Thomas Elf

The Mattens family had a new friend arrive at their home this season. When we came home from Grandma and Grandpa's house after Thanksgiving, our Elf on the Shelf and book were waiting for us. We read the book together, having watched the TV show together the night before. Mason got the gist of it, and happily named our elf 'Thomas.' We really shouldn't have been surprised by that name choice. Mya quickly began calling him Tommy Elf, which Adam and I actually liked better anyway.

While there have been plenty of posts on the antics these little elves are sometimes up to, our elf was pretty tame - mostly finding new spots to land each night. One day he did get a little crazy with the toilet paper in the bathroom, but other than that he mostly hung out in the living room and dining room. After the first few mornings, he became the first thing the kiddos were interested in when they'd wake up. Mya had a particularly good eye at spotting him, but every once in a while we had to help them find him.

I think the kids will be happy when Tommy returns next year. They actually seemed sad when he wasn't with us on Christmas morning. But we explained he had to go back to the North Pole with Santa so he could help make toys for next Christmas. You never know, we may get some pictures and letters from him during the year as a reminder that Santa is always watching them.

Getting Ready For Christmas

With only a few days left until Christmas, we had just a few things left to take care of before we'd be ready.  Yesterday I finished up all the present wrapping.  I love to wrap presents, but you get to a point where you feel like it's never going to end.  I'd been working on them during weekend nap time for the past three weeks and finally, thankfully, finished them.  Now the reason it took me so long is my own doing - if I wasn't so meticulous about how each gift looked when done, it probably would only take about half the time.  Yet even though I know it's likely only my sister and father-in-law will notice the straight corners and pretty bows, I still spend the extra few minutes with each present.

After the kids woke up from their naps yesterday, we worked on baking some cookies for Santa.  Now everyone who knows me knows I can't cook, and I'm not a great baker either.  So I took a helping hand from Pillsbury and popped some ready-made cookies on a sheet.  If I had the extra time and a kitchen worth hanging around in, I'd definitely spend a day baking real Christmas cookies with the kids.  There's always time to add that as a tradition down the road.

Once the cookies were baking away, we warmed up some milk and the kiddos had their first hot cocoas of the season.  Mya mostly had fun mixing in the packet, barely even taking a drink.  Mason kept wondering where his mini marshmallows had disappeared to.  :)

And our last Christmas preparation was accomplished today.  We took the kids to see Santa.  We hadn't gotten around to it last year, so Mya hadn't sat on his lap since she was 6 months old.  As most toddlers are, she was scared so sat on my knee.  Mason climbed right up and was happy to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  I think his dimple and the gleam in his eye give away which list he's on, but hopefully he'll have a good couple of days ahead of him to get back on the nice list.

So with that, we're ready for the big day (or days).  From the Mattens Family - Merry Christmas!

A Visit from Washington

An early Christmas gift, Stacie brought Lily and Abby to Michigan to visit their dad, Nana and Papa.  Mason and Mya hadn't seen Lily since last August, and Abby in over two years.  Yet when they got together, you'd never know they'd spent so much time apart.  They started right in playing like they'd just been together the day before. 

I think Abby was a little disappointed that Mya had grown so much.  She was expecting to hold baby Mya, even though she'd been warned that Mya wasn't a little baby anymore.  Abby and Mya look so much alike to me, that when I look at Abby I see Mya in three years.  I caught myself just staring at Abby a bunch of times just because of this.  It's hard to imagine my baby being that big!

Speaking of big, Lily is now 11.5 and just about as big as me.  And we wear the same shoe size, so if we lived closer I might have been able to borrow those Uggs and Toms she got as Christmas gifts.  ;)  She was Mya's age when Adam and I got married!

We had so much fun with the kiddos, and hope it's not another two years until we see them again!

Our First Thanksgiving

So here I am, promoting our blog on our Christmas cards, and I haven't even written my Thanksgiving post yet.  I better get at it, lest I disappoint the masses.  ;)

This Thanksgiving was bittersweet.  About a month before it came, I suggested to Adam that we host it this year and invite his family.  Adam's grandma was not doing well, and we knew she would either still not be doing well, or may not be with us at all.  She ended up passing away a few weeks before, making the holiday especially difficult for Adam's mom.  We were glad we'd offered to host, more than anything it took the stress off of her. 

It was a lot more effort than we'd initially thought it would be.  Cleaning the house, getting the decorations in place, washing all the china and crystal that we'd received for our wedding 9+ years ago and never used... the list seemed neverending.  I handled most of that while Adam (of course) handled the bulk of the dinner preparations. 

The highlight of the dinner was the unveiling of the bacon-wrapped turkey.  Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds.  The rest of our menu was pretty standard - stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans with parmesan and almond slivers, sweet potatoes and cranberry chutney.  Oh, and of course pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream.

Some pictures from our day...

Swedish horses sit amongst the pumpkins on our centerpiece, in honor of Grandma Betty's Swedish heritage.  She was with us in spirit.

 

Mason was pretty anti-social, even for him, hiding in his room for most of the afternoon and not wanting to be seen when we finally dragged him out.  When he wasn't looking I managed to get a sweet picture of him snuggled up with his Nana.

