Ready for a New Year!

Merry Christmas!! Wow, what a couple of weeks we've had. My last post was on the 13th, we were able to start moving stuff into our house on the 14th, have had 4 family Christmas's since and have spent the rest of our free time unloading and unpacking boxes. Like, over 100 boxes. Throw in a trip to the ER on Christmas Eve to get stitches in my hand after a freak accident and needless to say our traditions went down the drain. I have felt so guilty over not finishing our kindness acts or our Jesse tree advent or even continuing with Rudy's antics. But, after much thought and consideration, in the grand scheme of things, I've decided it was best to work as hard as I could to get my family back home by Christmas morning. My kids have been through enough and there was nothing I wanted more than to have them wake up on Christmas morning in their own beds and get to see what Santa brought in their own living room. And we made it. We still have a very long way to go to make it feel like it did before (if that's even possible) but I'm so thankful that we are home.

I hope you had a very merry Christmas and I hope that you have a great start to your 2013. I know I'm sure looking forward to a new year. :) 

Day 13

Rudy sneaked down to the breakfast buffet this morning before the kids got up. He wanted to surprise them but I'm betting he got his eat on before they found him. 

Today's kindness act was very personal for us. We are beyond thankful for so many people who have helped us during this trying time. 

I will never take clean towels and sheets for granted again. I'm going to miss these wonderful ladies who have totally fed my clean freak side with those small details every day. They even made sure all the dishes were in the dishwasher and ran it daily. Not to mention the clean bathrooms.

 I want them to come home with me. 

We are now headed to my parents house to watch a Tim Hawkins DVD. Starting tomorrow, things are going to start getting a little crazy so we wanted to take some down time to relax and laugh. Family is coming to town for a Christmas gathering, and...it looks like we will be moving furniture into our house on Saturday! They should have finished painting today and are installing carpet tomorrow! Then they will deliver all our clothes, sheets, towels, pillows, etc. on Monday and I will begin unpacking all our boxes. This time next week we will be sleeping in our own beds.

 We will be home for Christmas. 

Praise the Lord!!

Day 11 and 12

Rudy started his day yesterday by getting squeaky clean. :) 

Maybe he had a date with one of the other elves in the hotel. 

The temperature has stayed extremely chilly so our kindness act for Tuesday included the wonderful people who are putting our house back together. Okay, so they're really just painters but they still deserved to work with some warm coffee and donut holes. 

Today, we ventured into the handmade baked goods part of our kindness advent. We made some yummy cinnamon apple strudel muffins and took them to the tellers of our bank. My hubby works at the same branch but in a different department so they are getting cupcakes a little later. 

I am beginning to love the look on people's face when we surprise them with something nice. The nice lady who took our treats was pleased when I told her that I understand how hard tellers work (especially during the holidays...been there, done that). I think she enjoyed knowing someone thought of them and appreciated their efforts to have excellent customer service. 

And Rudy really tried to stay hidden today. I think he was tired and didn't want to be bothered. It's probably from that date he had yesterday. 

 Nice try Rudy, but my kids have eyes of eagles. 

We can't wait to see where you end up tomorrow.

Ten down...15 to go!

Winter has finally hit Texas! Yesterday I had to do the lovely chore of laundry. It takes me awhile since I've only been doing it once a week and I have to make sure that whomever I'm bombarding for the day doesn't need to do laundry of their own. So after church I headed to my parent's house to take care of this week's misery. (I really dislike laundry...can you tell? ha!) Every time I'm over there, I feel like someone is watching me. I finally saw her. Just sitting there. Staring at me. 

Creepy little dog. 

There came a point in the day when I realized that I wasn't going to be finished in time to do our kindness act for the day. I told Jerod and the kids to go on without me. Princess had enjoyed giving treats to a bell ringer so much that she wanted to do that again but they couldn't find anyone working. A typical winter northern had hit and it was a ghost town out there. I told them to go find a grocery sacker who was carrying out groceries for people but they couldn't find any of those either. It was just too nasty and cold for anyone to be out in that terrible weather. 

We'll try again another day I guess. 

Rudy was caught snooping around Jerod's clothes. He obviously found a way to the top of his boots but I think things went very wrong after that. I hope he enjoyed spending his whole day in that stinky thing! 

