weekly ten

1.  Sherman the Elf arrived on Wednesday.  I have decided to do a combo elf.  He does naughty things occasionally (but nothing that takes me more than 5 minutes and makes a mess out of my already messy house!), he does fun things like making a Christmas chain countdown,  and most importantly he suggests random acts of kindness that we can do for others.  Yesterday he instructed us to go to the store to buy cleaning supplies for our favorite play place- Deanna's Playhouse.

2.  Today, the boys woke up to a special message from Sherman.  He had tickets for the local Santa train.  The boys were beyond excited to go on their first train ride.  It was a bit cold seeing as the train was quite ancient and lacked a good heating system but Grant and Ashton didn't even notice.  They loved their hour long ride and getting to see Santa.

3.  Ashton is way into babies lately.  He carries around my old Cabbage Patch doll and puts it in funny places.  His latest favorite is to put it in the dump truck wrapped in blankets.

 And yes, that is a kitchen pan flying through the air.  I finally had proof as Grant said,"I didn't do it!"


4.  He also has taken a liking to baby Jesus from the Nativity.

5. We cut our tree down last weekend on our way home from Thanksgiving festivities.  Last year it was raining when we were at the tree farm so we were surprised this year to see Santa, reindeer and a horse carriage to take us on rides around the farm.  Grant and Ashton loved it.  Ashton was not a fan of the animals though- still trying to get over his goat biting incident.  Are two year olds really supposed to remember things that happened when they were 1?

6.  Decorating the tree was an adventure this year.  Ashton apparently thought the ornaments went around the train track....

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7.  Grant is my Christmas lover.  He pretty much had all the ornaments on the tree before I could even get one out of the box.

8.  Ashton's new favorite word- amazing.  Exampes: "this is amazing mommy."  "look at that amazing tractor"  "mommy, you are amazing".  Ok, maybe I made that last one up.  Nontheless, it is pretty cute to hear this tiny 2 year old belt out all these amazings.

9.  Recent conversation overheard between Grant and all the Santas we have encountered...

Santa:  What do you want for Christmas this year little boy?
Grant:  A chainsaw.
Santa:  Oh my- as he looks up at us with a strange look on his face.

Yes, it is true that Grant wants a chainsaw for Christmas.  I just wish he would say a TOY chainsaw in order to avoid all the questioning looks from Santa and his elves.

10.  Blessing of the week:  all the precious memories made this week with Grant and Ashton as we cut down our tree and went on our first train ride.  And, a huge blessing that I made it through all the daddy daughter dance pictures that flooded my facebook without shedding a tear. Not to say it didn't hurt my heart, but I didn't cry and that is a huge step for me.  If I could just get someone to warn me next year so I can just not check my facebook for a few days, that would be great!