Update

Yes I have been WAY behind at posting here.  What can I say other than life gets busy.  Darren noticed that my last post was Oct 31st..that is sad and I promise to try to do better!  Anyways, I have now updated the blog for the month of November and will update you here in this post on what has happened at the beginning of December.  That sentence makes it sound like I have exciting stuff/news to share but I don't!

Anyways, after Thanksgiving we got home and starting decorating for Christmas.  Everything other than the lights on the house is done.  Woo hoo!  This is probably one of Ava's favorite days since she loves to put out all the Christmas stuff and hang ornaments on the tree.

For some reason, we still put out our very breakable nativity set each year.  Usually it gets put somewhere safe where little hands won't play with it.  Apparently this year, that did not happen.  And the other day while I was getting dressed, I came out to hear Ava say that baby jesus was broken.  I asked how that happened and she told me he fell.  Of course she did not tell me at first that she had been playing with him!  Anyways, I tried to fix him but he was in too many pieces so he ended up being unfixable.  Ava though, had an idea.  She led me to her dollhouse, picked up one of the little baby dolls and said "His name is Jesus" and then she proceeded to carry him back to the nativity and place him in his bed of hay.

Guess it works for now!

 Pretty sure when we get a new nativity, I am going to search for a child friendly one...maybe wood or something.  These were apparently too tempting to Ava to not touch.

Arf, the Elf came back to our house on Dec 1st.  He is our "Elf on the Shelf."

Ava was excited to see him on our mantle waiting for her.  He even had a name tag so she would remember him.  The day before he flew back to our house, Ava's friend Sienna was over and telling us how her elf, Jingle Bell, came to her house.  She was telling Ava all about how you can't touch him or he'll lose his magic.  She was very serious about it and it was hilarious to hear the 2 girls talk about how the elves fly to their house and get in with magic. I love being a fly on the wall to 4 year olds' conversations.

 Day 2, Arf found himself hanging in the blinds.  I don't know if Arf is as creative as some of the elves out there I have seen, but maybe when Ava is older, he'll be braver and do crazier things.  Maybe when he has more time.

 Yesterday, Ava & Ryan actually played side by side for the first time.  This was Ava's old barn when she was a toddler and we had taken it a few years ago to Granny & Pop's house as a toy the kids could play with when they visited. At Thanksgiving, Ryan found it and loved it!  I kind of thought it would be too old for him because of all the smaller figurines but I was wrong.  They aren't choking hazards and there is enough there that Ryan will actually sit still and play..something he really does not do as he is too busy crawling everywhere!

 Then this morning, Arf flew back and decided to sit in one of Ava's teapots...Ava thought it was silly and kept telling us how she was surprised when she saw him. 

We have also started our advent calendar and just like last year, the boxes contain activities.  So far, we have gotten the Christmas books out and read them, gone to dinner (Ava's choice) and written a letter to Santa and mailed it.  These are always fun family activities and Ava is already enjoying them.