The Happy Elf

Jules made her stage debut last night. The whole family went to see her sing at the school. Just Mom and I are going tonight. I think she's totally bitten by the acting bug. Or..... let's face it- she's been into the arts since she was born! She said that she wants to join drama every year. I think she's anxious to get a speaking role, which they didn't give to the grade ones.

Jules was an elf. I put sparkles on her cheeks, which I don't think you can really tell in this picture. Her hat came complete with elf ears.

And here she is pretending to be working on a toy in Santa's workshop. She came up with this idea, and didn't want to leave until we took it.




A picture of the whole cast. As you can see, it consisted of many elves and mice.

This weekend was also the Santa Clause Parade in Blackville. Some of you may recognize this elf and her Jack-In-The-Box friend.

On Sunday was Jason's work family Christmas party. It was at Empire Theatres. We left a little early because I needed to run into the dollar store to buy a couple of things. It was one of those days where you can look back and say "Man, that was a great day!". The kids(or me either for that matter) had never really been in the mall since it was decorated for Christmas. And since we were just running into the dollarstore, we didn't have that stressed feeling that you can sometimes get in a mall during the holidays. We walked in the Bargain Giant entrance, which I haven't done in years, and walked up through the whole mall. There's like new stores there! Who knew? Anyway, the Christmas music was playing and the kids were looking around at all the decorations, when who did we see?.......but the big man himself. He was posing for pictures in the center of the mall. And as luck would have it, there was no line! So Samuel and Jules sat on his knee and got their picture taken. Abby, opted not to again this year. She's still wary of him. The other two, however, were giving him hugs and everything. It was to the point where I wanted to say, "Ok kids. Get away from the strange man!". But I resisted.

Then it was off to the theatre. The way it worked was that you simply went up to the concession stand and told them you were with the company party. The kids each got a kids combo and Jason and I both got nachos. Free of charge! All we had to pay for was a pop for Jason and me. You didn't need tickets or anything, they just pointed us toward where Happy Feet was playing. We treated the girls combos as supper and just gave them insulin in their arm during the movie. It was nice that it didn't really have to disrupt their fun much. The only thing we did was give them crystal light instead of Kool-Aid or one of the other juices. One less thing to try to count carb-wise.

The movie was wonderful. I definitely recommend going to see it. It was quite different than any other kids movie I've seen. After the movie was over, we all filed out of the theatre. And standing outside the theatre entrances? Mr. C. again! This time he was giving out treat bags that contained a bag of chips, some candy(damn!) and $5 worth of movie money. Not a bad party at all!

On the way home we listened to 103.9FM. For those of you who don't know, they are playing continuous Christmas music. We looked at everyone's lights. At one point I looked back at Abby, who was sitting in the middle. We were at a stop light, it combined with the lit up houses, had her face completely aglow with color. And on her face was the biggest smile you would ever see. It was one of those smiles where you mouth is still completely shut, showing no teeth. She looked so content, like all was well with her world. Like she couldn't have been happier.

And neither could I.