TTT: Season 3, Episode 51

1. The countdown is on, people! It's Christmas-mania around here and we're loving it. If I remember correctly, last year, the boys seemed to be in to shenanigans of one kind or another every second of the day by the five-days-until-Christmas point. This year has been much better. Our little project to learn the fruits of the spirit and refrain from extra indulgences has been fairly successful. My two big boys can name all nine fruits (with a little help), including one you may have never heard of: "joyness." It's my favorite fruit around this time of the year, as the boys are definitely full of it! They are oh, so in to every aspect of the season and can't wait for Christmas morning. Neither can I! And I'm so excited for family to arrive too. The first guests will be here on Saturday (Abby and Andy and Dave...staying at my parents) and then Mike and Casey and Pat will arrive on Monday. We will be hosting Mike's family at our house and can't wait for them to arrive. There's all kinds of fun planned over the next few weeks. We are so blessed to have family to share this season with!

2. Kolbe's play on Tuesday was just precious. Of course, four and five-year-olds doing a nativity play is nothing more than organized chaos, but adorable nonetheless. And yes, I totally turned in to a stage mom in the audience, making silly faces at Kolbe in hopes of forcing a smile and singing along to the songs with him in hopes that he'd sing a little louder. He was certainly audible at several points and just as cute as can be. He made an adorable wise man!

3. Save a few blankets that I have to assemble tomorrow, I'm finally done with all of my pre-Christmas orders and even all of the handmade gifts I plan to give. Yay! At points this week I was definitely at my breaking point, mostly because I knew I had taken on more than I should have, but alas, just as always, everything is finished in time. And heck, I've even got all of the presents wrapped to boot! Now if only the groceries would go buy themselves, the goodies would bake themselves, and the house would clean itself....

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope your weekend and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are warm, joyful, merry and full of the love of Christ as we celebrate Love coming in to our world!

My little train conductor.

Three brothers watching Frosty together...well actually, two...Grant lasted roughly twelve seconds before scampering off. He'll only stop to look at the TV if there's some form of music playing. 

Mark and I got to go to his group's Christmas party on Sunday night. His nickname at work is "Moose"...there's already another Mark in the group. The doc who was hosting the party had this moose on the wall so Mark had to have his picture taken with it.

Lots of orders ready to be packaged and shipped.

And local ones ready to be delivered!

Two brothers playing hide-and-go-seek. The best of friends.

Sir Grant wants to show his support of the Red Raider's new coach, Kliff Kingsbury!

Every year my Grandma Hefferly sends us a box of goodies before Christmas. Bless her little heart, I fear it costs her more to ship it than to actually buy the items, but I always look SO forward to receiving it. It's so sweet and completely from the kindness of her heart.  

Turning in to a big boy...baseball hat, red truck, big gulp and all!

The ever clever Kolbe. 

TTT: Season 3, Episode 50

1. Christmas is just twelve days away. Twelve! Right about now I'm at that point where my to-do-before-Christmas list is so long that I'm thinking that curling up in a ball in a dark corner of my closet seems like a better idea.  I do realize that it all will get done, one way or another. Right now it's just feeling a little daunting! Fun though. Fun, but daunting. I love this time of year. And all of the many, many things that there are to do regardless of if they make me feel stressed out or not. The presents to wrap, parties to attend, Christmas plays to beam over (Kolbe's first!)...it's all just so much fun. Sure, a long list of orders to fill by this time next week hangs over my head, but it's just part of the gig for this time of year. And less than two weeks from now I'll have absolutely nothing to do other than relax and enjoy my family. Can't wait!

2. Our party that we hosted on Saturday was so. much. FUN! We had a house full of kids. And I mean full. Luckily, the weather was still very warm so they got to play outside quite a bit and honestly, didn't cause much damage to the game room upstairs. It was no more messy after everyone left than it is on a normal day. And having time for the husbands to get together with us was a lot of fun too. We wives get so used to our usual chit-chat so it's always enjoyable to get to know the other side of their families. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a great group of ladies that have the same beliefs and priorities as me. They've all been so kind and welcoming...and the boys most definitely love all the kids that come with mom's book group too!

3. Time for randomness!
- Is there any way I can ask for a vocabulary for Grant for Christmas? He is so right on the edge of putting it all together and it's driving both of us crazy! He does have a few words that I'm able to decipher. But for the most part he just uses various pitches of screaming. By the time Mark gets home I'm often to the point of just needing at least ten minutes to not be in his presence. I love that baby dearly, but man, it would sure be nice for the screaming to cease!

