The Grant Family: November 2012

Elf on the Shelf

This was the first year that our family has had an Elf come to visit us. We were so excited to find her sitting in front of the TV after we had been out all morning!

Michelle saw something, but wasn't sure what it was. She ran to the TV to get a better look!

When she found out that it was an Elf she was really surprised, and pretty excited too!

Luckily she's a pretty smart girl and thought we should read the letter that was sitting with the Elf before we did anything else. She grabbed the letter and gave it to Daddy to read out loud.

Guess what?! It was from SANTA!! Straight from his desk- official Santa stationary, and a gold seal too!

We all listened really well while Daddy read what Santa had to say.

Dear Michelle and Tina,

Things are busier than ever at the North Pole this year. So I am sending a very special helper to your house to be my eyes and ears. I saw you helping Mommy and Daddy with all of the Christmas decorations yesterday and knew I could trust you with my special friend. You are both such good girls so I know you will take good care of her. She has been told all of my rules, and I wrote them down for you in a story book, all about her. You should be sure to read it together as a family before bed tonight. I love you both very much and can’t wait to hear about all the things you are going to do over the next few weeks! I hope they will all be good things, and nothing naughty.

Merry Christmas,

Santa Claus

That night we read the book all about our Elf. Michelle decided to name her Peppermint, and has already told her a long list of wishes that she has for gifts this year. So far we have found that Peppermint is a pretty good Elf. She hasn't gotten into any trouble, and actually helps us out with things that we might have forgotten to do!

She helped us get caught up on our Christmas count-down chain.

She filled one of Mommy's jars with bows! All her favorite colors, of course.

One morning we found her in the Christmas Tree. I think she was probably feeling sorry for it since Little Miss Tina broke two of the ornaments the day before.

Last night the girls forgot to clean up their books before bed. Peppermint was nice enough to put them back on the book self for them. I guess she got a little distracted though because we found her reading Tina's Clifford book when we woke up!

So far having Peppermint in our home has been wonderful! I love Christmas and everything magical about it, so to bring an Elf into the mix is really fun. Thanks for coming to our house Peppermint, I'm excited to see where you show up tomorrow!

Making Christmas

In the Grant Family the day after thanksgiving is the first day of Christmas! The lights go up on the house, the Christmas tree gets decorated, stockings and nativities come out and the whole house is transformed! It is my favorite day of the year!

We have to make sure there are no chipmunks in our tree! You know, Chip and Dale hid in Mickey's tree once!

Who needs a ladder when you have a Daddy?!

After the tree went up and the stockings were hung I started to put up nativities and Bryan jumped onto the roof to string lights. Those tasks were really camera friendly this year!

This year was a very special year for our family. Santa had been watching Michelle and Tina all year and thought they had been good enough for a very special helper to come visit us at our house!

"Organize Me"

I'm sure everyone has "that room" in their house that things just get thrown into. You're not really sure where to put something so you put it into "that room". For us "that room" was our master closet. It was storing craft supplies, old bedding, 72 hour kits, baby items, shoes that dated all the way back to high school, painball guns, and a ton of other stuff. For those of you who know me pretty well, you'll understand why this drove me nuts! The closet was screaming "Organize Me!!" So, I decided that with Christmas coming up, and us needing a place to hide gifts, now was the perfect time to clean up and out!

I'm a little embarrassed to show these, but here is what our closet looked like BEFORE:

My side

The middle shelves

Bryan's side (on the floor)

Bryan's side (up high)

Bryan's pant rack

My pant rack

The way I was taught to organize, and, I believe, the only right way to organize a room, is to take EVERYTHING out, vacuume, disinfect, wipe down, and dust EVERYWHERE! So here are the photos of during.

Ahhhhh

So much better!

So fresh and so Clean Clean!

Here are the rule I followed when considering what clothes to put back in the closet.

#1- If you haven't worn it in the last year, donate it.

#2- If it has holes where there shouldn't be any, get rid of it.

#3- If it has the label "maternity" store it in the attic.

When considering what things to put back into the closet, I followed these rules:

#1- If you haven't used it in the last year, but still think it's "really cool", donate it so other people can think it's "really cool" too!

#2- If it is broken beyond repair, get rid of it.

#3- If you don't use it at least once a month, store it in the attic.

#4- If it's small and has too much sentimental value to go into one of the other categories put it in a shoe box under your bed.

And now, and only now, was I able to start the process of putting everything back into the closet. Everyone has their own way of organizing things so I won't share my rules here. I do have some advice though. If you are putting something back and you find yourself yelling at it to "STAY!" then you probably need to find a new spot for it! Lol, yes, I learned this the hard way.

Finally, after a whole day of organizing, here are the B-E-A-utiful pictures of my closet AFTER:

My side

The middle shelves

Bryan's side

Isn't it lovely?!

Thanksgiving

I didn't really do a great job at taking pictures this year during Thanksgiving. Regardless, it was a pretty great day. We got to see Bryan's family and my family, had way too much to eat, and even started putting up Christmas after dinner was over! Here are a few pictures that we did get:

Aside from the dog at the table, this is pretty much what we looked like... NOT!

Every year we take a "sisters" picture, and I'm positive that this years picture is, by far, the best one EVER!!

Lol, sorry Jess, I had to share! Really, though, our pictures pretty much rock.

And, I had to add this one because #1- aren't we so cute?! and #2- look how skinny I look! (17lbs down, only 6 to go!)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

3 Quick Months

I can not believe the last time I've updated this blog was at the beginning of SEPTEMBER! These past few months have gone by so fast it's crazy! I know I get bored reading through "catch-up" posts, so I'll keep this one super quick (just like the months were!).

We celebrated a few birthdays...