Reality. AND...Dah-hoo Door-ay! Welcome, Welcome Jelly Bean!

Is it me, or did Christmas come way too quickly this year?  I would love a second to catch my breath and enjoy the last moments before I have to start trying to savor the new ones!  But alas, this is not the case, so I'm doing my best to appreciate what is in front of me. I'm trying to create fun moments and memories with the kids, as well as enjoying the ones that come up organically.

Recently I was told by a dear friend that someone confided in her that "when she reads your blog, she feels inadequate". (I don't know who it was.)  That made me so sad.  I reminded her about my "disclaimer", but I guess writing that didn't do the trick.  So before I go into a post with cutesie ideas I stole from someone's else's creative mind, I just wanted to say this...

Seriously. My house looks like this far more than I wish it did.  Any of you who know me know that I can be so scatterbrained.  I am so...so goofy...in a cheesy, corny way.  I say the wrong things so often, and I always want to kick myself afterwards. I get impatient with Julian all the time.  Sometimes I think I have the world's most bipolar child...one minute he is the sweetest, most excited and happy boy on earth! The next he is shouting about what he doesn't want to do or doesn't like...which often seems to be what I do want to do, or do like. Ie: I try to get him pumped for something by being excited and his response is "no! I don't want to do that!" wah, wah, wah....  I get behind on laundry probably worse than all of you who read this blog...combined.  In the kitchen or at the sewing machine, what would take probably any one of you ten minutes, would take me at least an hour.  I wish hardcore that I knew how to play an instrument, but alas...I don't even know how to read music. I don't have the patience to be a perfectionist, and so I'm not, and I fully own up to that, even when I know some might look down on me because I didn't match two sides of fabric so the patterns match on a pillow or a pillowcase dress...whateva! I eat raw cookie dough/ cake batter/ brownie batter like it's my job. I am the world's worst waker-upper in the morning. I. am. always. late. To this day, I can't quite pronounce my name clearly because I have a lisp (still...apparently?) because people always think I say "Thurmond" when I say my last name. Some of my best friends have told me, once we became best friends, that they thought I was disingenuous when they first met me because I was "so friendly" or something, and that made me insecure for a bit when I met new people ("am I being too friendly? Tone it down a notch, Kim! Will she think I'm fake? But being friendly is in my nature...this is me! What do I do?!")...which was a tough struggle for me for a while. Shall I continue? Ha! Because I totally could! I just hope the person who told my sweet friend that reads this, because my heart aches at the thought of making someone feel that way in my attempts to capture the good things my kids do (and all kids do good things!), or the shots I give at recreating *more often than not* other peoples' brilliant ideas. I do love to create (watch that short video link...so good!), though the finished results are usually quite sub-par! Please, please know...the grass may seem greener on the other side, but we all have our insecurities, struggles, trials, and heartaches. I just try to focus more on the positive on this blog. But I hate that doing so has made anyone feel negatively:(  I so wish I could just give whoever that was a big hug, and tell her that she is a rockstar...I can assume this because the person she told is a rockstar. And rockstars tend to hang out with rockstars. :)

And yet, without further adieu, I give you the start of our Christmas celebrating...

THE NORTH POLE BREAKFAST

(someone else's idea:)

The morning of our special breakfast (for dinner), this is what we were up to:

Julian loved making the "little ghosties" for Halloween, and asked if we could make them again on Monday. I suggested, perhaps little Santas instead, and he was totally on board!  We went out and collected some rocks and got to work!

 

Can you find the finished product as part of the table set up for our North Pole Breakfast (for dinner)? 

The point of our North Pole Breakfast was to officially welcome our Elf on the Shelf into the family, and into our home for the season! We did this as part of our Family Home Evening last week.

 

Julian ultimately came up with and decided on the name "Jelly Bean" for our elf.  I don't know how he came up with that (we haven't had jelly beans around since Easter!), but I think it's so cute! I love that little name. Jelly Bean wrote the kiddos their own personal notes. I also stole this idea from someone else, right down to the googley eyes. :)

 

Cheesin'.

 He's adorable, that little elf. But he's also such a creepy little elf...no?

 After our special welcoming breakfast (for dinner), we watched (Julian"watched") our Church's Christmas broadcast, where we listened to our Prophet speak on the true meaning of Christmas. That photo taped on the China cabinet is one of our prophet with his two counselors.

 I presented them with their Little People nativity set just before we watched to help keep them entertained while we listened to the beautiful music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the words of our beloved prophet.

 Ella Grace loves to fold her arms randomly for prayers!

 And with that, we welcomed little Jelly Bean into our family, and the true spirit of Christmas into our home.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I think we may have started a new family tradition.  Always, for Family Home Evening the week after the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional and Julian's birthday, I want to do our North Pole Breakfast and watch/ rewatch the devotional.  I think it's a great way to introduce the "fun" of Christmas (Santa, snowmen, elves, etc...), and the true meaning of Christmas (the birth of our Savior) at the same time.

A post is forthcoming on all the shenanigans our silly little resident elf has been up to!