girls. Throughout the 45-minute class, I encourage her with thumbs-ups and smiles any time she looks my way. Hopefully she will continue to keep her skills during the break in December and then be ready for learning new things in January.  

And a big change for Eli: he has moved up to a bigger bed! I know it was long overdue, and I was delaying it, out of convenience and also sentimentality. Eli still seemed very content in his crib, but as we are working toward nighttime potty training, it will be necessary for him to be able to go to the bathroom on his own. He continues to wear Pull-ups at night, but hopefully soon he will be in underwear. I captured on camera the reveal of the new bed, and the two kiddos had quite the opposite reactions. Eli was whooping and hollering celebrating his new independence, while Emmy sternly explained the rules about staying in bed. It is so funny to see the two of them in their roles as bossy big sister and carefree little brother. We sure do love them both!