Locks of Love

Ember donated her long beautiful hair to locks of love a few weeks ago, and she inspired me.  I decided I would do the same.  Ember donated almost 15 inches, and I didn't have quite that much.  I donated 10 1/2 inches, just barely above the minimum requirement, but I still made it!  I now have short hair for the first time since Grace was a baby, and I LOVE it!  :)

Before

After!

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas was amazing, everybody got something they were excited about and we all enjoyed the blessing of giving.  My favorite gift was something that cost no money, only my husband's time and talents.  He's a software developer, and he wrote a program for my computer that displays a pop up box every few minutes that contains some compliment that he wrote about me.  He likes when I play the piano, he thinks I'm a good cook, he thinks I'm sexy, he appreciates my thoughtfulness, he remembers our inside jokes from 24 years ago... so no matter what I'm doing on my computer, I'm reminded of his love for me every few minutes.  It's perfect.

Here's a few images from that day (and a few from the various nativities the kids participated in):

The stage is set

Kids got their Christmas jammies, Santa ate his treats and drank his rootbeer, Ellie the Elf is staying on to hand deliver Santa's gifts, stockings are stuffed, kids are in bed (sleeping?  who knows).  The scene is set for a perfect Christmas morning!

Ellie hid on a shelf today.  How original.

She hid in my parents room, since they're here for the holidays.

I guess she needed to get to know the new folks :)

Santa says hi!

Today's Pinterest Christmas craft:  Rainbeers!  

Coloring

Chore Cards... genius!

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, so I made my own.  I of course had to cute it up a bit and scrapbook them, but I made five chore cards, each one for a different room in the house.  On the card is a picture and a checklist... it's laminated, so the kids can check things off as they go.  Every Saturday morning we're going to pick a card and we're each responsible for the room that we pick.  Austin and I aren't exempt, we'll get a room too, and it's only the public areas of the house.  Bedrooms are a given.  No playing outside or with friends or watching TV until everything on your card is checked off.  If we keep up with this every Saturday, none of the rooms are ever going to get bad enough to cause major complaints from the kids (I will always expect minor complaints).  I am so excited for Saturday, maybe even a little bit more than for Christmas!  :)