eight and a half acre farm

Wow, Christmas is already passed and the decorations will need to be packed up soon. A perfect chance to talk about a gift that seemed innocent, but caused a big mess. Christmas morning the wrapping was flying and it was hard to keep track of who was getting what, even with me passing out the gifts. In the end I sorted through everything so I could see what each child got from Santa and the grandparents. Jakob got this cute Dino dig box. It had 4 sifters, 4 dust brushes and several skeletal dinosaurs. I thought how great, place them in the playground sand and he can dig them up in the summer. I thought of how many hours he will get lost playing with them. He couldn't wait until summer. The bag of ashes that was by the fireplace... on the floor... dinosaurs placed in there... sifter sifting them out of the dirt...ashes... on my carpet.

This is our elf's name. He doesn't look like that horrid elf in a red one piece outfit with white starburst neckline though. Ours is much cuter. Curly blonde hair, stripped stockings, red coat with bells on his shoes. I haven't moved him for 3 days now. I told my kids he must be depressed from not having snow. Can an elf get depressed? And should I tell my kids that we have to get him an anti-depressant? (I can see it now, the depressed elf on a shelf, comes with his own prescription drugs.) Part of me can't wait until they are old enough to place him around the house themselves and turn it into a family tradition of finding him. I bet they would be really creative with what he gets into. I haven't been too creative this year, just the typical sprawled out on the counter because he overdosed on christmas cookies, crumbs surrounding him. There must be a pattern here, cookies, depression, prescriptions. Would it be wrong to put him with an empty beer bottle one mo

Wow, This season is just whizzing by. (what a great word, whizzing.) This season has been a little rough so I have been turning to the comfort of my bed, peppermint hot chocolate, or peppermint mocha's and holiday movies. I have just about had my fill of Hallmark movies (I have been a bit desperate, and november christmas is actually pretty good.) So I have turned to Netflix to send me my favorites. Favorite number one: A Christmas Story. If you haven't seen this one, you are missing out on life. I love the movie, and now my oldest loves it. It is not Christmas until you see this movie. Favorite number two: The Santa Clause Not sure what it is about it, but it pulls me in every time I watch it and I always feel good after watching it. It is a great curl up in bed movie. Favorite number three: Fred Claus Don't knock it till you see it. It actually took me a bit to see it cause I was thinking it would be another stupid Christmas movie. I happened to catch it in Ju