A Thankful 2011

I am so thankful for many things this holiday season.  A beautiful and smart little 5 year old girl who loves to learn and loves to sing songs about God.  Getting to enjoy her first choir performance at church.  Baking gingerbread cookies with her in our beautiful aprons handmade by Nanna.  Watching Christmas be truly magical for her.  Her ability to control the frequency and intensity of tantrums improves every day.  She lavishes so much love on her mommy and daddy and wants to spend every minute with us.

A skinny cutie pie 1 year old boy who speaks so enthusiastically in his own baby language.  The adorable way he rolls his r's!  His sweet hugs and snuggles reserved primarily just for mommy.  His enjoyment of dancing, climbing, log-rolling on the floor, running, trying to jump, and anything else physical. 

A husband who works hard to take care of his family and who lavishes lots of love on us.  Who takes good care of himself and makes me proud every day with his discipline.  Who knows me inside and out - the good, bad and ugly - yet still wants to hug me every night!

This blog post could go on forever...about parents, brother, sister-in-law, miracle niece, friends, ability to travel and do lots of fun things, good jobs.... I am blessed beyond belief.  Thank you God for an amazing 2011. 

Jingle Incurs the Wrath of Katelynn

On night 5, Jingle rifled through Katelynn's advent boxes.  He went through every one of them until he found one that had candy in it.  Very elf like, don't you think?!

I thought this was hilarious but should have known better. KK is pretty attached to her beloved advent boxes.  After all, that tradition started years before Jingle showed up!  Our morning started with crying and a declaration that "he hurt my little feelings."  I had to put EXTRA candy in the box, close it back up, and let her open it.  You would think the darn elf actually ate her candy.

So, elf fail #1.

On night 6, Jingle decided to make it up to her:

This was a success.  She stated several times:  "I can't believe he knows my name, mommy!"

Now on night 7- Jingle is still all about the sweets.  I saw this one on someone's blog and thought it was cute.  He went after the maple syrup in the pantry.  Gene pointed out this might attract bugs but I'm taking my chances...

Jingle's Adventures - Nights 3 and 4

Yesterday little girl went off to Weatherford for a night with her Nanna and PopPop.  Jingle traveled with her, inside her little Tinkerbell suitcase, and adapted well to the new location. Saturday morning he was located riding in a vintage toy car.

(The truck is an amazing antique toy that belonged to my grandfather as a boy.  Jingle already knew that, of course.  This Elf has good taste.)

On Saturday evening he returned home and decided to go fishing.  He broke into KK's candy stash to get the fishing rod so she may not be too happy about that.  We shall see!  I know she will be up bright and early to search for him...

I thought that some of you might enjoy a good laugh by this blogger that isn't too happy with us Elf loving mamas - check this post.  (Warning - reads like a crude standup routine - but hilarious nonetheless.) 

Very Pinteresty

When it comes to teacher gifts, I think substance is important...in other words - GIFT CARDS. Let's keep it real here - they deserve a little more than a candle at Christmas for all they put up with during the year!  However, I'm all about packaging it up in some sort of cute way and Pinterest is perfect for that.  This year, each teacher got a package of Extra gum (plus a Target gift card) inside a clear gift baggie along with a note like this one tied onto the bag (created in Photoshop Elements):

Cute, huh?  The downside of Pinterest:  I may never have another original idea in my life.

Elvish Fun - Nights 1 and 2

After Jingle arrived this week, Katelynn quickly became obsessed with feeding him.  She really wanted to set out a meal for him.  I pointed out that our story book said nothing about this - so therefore Santa must feed him, or he could take care of himself.  You know, he could stop by the local McDonalds' on his flight home from the North Pole.  (Side note:  It's so funny that kids want their fairy tales to be logical to some extent.  Yes, she can believe that there is a small felt elf that moves about our house at night, but surely he needs to eat!) 

So, I thought it would be appropriate for Jingle to set up his own tea party on night 1.  Here he is with a couple of KK's beanie babies. 

