Everyone......Meet Ginger!!!!!!

Christmas has arrived in our house. Hanukkah ended last week (as it came early this year).

So the tree is up and the kids loved decorating it this year.

The newest addition this year is Ginger, our Elf!!!

That's right.....we jumped on the Elf bandwagon. Abby has been admiring everyone's elf activity for the last couple years and we surprised them with it last week.

If you're not familiar with The Elf on the Shelf, you open it each year and read the story. Basically the kids believe that the elf watches their behavior each day and reports back to Santa each night.

The Elf then returns the following day and has magically moved to a different spot in the house.

Many people have taken the Elf movements farther and do funny things with him. These are the things the girls LOVE!!! In fact since we started 5 days ago, they have woken up 30 min early EVERY day just to rush downstairs and see what the Elf was up to that morning.......and report back to us of course!!

The kids have no idea we are actually the ones maneuvering the Elf, and they believe it listens to them and has magical abilities!! Biggest rule with the Elf......You ABSOLUTELY cannot touch her, or she loses her magic. **For now our Elf antics are out of kid reach to avoid temptation......we will see where it leads if things look optimistic for low level displays :)

 

 When you don't have a mantle......the wall (with 3M hooks....) will have to do!!!

Ginger the Elf......and her shenanigans so far.....(more to come)

Day 1- The girls discovered her the first morning sitting in the Christmas tree pretending to be an ornament

 Day 2; Part 2-- Ginger was so upset with Maddy's ugly behavior that evening, that when the girls weren't watching, she turned inward to the tree because she just couldn't bare to watch anymore

 

Day 3- Ginger drew elf ears and a mustache on Abby's framed picture.....and signed it (with wipe off marker of course)

 Day 4- Ginger flew up onto the ceiling fan to get a better view of the girls 

Day 5- (Ugggg somehow I forgot to take a photo) Ginger hung the girls underwear on the Christmas tree!!

Day 6- Ginger made a train of animals on the windowsill, riding atop Abby's horse!

Monterey Boat Light Show

Last night we attended the annual boat light show on the harbor.

We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a fun night out with the kids.

So much is family friendly in Monterey, it makes life easy.

We had heard that our wine club on the bay was the best (indoor) place to view the show, so we headed down there in advance and luckily got a front row table at the window!!

We ordered some wine and good eats and enjoyed the show pass by!

(Our wine club has a kids corner which we were conveniently seated next to, where the kids can ready books, puzzles, and play with puppets to keep entertained)

 Cannery Row Christmas Tree

 The lights are up on our little house!! Lighted spiral trees, and Snoopy on his blow up house!!

Maddy's Gymnastics Holiday Show

Sunday we attended Maddy's gymnastics holiday show. It was a 90 minute event that showed the skills of all levels of gymnasts that attend the facility for lessons. 

Maddy is in the "Prenastics" class for 3-5 year olds, goes once a week, and has fun tumbling, somersaulting, and hanging on the bars.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mxVrWISUf4

This link is a clip from Maddy's performance

Busy Indoors

With the cold air outside......we have been having fun inside!

 Abby has been practicing with her tracing unit that Grandma Donna got for her.

She already loves to draw and doodle, so this was perfect for her creative mind.

 I used all our leftover turkey to make delicious Turkey Rice Veggie soup last week

 Maddy helped me bake sugar cookies for my Bunco event last week

 Abby took an art class this past weekend, and drew this clown fish

 We used our Vitamix blender and make smoothies Sunday morning (Pineapple, Banana, Orange--Kid friendly)

 We baked treats for Maddy's gymnastics holiday show--Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and White Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Bites

 I had excellent batter lickers!!!!

Oh....CHILDREN......

So we ventured out on Saturday to take our own family photos this year.

Camera tripod in tow......and two not so cooperative kids who were freezing....

It just happened to be a VERY crisp and breezy day! Oops! But we had to get it done!! That's what memories are made of right? Whining, freezing kids who are ready to go home before you've taken the first photo??!!!

Anyhow we had luckily already snagged "THE" picture from a previous shot, but these were hilarious and had Mike and I bent over laughing when we were reviewing them. Because we were taking pictures one by one using the camera timer and tripod, we would get setup, take the photo, then check it after each one to see the quality. Clearly quality was lacking in Abby's decision to use our family portrait session as goof-off time. For how cute she really is, she can make some ugly faces when she tries!!

Its COLD Outside!!!!

Since our return from Thanksgiving, the weather has chilled off significantly here in Monterey.

We have been waking up to 30+ degree temps......which makes for some COLD walks to school.

All bundled up!!

 They have been getting a lot of use out of their new scarves!!

And Maddy just loves a good self-portrait opportunity to make faces!!

 Just this morning, Maddy was dressed to walk (across the street.....) to school.

She had her track suit on, winter hat and glasses (because she HATES the sun!!!)

Then she is screaming down our street to her friends she can see walking to school as well at that hour......"hey guys!!!". She is such a social butterfly it kills us sometimes!!

Thanksgiving 2013

We drove to LA for Thanksgiving this year to spend it with my family!!

 We started out the day right, by waking up at 5am for a 7am Turkey Trot in Long Beach.

Mike and Amy ran the 10K (6.2 miles) and the rest of us turkey lovers did the 5K (3.1 miles)

It was a fun morning out without the kids and exercise to boot!

Then I had 3 full days to spend with my sisters!

We all stayed at my mom's house and had fun relaxing.

Maddy got some extreme relaxing done as Aunt Sarah tickled her back a few times

This was the "KIDS" table at Thanksgiving--they even got to decorate it themselves that day!

And Abby got some solo time with Aunt Amy & Adam on a walk Saturday night by the water and got to see the sunset!

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration!

We were THANKFUL to be with so much family

Cousins Visit

Last week BEFORE Thanksgiving......my cousin Erin and her boys Andrew & Michael came down two days early to spend time here in Monterey, before our planned drive down to Southern California together.

The kids (ages 2-1/2 to 6) had a blast together. And wore us out!!!

We went to the kids museum here in Monterey, visited the Wharf sea life, and had lunch!

 Andrew practicing his golf game

 Michael the golf cart driver

 Kids lunch

Watching for seals (Michael, Maddy, Andrew & Abby--reverse age order....)

These two seals were hooked arm in arm almost doing a show for us

Erin and I enjoying the gorgeous day

The kids had so much fun and got along GREAT

Back at my house they balanced playing with toys with some bike riding!!