I woke up the morning after Thanksgiving in the mood to decorate; we usually wait until Sunday to give Thanksgiving time to get out of our system and to let the Egg Bowl pass (because Egg Bowl is synonymous with Thanksgiving from our younger years when the game was actually on Thanksgiving), but we took advantage of David being home and got a tree. Even though the tree attacked David on its way off the roof of the car and left a nasty burn on his face, David did not turn into a Scrooge. As soon as the tree was in its stand, I had two little elves eager to decorate. They found elf and santa hats in our Christmas tubs, so they literally dressed the part to decorate. Benton was so excited to find all the ornaments that are his and decide where to put those, which meant I had to follow behind him and move each one to a higher and more sturdy branch. Lindsey was her usual hummingbird self, flitting from one task to the next without stopping to analyze the situation. She was determined to hang every ball on the tree before Kate woke up. But the littlest elf did not sleep through all the decorating and soon was up to "help" us.
The kids were extra excited about the tree because they remembered from last year that when the tree arrives, so does Chippy the elf. Sure enough, Chippy was perched on a branch this morning. I noticed Lindsey stopping to tell him she wants a Kindle Fire at one point, then later Benton stood by him and said he wanted "boy toys" for Christmas. As I walked through later in the morning I noticed that Chippy was leaning a little too far left, so I pushed him upright. The next time the kids walked through they squealed, "HE"S REAL! HE MOVED!" I have to be careful or they will be on to me.
We spent our last day in the Grove for this season today, and although it was very cold, the day was pleasant. It was so special to have Ben and his boys back for the game, even though it meant the grown ups were outnumbered and thus exhausted. Lindsey and Benton were extremely well-behaved today, and I kept bragging to them and then realized they weren't being good for me--they were behaving for Chippy. He may need to move in permanently.
Benton holding all the Benton ornaments
and finding the perfect spot for them
Two elves after decorating
Kate likes to pose and scream "CHEESE" anytime she sees a camera. The other two were hard at work, but she had to take a break to pose.