 

Mya had fun all day playing with Uncle Geoffy.  When she started to say "Geoffy" we thought she was saying "Darcy," her teacher from school.  Then we realized it sounded more like "Jessie" and finally understood that Uncle "Jessie" was really her way of saying Uncle Geoffy.  :)

 

In an effort to be good hosts, I suggested we say the prayer before dinner, so that fell on me.  In writing it below, I'm hoping that I'll remember to be thankful for these things more often, not just at Thanksgiving.

 

Our Thanksgiving Prayer

 

Dear Lord,

We thank you for bringing us together on this day of Thanksgiving,

each of us having so much to be thankful for.

We are thankful for your strength and grace,

in helping us through an otherwise difficult year.

We trust that those we've lost are seated at your table,

as they are at ours in spirit.

We thank you for the little ones -

they are our daily reminder of the wonder and joy of life.

We thank you for watching over us and keeping us safe

in our daily travels, at our jobs and in our schools.

And we thank you for the food before us,

may it nourish our minds, bodies and souls.

Amen.

Where she gets her good looks

For those that have a mini-me, I envy you.  Shortly after Mason was born, it was evident that he was his daddy's son.  Everyone that meets Mason says, "He looks just like his daddy!"  With him, I didn't feel nearly so slighted - I'd rather have our boy look like the male half of his parents. 

When Mya was born, I thought sure she's got the darker skin, dark eyes and dark hair that Adam does, but maybe, maybe, she will actually look like a brunette version of me.  I held out hope for years that, even with the darker coloring, she might ultimately look like me.  I searched for a resemblence time and again.  Her face is rounder, she must be like me.  We were both fat babies, she must be like me.  She's got curly hair - it must come from my dad's side of the family, so in turn, she must be like me.  When her hair lightened this summer, I thought yes, this is it! She's going to look like me!!!

Until one day I was musing about Mya's curly hair to my mother-in-law.  "Oh, she gets that curly hair from me!" she said.  A few days later she produced the photo evidence that Mya is not like me after all.  She is a mini-me of her Nana.  Change the hair color from blond to brown and you've got the same little toddler separated by a few years.  And in turn, when you compare this profile picture of Adam and his mom, you will see that Adam looks just like his mom, and so Mya looks just like her dad who looks just like his mom.  She is her daddy's girl just as Mason is his daddy's boy.

It doesn't make me feel any less their mother - I did carry them for 9 months - yet something in me wishes they looked just a little bit like me.  Maybe there's still hope since I didn't think I looked like my mom until my 20's.  Until then, I will be [not-so-]secretly envious each time someone exclaims how much they look like their daddy. 

A Beautiful Morning

For those that don't know, I commute an hour to work each day (and thus an hour home as well).  People have always been amazed that I would do such a thing.  I often say it's no different than living in the Detroit area, where you might sit in traffic an hour when your office is only ten miles away.  And honestly I've never minded the drive.  I've been doing it ten years now.  

Since we've had the kids, I've received even more questioning looks when I mention this commute.  I won't lie - of course I'd rather be spending that two hours with my kiddos.  They are the loves of the our lives, which is why this blog is almost always about them.  The distance has caused scheduling problems for our family, and Adam is stuck in the midnight shift because it's the only schedule that works with mine and daycare and school.

But I love my job.  I love my coworkers.  And sometimes I even love the commute.  Sometimes you need a beautiful morning like today, where you pass through two of this state's beautiful seasons, to remind you that where you are is exactly where you should be. 

A Michigan Fall Tradition

It wouldn't be fall in Michigan without a trip to a pumkin farm or apple orchard, or two, or three.  Growing up my parents took us to Bintz Apple Orchard in Freeland every year.  Surprisingly, what I remember most about those trips are the bees. 

So imagine how the memories came flooding back when I went with Mason on his first Kindergarten field trip to an apple orchard, and found us surrounded by bees.  Thankfully Mason was pretty calm about it - even after being stung twice this summer.  The field trip was fun, outside of the fact I had to drive four 5-year-olds from Battle Creek to Potterville.  Mason had fun picking out a small pumpkin, and plucking an apple from a tree. 

 

Next up on the pumpkin farm tour was Gull Meadows in Richland.  I haven't asked him, but I bet Adam's family made visiting this farm a ritual each year.  He says it's so much different than it used to be - it's definitely more commercialized - but still a fun way to spend a morning.  The trick is to get there right when they open so you beat the rush.  The kids always love boucing on the giant bounce pillows they have.  My favorite part is the fresh-from-the-fryer glazed pumpkin doughnuts.  I will never forget when Mason declared them the "best bagels he ever saw" last year. 

 

 

Then last weekend, while I was at my parents' house with the kids, we met Megan, Dan and Julia for a morning at Johnson's Giant Pumpkin Farm in Saginaw.  While it was really chilly, the kids had fun scampering from attaction to attaction.  Wouldn't you know it the only picture I could get of the three of them was while they were all on the wagon on the way out. 

 

Cider and doughnuts, pumpkins and apples - fall in Michigan wouldn't be complete without them.