Merry Christmas

I hope today finds you happy, healthy, and full of hope and good cheer for the new year ahead.

With love from,
Eric, DW, Crash and Bang

 

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The Daily Elf: The Finale

This day tugs at my heartstrings, y’all. Christmas Eve and the kids are wired for sound. Perpetual motion. A blur of constant motion like a toddler hyped up on a double double*.

Their excitement is contagious. In a year I suspected one would start questioning Santa, we got lucky. He brought it up once. I denied it. He let it go. I’ve got another post coming about that.

Through all this excitement comes bedtime. The boys know they aren’t allowed to touch the elves on account they’ll lose their magic ability to fly back to the North Pole. However, tonight is special. Tonight’s the night magic happens. They are allowed to hug the elves good bye and tell them, “See you next December.” Tonight Santa will arrive with his bag full of goodies. Woody and Elfis will have their magic restored by Santa and will join him on his flight. After seeing the elves for 24 days, they become a normal part of our house. It makes me sad to see them go. I think I need help…

*A double double is a coffee with 2 cream and 2 sugar for those of you were curious but too shy to ask.

The Daily Elf

It’s after midnight. I didn’t turn into a pumpkin. Or a fruitcake.

DW and I just spent the last 4 hours wrapping presents. It was going okay until one of the elves became ever so slightly inebriated. You can tell by his wrapping.

And DW’s snorting laughter at him. Good times. We’re not done yet, but the rest will have to wait.

As for our elves… they had a little fun behind the Christmas tree. And no, they weren’t inebriated.

The Daily Elf

The boys were super excited to see Woody and Elfis in our hotel room yesterday and today. They really wanted us to, without touching them of course, put them in our suitcase so they could come home with us.

I said, “No. If they found their way to us 3 hours from home and even knew which room of the 16 floor hotel we were in, they could get home just as easy.”

Crash was worried. He did NOT want to leave them behind. But we did. You can now imagine how excited he was to hear his little brother shout, “I found them!” from atop the stairs when we got home. There they were, perched comfortably in the stockings hanging on the boys bedroom doors.

The Daily Elf

Folks, I don’t know how they did it. 

Magic. 

That’s the only explanation.

We checked into our hotel and met DW’s cousin for supper.

Mmmm Boston Pizza…

Upon our return who do we see hanging from the TV in our hotel room? 

Woody and Elfis! They followed us here! How amazing! The boys were beside themselves. Sorry for the poor photo quality. I had to take the pic with my tablet and no flash. Here they are 3 hours from home with us…

Happy Birthday Nana!

It may be the first day of winter, but it’s also my Mom’s birthday! Happy birthday Mom! She also goes by the name Nana.

The Daily Elf

Elves after my own heart…

Of course they LOVE to read! So do we. Crash already has his book picked out for our road trip tomorrow. He doesn’t have clothes picked yet, but by God he knows what he’s going to read. And Bang wants to write more stories. I love these kids!

Ask me again tomorrow after being in the truck for three hours with them.

Anyway, here are our elves “hiding”.

Daily Random Acts of Kindess

Back on the second day of this month I wrote about a different kind of Advent Calendar. Essentially, instead of doing a Christmas count down with a tiny piece of chocolate each morning, we are doing a random act of kindness for each day leading up to Christmas.

So far we have:

• Donated food to the food bank
• Paid for the customer behind us at Tim Hortons (coffee shop)
• Make friends with someone
• We were generous with hugs and smiles
• Donated coloring books and crayons to the dotctors office
• Did chores without being asked
• Delivered cookies to the RCMP (police) and Paramedics
• Made homemade bird feeders for our feathered friends (and a couple squirrels)
• Donated some of our toys
• Called family members we hadn’t talked to for a long time
• Rounded up stray shopping carts in a parking lot
• Shovelled a neighbor’s driveway
• Surprised the garbage/recycling collectors with a box of chocolates
• Ran an errand for a friend
• Write a nice letter and mail it to someone who doesn’t get much mail
• Had a family fun night
• Lent a helping hand
• Volunteered at an event in our community
• Chose our 3 favorite decorated houses and gave them a certificate
• Baked cookies and shared them with the boys’s teachers and bus driver

Tomorrow we’ll be on the road travelling for an over-nighter. Crash has yet another oral consult to find out what can be done about his front tooth that has come in pointing towards the back of his mouth. Braces? Surgery? Something else entirely?

While we are at the hospital on Wednesday we will “candy cane bomb” as many cars as we can (64 since that’s how many candy canes we have). Each on has a Merry Christmas message taped to it and we’ll leave them randomly under windshields.

Then on Thursday we’ll leave money in vending machines so that when people go get a treat or drink they’ll find it’s already paid for.

Upon our return we will only have 2 more Random Acts of Kindness or, as Bang calls it, Random Actness Kindness before Christmas morning.

The whole purpose when we started this was teach the boys the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not about the gifts we’re going to get or Santa or Christmas lists. It’s also not about all the decorations or the sweets. It’s about being thankful for what we have. It’s being thankful that we are able to help others simply to make them feel good. It’s about the first rule of Christmas:

It is far better to give than it is to receive.

Bang took to it like a reindeer to flight. He was eager to help. If you could have seen him during the event where we helped serve 250 senior citizens turkey supper you would have seen him serving plates of food and later handing dishes over to be washed. While Crashed joined us and was eager to help he would still ask, “Do we get anything for helping?” No. You get thanked.

But it’s hard when you’re 9, I guess. To his credit, we have caught him doing more for others. Holding doors, helping others when he can, and attempting to think of others first. He’s made “gingerbread men” for the doctor(s) we’ll see tomorrow by drawing people on brown cardboard and coloring them. So we take our wins where we can. Perhaps he is learning after all.

The Daily Elf

I’ve got no post today. Instead of just writing something for sake of publishing, I’ll wait until tomorrow. I’ll write tomorrow and let you know how our daily Random Act of Kindness is going. Or as Bang calls it “Random Actness Kindness”.

For now I’ll just update you on the elves. Don’t forget to move yours!

The elves were busy last night. Not only did they move to their new spot on the closet doors after returning from the North Pole….

When I checked my email this morning there was a message there from YouTube asking if I was ready to publish my video. HUH? I didn’t record anything.

What video?

The Elves hacked my YouTube account and used my GoPro last night! Once I found out it was them I showed it to the boys. They watched it 5 times in excited awe…

The Daily Elf

Today they tested their physical prowess. Perhaps they’re training for the next American Ninja Warrior? Or perhaps they’re slack lining or tight rope walking over Niagara Falls. Whatever they are training for they are training for it in our kitchen.

One of them did fall once. Bang wrote them a note “Woody and Elfis are you ok the last time you fell we love you”

They wrote back, “We’re okay.” so all was good.