Christmas Advent in Full Swing...

Let the count down to Christmas begin!

A daily treat from the appropriate drawer...

...adding an ornament to the tree each day... 

 ...the Elf on the Shelf who watches the boys in the house each day and then reports to Santa each night on their behavior and moves to a new "look out spot" and has to be found each morning... 

...and opening a Christmas book each night to read in front of the Christmas tree.



Priceless...

Eli came home from school so excited to give me "a present he made."  He'd wrapped it in a sheet of white paper...

 ...inside the paper was an eraser and "gold diamond."

Eli kept asking me, "Don't you just love the gold diamond?  It's so pretty!"  He was really excited about his gift and I am really excited to be the mother of such a thoughtful and tender-hearted son.

Sledding Hill - 1 Asher's Head - 0...

The phrase often heard ringing throughout the house, "Asher got hurt!  He hurt his head!" was once again repeated the other night.  Eli reported that while sledding down the hill in front of our house, Asher fell off of his sled and hit his head on a rock and that, "it's bleeding real bad."  I called Scott, who I knew was outside, and sent him to the rescue.  Asher entered the house being carried in Scott's arms.  His head was bleeding pretty bad, but Scott said Asher seemed to be doing fine.  In fact, by the time Scott got there Asher had taken a few more runs down the hill and didn't seem to think the blood pouring down his head was an issue.  After cleaning him up in the shower and seeing the size of the cut, we called the nurse.  As usual, she told us to bring him in.

I didn't realize this was common practice, but the doctor actually STAPLED the wound closed!!!  It seemed so barbaric to me- stapling the skull closed?!?!  Are we in the 21st century?!?!  I couldn't watch the process, it made me queasy -Our Tough Guy didn't even cry.  He hopped down off the table with his newly acquired bouncy ball and toy car and headed to the car like he was leaving McDonald's.

Too bad it's not Halloween... the staples would make a great Frankenstein costume accessory

 Yep, right there...

Is This the Year...

Asher will be celebrating his fifth Christmas this year- yet he still awaits the completion of his official Beeson family stocking.  Oakley and Eli's stockings... complete...

 Mom and Dad's stocking... complete... Asher's hand-me-down-from-Dad-until-Mom-gets-the-real-one-completed stocking...

There are about 100 pieces to complete the project... I'm on piece 27... and it's taken me 5 years to get that much done...

Maybe Asher's completed stocking will be a wedding gift.  I'm sure his wife will appreciate it.  I wouldn't feel so guilty if Asher didn't ask me every 23 minutes if I've finished his stocking yet.