Well, so far, December has been filled with several hilarious moments, as our babies head into the sweetest childhood experience of all: discovering the magic of Christmas.
The hilarity of our month is epitomized in the photo below, chosen by us not because it was the best picture, but because we thought it was the most funny. Lyla took the experience of meeting Santa very seriously – she was focused throughout her conversation with him, making sure to convey the importance of her 2 biggest wishes this Season: Stomp Shoes (seen on a grocery shopping trip at Kroger) and a jump rope (discovered at the Watts Family Thanksgiving celebration at Aunt Naenee’s house). You can see the determination in her face.
And, Cade, well…he was okay with Santa because his hero (aka as Waa,Waa to him) was okay with Santa. I think he actually sort of liked him.
All in all, we absolutely love this photo.
In a word: Priceless.
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Elfie rejoined our family Thanksgiving night. Lyla was thrilled to discover him in Daddy’s Christmas stocking, along with striped, matching pj’s for them both. Of course, they had to wear them to bed that night.
Elfie seems to have a one-track mind – he gets stuck on something and can’t let go. His first agenda was getting our Christmas Tree decorated. Daddy brought it up from the basement and then worked several nights – so it couldn’t adorn its shatter proof ornaments (for Cade of course) until Daddy had a few days off. So, Elfie became fixated on getting it decorated himself.
First, he started gathering ornaments and carrying them on Cade’s dump truck:
Then, he got the lights out…
Then, when he finally located the shatterproof ornaments, he hung from the light trying to put them on himself:
Once our tree was decorated (only the top half of course, due to our “destroyer” named Cade), Eflie has moved on to more mischief. Here, he decided to do some decorating of his own:
He even tried to take over Mommy’s stocking one night:
He likes to leave messages for the kids sometimes, using a little sugar of course:
It says, “Be Good, L & C” if you can’t read it:
Here, he delivered a nativity scene to Lyla & Cade:
And, there was the day he was really tempted to eat Lyla’s beloved gingerbread house she decorated at preschool:
We never know what he’s going to do next, but we can’t wait to see. Lyla says he’s a very naughty elf!
Stay tuned.
We were so happy to have the opportunity to visit the North Pole via the Polar Express in French Lick, IN. It was a great time for all of us, and just another example of how magical the Season is for us this year. We were able to go with dear friends, which made the time even more special – Lyla especially loved seeing the whole thing with her good friends Liam & Lily. There’s nothing like putting your Christmas pajamas on and heading north.
Of course, Cade was excited about it too:
After lunch and a couple (or more) potty breaks, we boarded the train. I’m so proud to say that Lyla made it through the whole experience with NO accidents. She did a great job!
The Alvey’s:
More Alvey’s:
Cade loved charming a couple of elves:
Lyla was a little unsure what she thought about our elf:
And, his preoccupation with Christmas lights is the reason the Hottman family tree looks a little sad this year, decorated only halfway up with shatterproof ornaments and jute rope. He is a one man destroyer. Really.
Lyla and Cade loved the train ride:
The highlight of the train ride (if you don’t count our elf’s singing, dancing and hot chocolate) was a visit from Santa himself.
Cade went right to him – you can’t see Lyla in the photo, but she’s standing to the side explaining that she wants Stomp Shoes and a jump rope for Christmas. She’s very serious about them both, and has repeatedly told us that’s ALL she wants. We laugh at that – Lance says he’s sure it’s in stark contrast to what she’ll be saying when she’s 14.
At the end of the ride, we tried to get the kids together for one photo, but it didn’t quite work out.
Somehow, Lyla’s face was hurt, and she was very unhappy about it.
So, this is as close as we got. We took this as our sign to head home.
The kids fell asleep in the car, were transferred from their seats to their beds when we got home, and we never heard from them again until morning.
They had a magical night. We all did.
