Dear 2010,

I have had some bad years in the past.  Years I’m not going to drag up at this time.  It’s really not your fault they sucked so much.  They just did.  But you?  Oh, 2010 you were a great year.

On the surface, we were all healthy.  No one died (look, this is HUGE.  I’ve had years where I’ve had to attend two funerals in a week. Mere days apart).

Big Daddy?  I’m as much in love with him as ever.  Probably even more.  He’s my chi.

The Princess?  She’s growing and learning.  Her grades are excellent.  I see the woman she is going to be and that woman is going to rock.  And be a little eccentric, but I don’t think that’s a bad quality.

We were given a great gift in serendipitous circumstances for Littlebit.   The right place and the right people at the right time.  I have no doubt, 2010, that you won’t stand up as a transitional year for her.  When the answers began to outweigh the questions.

Baby Bee turned a whole year old.  And having someone so sweet and engaging and busy and CRAZY as the final part of our family just seems right.  She’s so brave and fearless.  Thank you, 2010, for working to ensure that she didn’t break much and certainly didn’t break anything on herself.

Our new home is all we wanted.  Our new location all we hoped for.  The reduced stress a welcome addition.  It’s nice to stop feeling trapped, stuck, stagnant.  It’s nice to move forward.  It’s nice to see the future opening up in front of us like a beautiful flower.  I’m excited and hopeful for what’s to come.  For Big Daddy and me and our lovely trio of girls.

Thank you, 2010.  I really couldn’t have asked for me.

Love,

Jamie

p.s. If you could put in a good word for us with 2011?  I’d appreciate it.

This idea is stolen from Alli @ Alli ‘n son.  I love the idea of a review post in 12 posts.

January-Winter

February-Counting Blessings

March-Narcissism?

April-Personal History

May-The Enemy

June-One

July-A Love Story

August-Favorite

September-Time wasters/time savers

October-Sorcery

November-Grateful

December-Creativity Apex

Enjoy!  I’m so excited to share with you in 2011!

Son of a nutcracker!  Elf is really one of my favorite Christmas movies.  It’s a three way tie between that one, A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  Elf is just pure comic Christmas gold.  It’s family friendly and full of fun Christmas lore with an important message about the power of believing.

And, it’s hilarious.

Dinner, tonight, to go with Elf is spaghetti-just like Buddy shared with his family in the movie.  Of course, we won’t be putting maple syrup on it  or crumbling Pop Tarts up on top

Our Elf themed dessert was inspired by this elf cookie recipe from Taste of Home. I did NOT use refrigerated sugar cookie dough (Martha wouldn’t, so I don’t).  I made this really simple, but really tasty sugar cookie recipe from allrecipes.com (my fave recipe website).  I did, however, use the taste of home recipe for glaze for our elf cookie hats.

Also, I ended up using a Santa cookie cutter we already have.  I didn’t have a diamond cutter and couldn’t see a reason to buy one.

Our Elf themed craft are these pine cone elves from Martha.  We made some modifications (no shoes!  No wooden balls for heads! and strings on the back for hanging on our playroom Christmas tree).

I think they’re still adorable.

As an aside, OMG! Isn't my baby ADORABLE!

Littlebit with her elvish brood

The Princess with hers.

One thing I will say is that this craft wasn’t particularly kid friendly.  It called for hot glue and fiddly work.  Littlebit still had fun cutting string and pipe cleaners, but if you have a kid who really needs to be hands on, you might want to reconsider this craft, and choose something like this paper craft from DLTK kids.

Last year, I posted about our advent calendar.  Last year’s advent activities are still living on the web, so if you want to use that template and those ideas, they’re still accessible via google docs.

But, I had to rethink and re-do a few things this year to reflet our new location and the changes in our family (Baby Bee is a whole year older now.).  You an see our 2010 Advent Activity list here.

Our advent "calendar" is on the right.