 Today we ventured out into the cold weather to shop for carpet for our house and to run some other errands. While out, we decided to get some lunch and we had the nicest waiter ever. He talked to my kids like they were adults and he was very careful to get all our orders correct. We decided he was the one who needed our kindness act today. 

I know that sometimes during the Christmas season, people are in a hurry and tend to get grumpy. Sometimes, the ones who get the bad end of that are the ones who are serving the public. They deal with a lot of people and have to serve them no matter how they are treated in return. So this man's kindness and his continuous, contagious smile earned him the right for our kindness act today. 

During this season, please remember that everyone has a story and no matter how tacky or rude they can be, we do not have the right to judge them. Be kind. Show them Christ's love through your actions. You might be the only Jesus they see today. 

Merry Christmas

Day 8...Nutcracker, Hot Chocolate and Cookies

Today was such a great day! It was a complete girls day and I loved every minute of it. We started by getting all dolled up and going to lunch with my mom, sister, her mother-in-law, and my two nephews. Then we went to an afternoon performance of the Nutcracker. I was so excited for Princess to see this show. It has been several years since we've been and her love for ballet has been growing every week so I knew she would love it. And she did. 

The boys enjoyed the show too. My boy wasn't interested in going so Princess got to hang with two of her guy cousins. They all did very well and sat still and quietly through the whole performance. Well, except for a few comments here and there about how boy ballerinas dress and how disturbing it is and if you've ever been to the ballet you understand but anyway.....

Once home from the show, Princess and I changed clothes and went to take care of today's kindness advent activity. 

 The mall was a complete mad house and I realized that Princess had gotten comfy in her p.j.s. So when she wanted to take care of this one herself, I just pulled up and let her hop out and run it up to the bell ringer. The sweet lady working was so excited and pleased when she saw Princess walking up with her treats. Plus, people going into the mall commented on how cool it was. When she walked back to the car, Princess was so proud and happy. Sigh. Sweet girl. I love her so. 

Now we're snuggled up together waiting for our guys to get home. She's working on her letter to Santa and I love that she's asking him for things for all of us. Have I mentioned I love her? :)  What a great day. Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Day Seven...behind but not forgotten

Okay, okay I'm a day behind. : ) But...I have been working toward a pretty stellar act of kindness if you ask me. First, yesterday morning Rudy was caught trying to sneak in some T.V. time before breakfast. Not cool, Rudy, not cool. No T.V. time until school is finished. 

 Yesterday we were going to pay for someones Sonic happy hour but yesterday was also extremely busy getting ready for today's big day. Our home school group's annual Christmas party was today and this year we decided to add an outreach project to the festivities. Instead of feeling lame for missing yesterday, we decided to just count today's act as two.

We started our day at the bowling alley and then moved to my dad's office for our outreach (or kindness advent) part of the day. We chose to make Christmas cards for some of our friends in Africa. We picked one school Jerod had visited in July and got their names. There were 82 names in all. Some of us worked on cards before we got there and some made them this afternoon. Either way, we completed all the names on the list and I'm very excited to send these handmade, heartfelt cards across the ocean. We have some very cool kids and I'm blessed to have shared today's advent activity with them.

On a completely unrelated note, Princess learned that it is not safe to be the first one asleep when you're sharing a room with your brother. I can smell the revenge brewing. 

 Rudy took some time today to smell the roses. I'm glad he knows to take time to enjoy the small things in life.

The boys decided to go to the ranch this weekend and do some deer hunting and relaxing. Little Man learned a hard life lesson this week that unfortunately taught him a harsh reality of this world. People make bad decisions in life and whether they realize it or not, their decisions affect many people. Especially younger people who look up to them and trust them. When those people make bad choices, it is very disappointing to that younger person and it hurts. A bunch. So my boys are going to have some father/son time to talk things out and work toward healing my precious son's heart. 

That being said, Princess is taking full advantage of them being away and is having her bestest friend in the world spend the night. These two are so fun to watch. They play non-stop and their imaginations lead them to some wonderful adventures. I really hope we get some sleep tonight through all the giggles and chatter. :) 

Tomorrow we will get back on track with our kindness advent. We are attending a performance of the Nutcracker but I just know treats for a bell ringer are in our future. Have a great weekend!

