A Special Surprise and A Snow Day!

Each year, our Elf Rudy, visits during the month of December.   He checks up on us and reports back to Santa if we are being naughty or nice.   Let's just say that Rudy had his share of naughty this year, pulling a few pranks and going through more than one bag of marshmallows.   But regardless, he's a treasured friends and the kids are always sad to see him go back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve.  So, imagine their delight when they woke up Christmas morning and found Rudy still in the house.  He had written a small note telling us to check our email.   There we found a letter explaining that for his own Christmas gift, Rudy had asked Santa to lift his magic for one day.   During Christmas Day the kids were free to hold Rudy (which is usually a no-no), hug him and say their goodbyes.   This made for two very happy kiddos!

 

 McKenna was a little leery at first.   She was definitely afraid that touching Rudy would cause him to lose his magic.  But we finally convinced her that it would be fine.   So, she had her time saying her goodbyes and thank you's until next year.

 As an added surprise we got snow this week!    What more could a kid ask for than two snow storms the week of Christmas break!   As soon as the grass was covered on Wednesday they headed out with their friends!

 It's still not clear if it was the kids or the dog who was more excited about the fluffy white stuff.  Tucker has always loved the snow.   Even his old age doesn't stop his excitement.

 And Kinley continue to earn the award for best sport ever.   This cutie braved the cold temperatures on Wednesday evening and again on Friday.  I'm not sure she could move to protest but the fact that I literally had to drag her inside kicking and screaming is a good indication that she was more than enjoying herself.

 I had half a heart attack when Earl began sending her down our small hill by herself.  But I was in the minority as she laughed the entire way down.   When Earl would walk away and I would try to bring Kinley in she would emphatically say, "No.  Daddy.  Down."  Okay, got it. 

And so they made a few more trips and we all had a few more laughs.

What a wonderful week we have had.  We have certainly made a ton of precious memories.