- The carpet in our family room grosses me out. It's obviously original to the house which was built in 2003...so almost ten years old. We're the third family to live here, all with kids. Grant's year long spit-up fest just added to its beauty. And it's to the point where getting it cleaned works for a week or so but the pad is stained so they all just come right back. But what's the point in changing the flooring while the kids are still this age!?! Ugh. *Dreaming of pretty hardwoods*

- What am I most looking forward to in the week to come? Kolbe's Christmas play at pre-school! He's one of the wise men...the red one, so I'm told...and he's so excited. Almost as excited as me!

- This is probably the cutest thing ever:

Just a small portion of the collection of kiddies we had at our house on Saturday night. 

After the party, Kolbe was exhausted! Since he doesn't nap anymore, he's used to going to bed fairly early. For the first time in a looooong time, he fell asleep on Mama's lap. Man, I cherish moments like this!

Poor Sir. This is what he gets for playing outside in December.  A forehead full of mosquito bites and his usual crazy reaction. In December! Grrr.

Oh yay! It finally cooled off! Now I can wear my jacket and perhaps play outside without getting eaten alive.

TTT: Season 3, Episode 49

1. I'm sitting here with a warm mug of hot chocolate typing away while my oh-so-pretty Christmas tree glows beside me. This is truly my favorite time of the year! Sure, the summer is fun, but the Advent and Christmas seasons are just magical. I love everything about the celebration of the birth of Christ. It's so much like waiting for the arrival of one of my own babies...the anticipation, preparation, excitement....just minus the non-stop contractions and high blood pressure. And the joy twinkling in the faces of each of my kiddos is so tangible that it makes me giddy with the same feelings too. Today we celebrated the feast day of Saint Nicholas. Both of the older boys can readily tell you the story of the real Saint Nicholas; we've read their little books about him many times. And last night they put their shoes by their door in hopes that much like the saint did for many, many of the faithful hundreds of years ago, a gift might appear in their shoes as well. Many of you may have seen on my Facebook today that sadly, Kolbe's shoes ended up lacking a gift this morning due to several days of sassing Mama without end. Poor kiddo just can't seem to get past the fact that he's not the one in charge. But alas, today was already much better and he's working hard because Saint Nick promised in his note to Kolbe that as soon as he could tell that Kolbe respected his Mama, the little gift that was intended for his shoes would be there. Poor guy....despite the excitement of the season, sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way!

2. Speaking of Christmas, we finally finished all of our decorations! We decided last year that we were going to try to do the outside of the house this year with lights. Last year we did our yard but balked on doing the roof. This year we were determined to start early so that we wouldn't be tempted to give it the oh-if-we-put-them-up-now-they-won't-be-up-very-long-at-all-so-let's-just-wait-till-next year. And may I just say that I'm certain that my house loves the Advent/Christmas season best of all too. It's definitely when she's her prettiest, homey-est, warmest, and of course, most magical. And one great thing about being Catholic, Christmas Day is actually just the start of the Christmas season! So our decorations get to stay up extra long. :)

3. Tomorrow night we are hosting a Christmas party for my Bible study group. (I call it Bible study...we actually just pray a decade of the rosary together and attempt to discuss a book we're reading through constant interruptions from the bajillion kids we have when combined together and our chatty tangents we tend to get off on all the time.) Mark and I got to talking and I think this is actually the first shindig we've hosted here. Ever. Sure, I've hosted the group at our house from several of our regular Monday morning meetings and I've had family over plenty, but this is our first evening "party," so to say. Seems so strange considering that it seemed like we had them all the time at our little house in Lubbock. Guess it's time for us to get on the social scene in TW. I mean, not the real social scene...Lord knows we would appear as mere paupers among many...okay, most...of The Woodlands elite. But that's the best thing about my Bible Study group: between the six families that will be here, there will be twenty kids present. There's certainly no false pretenses. Barf stained carpets, crayon streaks on the wall...it's all good. Love these girls and their kiddos. They've definitely been a blessing in my life since moving here and I'm looking forward to our little get together tomorrow night.

You know, someone has to play Mama to the world's most beautiful babe...guess I'll claim it for now! (I mean, really...sometimes I look at this little face and wonder if he's really mine!!!) 

As much as I love my rocking chairs, man, they get dirty and moldy from this Houston humidity! I finally gave them a good scrub down this week. (the front one is done, the back one isn't.) Surprisingly, it comes off quite easily. 

These two turkeys were supposed to be sleeping. I went to check on them and instead they were in bed together giggling and just being buds. Precious friends.

Mark...making me nervous at the top of our house.

Hard at work.

Love my mantle this year! 

And my tree too! Though my skirt underneath still isn't finished...

And don't forget the stockings too.

And The Asmussen Abode in all it's glory!

Happy Advent and Christmas to you all!