Friday 5

This week has been hard and I am ready to bit it goodbye. Hello weekend! Please be kind to us.

 1. Plans.

Tonight we are going to see Santa! And visit the festival of lights a couple of towns over. I'm very excited for this. It's a beautiful lake where the lights are put up and we've never been in the 3 Christmases since we moved here. Tomorrow we are planning on decorating gingerbread trains and ninja cookies! And then we have the town holiday parade to look forward to tomorrow night, which my 2 boys will be participating in.

2. Elf on the Shelf.

We do our elf a little differently than most, I think. He isn't there to spy on our kids or watch that they are good or bad, he's just there for fun. They wake up and run around to find him and he has their advent stocking and candies for the day. I have never liked the idea of tricking kids into being good with lies about elves and Santa and that's just not how we roll. I prefer the magic of it.

3. Our Advent Stockings.

This year I whipped up some tiny stockings and stitched a countdown to Christmas on each one (thanks to an idea from Whistle and Ivy) and each night they are left with Jake the Elf and filled with one chocolate for each kid. It has been a big hit and I think it will be our advent in future years as well.

4. Speaking of Christmas Countdown...

TWO WEEKS LEFT. That's it! We are finished with 95% of Christmas. We have each other to shop for, a few things to pick up for the kids, our own stockings and that's IT. I am doing my stocking shopping tonight and possibly also my Christmas gift shopping, we shall see. Only 2 more paydays to get all of this stuff! I have loved shopping and wrapping gifts and I'm going to miss that. It's my absolute favorite part of Christmas. Finding or making the perfect gift for someone and wrapping it up all cutely and waiting impatiently to put it under the tree.


5. Loss. 

Not to end on a sad note, but it didn't feel right to just ignore it... A friend of the family died this week in a motorcycle accident, along with my oldest niece. They were dating. She'd just had a baby with her ex earlier this year. I won't pretend that I was close with my niece, as she is my brother's step-daughter and my brother and I haven't talked since I was 12, but I knew her as a kid and I knew she loved her baby and I can't imagine being her mother and burying my daughter. Our friend that died was an amazing kid who spread so much positive energy into the world and it will be a darker place without him. Learning to navigate life after a tragic, sudden loss is really hard. It has been a sad week for us, especially right before the holidays. I've done a lot of praying and hoping that 2016 will be less stressful and sad. I'm about ready to kick 2015 out the door.

That's it for me this week. I'm really excited for some fun weekend plans and hoping that it will be the relaxing, sweet weekend we need so much. I hope you are having a peaceful holiday season.