When KK woke up this morning, she immediately went and checked Jingle's previous resting spot on the fireplace mantel.  She ran to our bedroom, where I was getting ready, and announced excitedly:  "He's gone mommy!  He moved!"  She had a bit of trepidation about searching for him alone, so she waited till I was ready and we journeyed into the living room/kitchen area together.  As soon as I flipped the lights on she saw Jingle and his tea party.  She was just bursting at the seams with glee and excitement; I love seeing my normally somber (or irritable or grouchy) girl like this!  She really started giggling when she discovered there was actually water in the cups.  Then she flooded me with a barrage of questions:  How did the other animals get down the stairs?  How did Jingle find all the plates?  And on and on.... oooh I'm buried deep in lies now!  (The tangled webs we weave...)

Tonight I decided to borrow one of those Pinterest ideas.  Jingle couldn't find any snow here in Texas so he played in the rice instead.  Good thing we have a humongous bag for him:

Looking forward to another morning with a mesmerized little girl...

The Answer is Yes

About once a month, LBJ Highway is a complete disaster and Gene takes back roads all the way home from work. When this happens, I often get a phone call that goes something like this:
Gene:  "I'm taking back roads home...want me to stop there?"
Katie:  "Yes."

Gene:  "I wish the calories weren't so high."
Katie:  "I don't care.  My weight never changes.  Stop and get them."
Gene:  "I wish it wasn't so expensive to buy a small amount."
Katie:  "It's a rip off.  Get a dozen."


By now you may have figured out we are talking about cookies (as if the picture didn't give it away).  Very, very decadent cookies.  From Paradise Bakery.  These things are amazing.  Gene's favorites are chocolate chip sprinkled with toasted coconut.  My favorite is a toss-up - chocolate chip walnut or oatmeal raisin. And since we have a strange 5-year old that does not like cookies, we have 6 apiece to ourselves....or maybe that is a curse.  We made the mistake of looking up the calories one time.  About 300 big ones for one chocolate chip cookie.  


Nope - so worth it.   I'll just run 5 extra miles this week.

It Only Took An Elf....

Jingle awaits his first night of mischief in the Kim home...

....to break my 2+ month blogging hiatus??

I guess we will see.  Lately I just haven't been feeling the blog thing.  It seems like one more "to do" on a big, long stressful list... writing is normally enjoyable for me but it can also feel like work when I'm trying to make it read somewhat decently for my vast audience (ok, so all 3 of you).  So I just decided not to do it for awhile.  But today our "Elf on the Shelf" arrived in the mail and the whole experience has screamed "Blog me!" 

I had no idea what an Elf on the Shelf was till this year.  I will chalk this new (to me) discovery up to our friend the Internet, and Pinterest.  It seemed like suddenly I was seeing pictures of this happy little elf doing all sorts of silly things in peoples' homes.  The basic jist:  your elf is keeping an eye on your kids and flies to the North Pole every night to report in to Santa. He doesn't move except when the little ones are fast asleep.  When the kids wake up in the morning, the first thing they do is see what their elf has been up to. 

So for $30 on Amazon Marketplace we got our little elf and the nice book that comes with him.  Seemed a little steep to me, but - let me tell you- I have one smitten 5 year old.  I think it is going to be way more than $30 worth of fun for both of us!  This is right up this mommy's alley.  KK has already named him Jingle and is taking all the "rules" laid out by the book very seriously.  (She can't touch him... he can't talk but is observing her...etc.)  She has talked about nothing else all evening!  She even said at one point:  "Mommy, he's eyeing me!"  Hmmm...it does kinda' feel like his eyes follow you around the room...a little spooky actually.  And thanks to the Internet, I don't have to come up with too many ideas on my own, just enjoy the fun of making them happen.  I can already pick from a vast list.... should Jingle be fishing for goldfish crackers?  Decorating cookies?  Making snow angels in rice?  Hmmmm....what to do first?  I can't wait for her to fall asleep! 

More blogs later with some of Jingle's antics...