Christmas 2013 in Snowflake

Christmas morning as a kid is so much fun.

But Christmas morning as a parent??

Even better!

I love to just sit there and watch Madden open his presents, as I try to snap a few pics to document his reactions to send to family to say thank you.

This year, him and his cousins Teigen and Corbin were like 3 peas in a pod….best buddies all week long.

Chasing each other all over the massive annual Brimhall christmas party, laughing and throwing snowballs at each other in the snow in Flagstaff on Christmas Eve, staying up way too damn late every night at their cousin sleep overs while the dads yelled at them to "GO TO SLEEP", laughing hysterically over every little thing, playing bey blades, ripping open their presents and then sharing all their new toys and playing with them together all the live long day.

We almost didn't travel up to Snowflake for Christmas this year when my Dr told me not to travel after 34 weeks, but I am SO glad we did!

Madden had so much fun with his cousins, and it made Christmas morning all the more special for him.

Such a merry Christmas :)

the north pole experience

How do I even begin to sum up The North Pole Experience??

All I can say really is that if you live in Arizona and have young kids who still "believe" in Santa, then the North Pole Experience is a MUST!

A few years ago when Madden was a baby, we did The Polar Express with the Brimhall cousins.

It was so fun, but ever since we moved back to Arizona, all I kept hearing about was The North Pole Experience and how it was even better than The Polar Express.

First I sold Randy on it, and then together we sold his whole family on it and managed to get tickets for all 15 of us to go together on Christmas Eve

(A christmas miracle, considering that these tickets sell out like crazy and usually people purchase them almost a whole year in advance!)

So on Christmas Eve we drove to Flagstaff with all the kids in their christmas jammies and picked up our golden tickets at the Little America hotel.

Then we boarded a christmas trolley that would take us through a magic portal to the North Pole... :)

Once Santa's elves let us inside the big green doors, we were in the toy workshop, where the kids all got to sit down and help the elves build toys.

All of the elves were in character the whooooole time, even with the adults, 

grabbing our cell phone cameras and taking "elfie selfies" and starting nerf gun fights with the kids.

It was hilarious!

The details and decorations in every single room were unreal!

Every time we entered a new room, the kids would just stare around at everything in wonderment….and the adults would too!

I wanted to walk around and take a picture of every single tiny detail, it was all so beautiful and done so well!

(hence, the millions of pictures…) ;)

And speaking of the attention to detail, even the smells were amazing!

Every room had a different distinctive christmas-y smell, from the smell of pine cones in one room to cinnamon in another room and cookies baking in Santa's bakery…

After everyone got warm sugar cookies and hot cocoa (aka snowman's soup), our next stop was Elf University, where the kids learned all about what it takes to be one of Santa's elves.

Then it was off to Santa's mail room, where the kids wrote letters to Santa and slipped them in his mailbox.

Madden even spotted Buddy the Elf, just chillin in Santa's mail room!

You should have seen the look on his face when he saw him!

He absolutely really truly believed it was HIS elf Buddy that visits our home at Christmas time and reports back to Santa at the North Pole.

It was THE CUTEST thing to see how excited he got when he spotted him!

Then the kids got to meet Mrs. Claus...

And see Santa's sleigh...

where Madden spotted ANOTHER elf on the shelf!

And the very last, most important part of all, was one-on-one time with Santa!

The kids all got to talk to him and tell him what they wanted for Christmas, and then each family got a picture with him…

He was the most realistic-looking, cutest, sweetest Santa I had ever seen!

I mean…seriously!?  How cute is this Santa??

Even I was about to start believing again...

Thanks for coming with us, family!

It was SO much fun and such special memories that I will never forget!

(Missed you Kelcie & Coltyn!!!!!)

The best of Buddy the Elf 2013

There are two kinds of moms:

Those who do elf on the shelf and love it and those who don't do it and think its too much work and over-the-top.

I don't think there's anything wrong with either stance, all I know is I love it and I'll probably always do it, as long as my kids still believe.

Truth be told, I know its supposed to motivate kids to have good behavior, since the elf is watching them and reporting back to Santa and all that, but thats not even really why I do it or what I love about it.

Thats just an added bonus.

I just do it cuz its fun.

And Madden loves it.

Not one day went by in the month of December where Madden didn't wake me up with,

"Wake up mom!  Lets go find Buddy!"

or

"Wake up mom!  Come see what Buddy is doing!"

It always put a smile on both our faces first thing in the morning. :)

You don't have to be an "over-achieving" mom to do it.

Lots of the things I did took all of 2 seconds for me to do.

And it wasn't hard for me to remember to do every night before I went to bed, because the last thing Madden would say every.single.night as I tucked him in was, "I'm so excited to see what Buddy is doing in the morning!"

So yeah, I'm an elf on the shelf mom.