Up Bright and Early...day five

Today we started our day with our kindness act. Little Man had an orthodontist appointment this morning so instead of taking cupcakes, we decided donuts would be a better option. :)

 It's kinda funny taking donuts to a dentist office. Princess was concerned about how they would react but they were more than thankful. I figure they have enough toothbrushes lying around to brush off the sugar when they were done eating them.

 And doesn't he look handsome with his braces off?! So nice to see the pain and money was worth it. 

He has completed what they call Phase 1. When all his baby teeth fall out, then they will put braces on all his teeth and work at moving his lower jaw forward. But for now, we are enjoying his pearly whites just like they are. 

This has nothing to do with our kindness advent or Rudy the elf but I like showing off my hubby's kindness. 

Needless to say, all this house stuff has put quite the stress on both of us and sometimes we are a little too grumpy with each other. So it was nice to know he still likes to spoil me. :)

Little Rudy knew today would be a busy one so he helped out by making my coffee this morning. What a good little elf he is.

Day Four...Check!

Rudy has spent some time in high places today. This morning we found him warming himself by the light in the bathroom. 

Once spotted, my hubby rescued him and we found him hiding in the cabinet above the refrigerator. 

Silly elf :)

We finished up our day three of the kindness advent and bought our "angel" Christmas. I had picked out the youngest angel on the tree in honor of our little angel who is waiting to join our family. And I was super stoked that I found good prices on clothes. So much that we were able to get her warm clothes, jammies, jacket, socks, shoes AND buy her desired toy all within our budget. Love me some Target. 

 While there, we completed our day four kindness advent.

Simple, quick and I hope most effective. I placed one on each mirror with sayings like, "You are beautiful!" "God made you unique" and of course, "Merry Christmas!" I really like this act of kindness. It didn't cost any money but I'm just sure it brought a smile to some sweet woman's face. 

Are you following an advent of any kind? It is so much fun and I love that our day has revolved around doing something nice for someone else. Tomorrow we are taking goodies to our orthodontist office. They have helped make Little Man's smile so super pretty I think they deserve it.

Day Three

December 3rd began by finding Rudy hiding among the kids literature books. :) I guess he felt like doing some night time reading. Little Man gets to place him tonight and I'm so very anxious to see what mischief he gets into. 

Our kindness advent was to adopt a child and buy their Christmas.  

We were only able to do half of our advent today. We had to work around things like laundry that I have to do at someone else's home and have to do it all at the same time so I'm not taking up their machines day after day. I did sneak off to the mall in between loads and picked our angel off the tree but the buying will have to wait until tomorrow.

I think it will work out just fine because tomorrow's kindness act is to write post-it notes and put them on the mirror of a public restroom. So wherever we choose to shop for our angel will be the lucky place to get special notes. It should be interesting. :)

In other news, we have electricity at our house AND they plan to start painting on Wednesday! It is good to see forward progress!

Day One and Two

Well, we are off to a good start on our new traditions. I want to document what we do more for myself than anything so I can look back next year and remember everything we did.

Yesterday was our first day of the kindness advent and although I had to do it by myself, we completed day one. We had made our envelopes and wrote out each act and then hung them from a string taped to the wall in the kids room.

 The day was getting late and my kids had just gone to the hotel pool but I still had to go get a few things from the store. So, I bought a Wal-Mart gift card when I checked out and then turned around and gave it to the man behind me. He was very surprised and kinda suspicious. But when he realized I was serious about it, he thanked me with a smile.

After getting home and telling the story to the kids, Princess named our elf Rudy and went to bed in anticipation of where she would find him this morning. Little Man doesn't seem to be "into" it but I figure once it's his turn to hide him, there will be more excitement. This is what little Rudy did all night. He's obviously a sport loving elf. I think he will fit into this family perfectly.

Day Two of our kindness advent had to be tweaked a little.

We thought this would be a great one since there is a snack cabinet in the lobby of the hotel. You pick a snack and then pay the person working the front desk. So instead of taping money to the machine, we just gave money to the front desk employee and told them to use it for the next few snack buying residents. :)

We also completed our first day of the Jesse Tree Advent. I hadn't realized that it started on November 29, but we figured starting late was better than not starting at all. It's so fun to watch the kids get excited about these traditions. Tomorrow we are going to pick out a child from the Angel Tree and buy Christmas for them.  I also can not wait to see where Rudy is when we wake up. It's Princess' turn to 'stage' him so it should be fun. Good night!