Brody has been wrestling, in fact his season ended this week. He loves it and he is feisty so this seems to be right up his alley. He practices and has matches during the week and then on the weekends he has tournaments at different high schools. Back in November he took first place in his division, I was pretty proud of him.
At his tournament yesterday, we had been there a couple hours and Charlotte was getting restless and started to throw a fit. The lady by us reminded her that Santa can see her and then I told her she won't get a present when she cries like that. She did calm down. Later that day at the gas station, a car pulled up next to us and Santa was driving. Brody pointed it out and I rolled down Charlie's window. The first thing she said was "Hi Santa, I not crying!" They were so excited to randomly see Santa like that.

buddy

We started The Elf on The Shelf tradition this year. I read the kid the book under the tree and in the book it says that once you give him a name you can't touch him. So they each cradled him and kissed him before we gave him his name. We stuck him in the tree and named him "buddy" and then the kids started talking to him and telling him their wishes.

The tooth fairy and Buddy sometimes get lazy/forgotten. But it has been fun finding new places and the kids like looking for him and when they act up, I remind them that he is watching, but that is starting to lose it's effectiveness.

I can't help myself

A neighbor was doing a school fundraiser selling family portraits that would be taken by a professional photographer that she babysat for. It was cheap and we needed a family picture for Christmas cards. Well we showed up and she had a small camera, not a point and shoot but not what a professional photographer would use. Proof that just because you are a stay at home mom that likes to take pictures doesn't mean you can start a photography business. So Ryan thought he would be nice and offer her to use his camera which was about triple the size, maybe quadruple and he taught her what an ISO was. Here is our family picture.

I have wanted an apple orchard picture for quite a while now, she didn't quite capture what I had in mind. Are we standing in a forest of dead trees? Is that Ryan's lens bag in the bottom of the photo? But at least I could help my neighbor raise some funds for choir :)

Diabetes Association Breakfast with Santa

Before we left for the breakfast, Charlotte told me she wanted to give something to Santa which I thought was a penny. But realized it was a chocolate from her advent calander that was starting to melt in her hand. I got a zip loc bag for her to put it in and just planned on her forgetting about it. She didn't. When she got up on Santa's lap, she pulled out her baggy, opened it and told Santa to open his mouth and then popped it in. and he ate it!! It was hilarious and a classic. They loved seeing him and he gave them each a present. Later that night we went to the "lights on in Provo" parade. festive and fun but long. Long parades in the winter evenings are not a good combination.