Our tree:

Chevy’s note for Santa and the Reindeer!:

Cookies & milk for Santa….before:

Santa got caught in the act:

…and now the Cookies & Milk are all gone…and the special food for the Reindeer disappeared too (Chevy was a little disappointed that Santa didn’t finish his milk….)

Chevy ripping into one of many presents!!

Even the dogs get presents from Santa!!  (Jewelie sat there patiently expecting one as she has done this for many, many years…)

Chevy sharing her present with Cooley-dog":

Christmas Dinner 2012!! 

Finally I had the holiday off, and I have always wanted to host the Family Dinner at our house (we had about 20)!!!

Dining Room #1:

Dining Room #2:

My centerpieces this year:

Hope you all had a Merry Ho-Ho-Ho too!!  =D

In case you’ve ever wondered how on earth Santa could possibly KNOW who has been GOOD and who has been bad…

He sends out these little magical Scout Elves to every family with children.

The elves stay with their families every December until Christmas.  Their family gets to name them, Chevy named ours Duncan.

The elves MUST follow Santas rules. 

1. They must return to the North Pole every night and report to Santa

2. They can listen to the children but they can not talk to them. (Chevy talked to Duncan all the time and constantly showed him her things!)

3. They can not be touched by humans, they MAY lose their magic ability to get back to the North Pole…then how will Santa know how you’ve been doing???

4. Every morning the elves return to their family and sit in a new location in the house. (This is the fun part, the kids wake up and have to look for the elf!!)

…Our Elf, Duncan, is very playful and hung out with some of Chevy’s toys when she was asleep, or got into some sort of trouble in general….

This is what Duncan did and the pictures are in order of each night starting on December 1st:

Chandelier swinging:

Checking on the fishies:

Hanging out with Roxanne:

Duncan is the shortest in our family!:

Chillin’ with some of Chevy best buddies, Tina, Cord and Bob:

A video conference with Santa, Duncan is quite tech savvy or course!

A self portrait:

Sending a text to Santa on Mama’s phone…

Roxanne taking Duncan out for a stroll:

Messing around with Mama’s bras:

getting dressed in Chevy’s boots and mittens:

Helping dig out Chevy’s car:

Of course Duncan can rides bikes….what did you expect?

Ooops!

Tea time at the Fisher Price house…

Bus rides are fun!

Duncan reading “The night Before Christmas” on the night before Christmas:

See you next year Duncan!!

Well!  Someone I know is super-stoked to go to Breakfast with Santa this morning:

Magic Show after breakfast:

Chatting with Santa:

Hanging out with Cooley-dog

Chevy and Sparkles the Unicorn:

Our snow man!:

Waiting for Santa to show up in the Parade at the Peachland Christmas Light Up:

Kids Christmas Party at Nia & Kaleah’s house:

Our visit with our regular Santa at the mall:

…after Santa we found these guys to hang out with:

Chevy & I made some special food for Santa’s reindeer, to help keep their flying energy up:

Making Snowman art:

Chevy & the Christmas Cookies:

More Christmas art:

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

A present for Chevy’s Elf, Duncan:

The rest of these “letters” were for Santa!  Chevy asked her Elf, Duncan, to take them home for Santa every night:

A beautiful Fall day at the Park!:

Dog:

Chevy stopping as always to smell the winter flowers:

And now to warm up with some Hot Chocolate winks:

Chevy & Caedae on a “date” at the Peachland Hoot ‘n’  Annie (Peachland Community Center):

Chevy busting out some sweet dance moves:

Checking out some sciencey stuff:

Hoot ‘n’ Annie photo-op:

Getting the pumpkins ready for Halloween!!

And we made some scary Halloween jugs:

Aunty Jenny came over for a couple days, carved pumkins and went trick or treating with Chevy:

Our pumpkin family…..can anyone see Chevy??:

Chevy was a “Spring Chicken” this year:

“Buckbuckbuckbuckbuck………can we go NOW???”

Chevy and the girls getting all fired up for the loot!!

“TRICKORTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT!”

Spring Chicken, Twisted Sithter and the Crazy Cat Lady:

Chevy working her magic:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Old “Butternut”

Now:

Then (Nov 2009):

“Catch me if you can!!”

Walnut now:

…and then (Nov 2009)

Nuts!:

BIG trees!!

And lotsa leaves!!:

* L.O.V.E *

This year we changed it up at bit and checked out the goods at Covert Farms in Oliver!!

They have this really awesome bouncy pillow!!

Chevy and Caedae had a blast!!

They also had this cool duck race game to play:

And a spider’s web to get caught in!!:

Chevy’s impression of the “Children in the corn”:

Children of the corn:

A little warm up of Hot Chocolate before going to the patch to find our own pumpkins:

Strawberry head:

Finding our pumpkins….

Coincidentally, Covert Farms also brews wine….so I came home with a couple bottles!!

Halloween & Fall….what a great time for art projects!!

Fall trees are so pretty!

Not-so-scary skeleton!

Assorted scary spiders:

Painting pumpkins:

Wax crayon melting “painting” for Grandpa’s Birthday":

“Fossil” cookies!:

“I wonder what happens to Ivory Soap when you put it in the microwave???”

= soap that looks like mashed potatoes!!

“I wonder what happens when you put our mashed potato soap into water???”

“Let’s see!!!”

“One blink makes a wink!!”

Hanging out at the beach in the Fall:

Chevy’s first braid!!

Sunday morning “Boo”cakes:

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD-DAD!!!!”

Hello Kitty!

Chevy having fun learning her numbers:

My tired little pink puppy:

Helping Mama out at the farm:

Fall has been so nice, we got to sneak in one more bike ride!

Lunch is FUN!!

Uncle Steven had a motocross race in Peachland so he brought the ladies with him this weekend!!

————–

It was Chevy’s first real sleep over with Miss Kya where they got the bunk room so share all by themselves!!

The girls were so wonderful together…..listening to the two of them at night when the lights were out: whispering broken up by silly giggling and fart-like noises was heart warming!!

The next morning Aunty Hilary made everyone breakfast and then we got geared up to watch Uncle Steven race!!

The weather turned on us….it got cold and nearly snowing at the house which meant that at the race site it was definitely SNOWING!!

So glad that I thought to bring a thermos full of hot chocolate

and we also built a small fire which we huddled around between

rounds of playing in the snow:

Cozy thoughts: