December is Here!

December is here and well on it's way! I'm not quite sure how it got to be the 9th already!  We've been busy decorating the house, baking cookings, singing and dancing to Christmas music, and watching Christmas movies! Dirk has been busy working and finishing up his school for the year. Hayden has been busy making me pipe cleaner ornaments and coloring me lots and lots of Christmas pictures.
We started the Christmas season off with a visit from a little elf. This year I decided to do a Christmas countdown with Christmas books. They are wrapped and numbered, one book for each night until Christmas eve. We started on Dec. 1st and the first book was Elf on the Shelf! I'd seen this little tradition floating around the internet and I loved it, so we decided to adopt an elf in to our family!

 I had Dirk take the kids in the back to put their jammies on while I put our little elf up on the shelf. The plan was to have the kids unwrap the book and read it, then let them spot the elf. As soon as the kids walked in the room, Ginny spotted the little elf and yelled "baby baby!!!" She wouldn't pay attention to anything else the entire time we were reading the story. Hayden had no idea what she was doing or yelling about until the story was finished and we prompted him to look up! It was really funny! We were surprised Ginny noticed the elf. I put it in a very obvious spot, but at the same time there were so many distractions and colors up there, I thought it would just blend in and not be noticed!

The kids pointing to the new elf. I like how in this picture it looks like it's part of our family photo!

After MUCH contemplation, Hayden decided all on his own we would name our elf "Saucy"... and Saucy is a girl, not a boy, and therefore is in much need of a skirt! I still haven't gotten around to the skirt, but Saucy has been such a fun little elf. She's still a little shy and hasn't caused to much trouble like the other little elves in other's homes do. I'm sure as she gets more comfortable around here she'll get more mishevious! Hayden was pretty nervous and skeptical of her at first but now each morning he LOVES being able to spot where she is and wonder what she did during the night. If you haven't heard the story, you can visit elfontheshelf.com - the story is- these little elves are adopted and hang out in your home during the Chrstmas season, returning to the North Pole each night to report back to Santa Clause all the naughty and nice things you've done during the day. These little elves are known to get in to trouble, make messed and be mischievous! I've decided ours is probably going to be a bit bossy... as in bossy Saucy. Our friend's elf is bossy and leaves notes for things the kids need to do each day. I love this idea!

Saucy swinging on the cord to the blinds in the kitchen. 

Saucy snuck some of Hayden's cookies at night!

Saucy built a snowman out of marshmallows and made a big mess!

We've also spent some time making some yummy Christmas shaped gingerbread cookies. Hayden had so much fun decorating them. I'm not as big of a fan of decorating cookies, because I'm just not good at it and it's so time consuming and messy! If you look at the finished cookies, you really can't tell the difference between mine and his!

Last week I got to sing in our church choir at a community Christmas concert. It was hosted by our church and had choirs from other churches and schools around the community. It was a pretty neat experience. At the end of the concert they had cookies for refreshments- so many different kinds of cookies- There were probably 100 different kinds of home-baked cookies for us to choose from. They were all so yummy and of course I ate way too many. This got me in the mood to bake some cookies at home. On Tuesday I baked three different kinds I'd never made before- all were sooo yummy! That night we delivered some plates of cookies to our friends for Family Night. I think we should have delivered a few more plates, because we still have a ton left and I'm ready to make some more!

One recipe I made I would highly recommend are these Chocolate Coconut bars from Martha. I made them  with a lot more chocolate chips and some butterscotch chips. I also omitted the nuts as we were making them for someone who is allergic. These things are killer good! YUM YUM!! Click here for the recipe!

Another recipe I made I would HIGHLY recommend if you're a gingerbread fan. I can't stop eating these and it makes a lot! I found the recipe on a blog I follow called "MADE". Click here to find the yummy recipe for these gingerbread softies.