it's beginning ...

to look a lot like Christmas!!! 

 I do believe I've signed myself up for a bit of unnecessary stress - lol!!!

... but, I decided to go ahead and join this elf fun!

the good part is it can be as simple as I want need it to be!!
our elf arrived today!!!

this afternoon we worked on the tree! 

we started with the very special "1st Christmas" ornaments!

the boys were happy and excited to hang theirs ...

unfortunately, Annicka was in a sour mood and refused to hang hers - so

I did!  and, so far I haven't found Zoey's ... but I did buy her one,

so it's just a matter of remembering where I may have put it!

(and I have no idea why mine has 1979 on it ... I know I asked my mom once, but

I can't remember what she told me - lol!  it should be 1978!!)

 

the boys had lots of fun helping me with the ornaments! I decided to go all out ... we put just about every ornament we own on there!!! ok, not every ornament - but all the cool ones that haven't been out for a while - as well as many the kids have made over the years! (you may remember last year we just did homemade ones - I have those set aside for something)

putting up these ornaments really did flood my memory!
there are several Winnie the Pooh ornaments - from Annicka's young days when I just loved Pooh,
there are the dancing girls that Nana has given Annicka, 
there's the Mickey Mouse ornament I got the year we went to Disneyland,
my leg lamp - cause my all time favorite Christmas movie is "A Christmas Story",
there are ornaments that hung on the trees of my childhood - passed down to me,
there's a happy new year ball - from 2000!,
there's the ornament given to us -by a friend- our first Christmas as a married couple,
there's one I got from a "boss" when I worked at a mothers day out program,
there's ones I've bought the kids as a memory of what they were into that year,
there's our super cool countdown Santa ornament,
there are ornaments to remind us of the true reason for the season,
and -very special- there are several hand/home made ornaments - from my mom, kids, grandma,
and even some I bought at a bazaar before I was even married!!!

after dinner, we all brainstormed names for our elf! 

it was interesting ... and Liam stormed off and got very upset when "Pickle" got crossed out!

we kept voting and narrowing it down ...

I ended up being the deciding vote - so I asked Zoey: "Giligan or Buddy" ...

she quickly answered "Bubby" and started pointing to Jericho!

(a little odd, since "bubby" is actually her name for Liam - but anyway)

she may have been a little confused, but I put her down as voting for "Buddy" -

which didn't help me at all in the end, because I really wanted to vote for Giligan ...

but that would have left us with a tie!

so, to just get it done and keep the peace - I voted for "Buddy" and there he is!!!