Our Very Own Elf

They are 2 and 4, yet it seems as though these two children of mine have been here for an eternity. I can't remember life without them, and am grateful for their faces (smiling or angry) every single day.

Life with my 2 year old daughter has been a rollercoaster. One moment she is happy and dancing and giggling, and the very next screaming "NO JONAH NO!" and running off to pout and be grumpy. The mood swings are intense, for all of us. I am not saying SHE is the root of the arguments, we all add our own unique tension to the situations.

Christmas is coming and they both know it. I have in the past used the "Santa is watching" technique, but this year is different than years past. Each year the children understand more and more, about life, love, and particularly, one another. They know how to love on one another in a way only a young brother and sister can. They stick up for one another, think about one another, and obviously, know how to push each other's buttons.

In the last few years, I have seen a few Mom's here and there talk about their Elf on the Shelf. At first, I had no idea what it was, until Stephanie started blogging about their elf, Chazz Star. But this year, CBS aired a 30 minute movie called Elf on a Shelf: The Elf's Story and after a single viewing the kids were asking when OUR elf was going to arrive.

The movie laid out the entire idea of the Elf on the Shelf. Where he comes from, how he gets there, how he needs a name before he gets his magic, how he reports back to Santa, and how you cannot touch him, or he will lose his magic. Yes, the book does this well too, in a classic, bedtime story kind of way, but in today's age of visual learning and technology, this made it easier for my little ones to "see". Of course, we can all advocate the importance of imagination, but if it weren't for the movie (it's only 30 minutes, INCLUDING commercial breaks), our Elf, Dazzle McNoodle would never have come to be known as ours.

The Matuska Family Elf ~ Dazzle McNoodle

Twas' the day after Christmas

Today we are winding down from the hustle and bustle of Christmas 2007. The excitement hit Jonah pretty hard on Christmas Eve, wreaking havoc on his routine and causing a night of many cries and night awakenings. We were at Todd's parent's house, so Jonah's crib is in a room along with a twin sized bed that I normally sleep in when we are there. By about 3am, Jonah was sleeping in bed with me, and frankly I really loved it. By Christmas night, we were finally home and in our own beds. Jonah awoke with a little cry, I went to him to calm him down, but chose to bring him in bed with us. He slept wonderfully with us, only awakening a few times, but since I was right there, I was able to soothe him and get him back to sleep quickly. And better yet, he didn't wake up (wake up for the day that is) until 7am. Unfortunately, Todd isn't quite the fan of co-sleeping, but maybe it will grow on him. I am not saying I am planning on doing this 100% of the time, but if need be, he will sleep with us. The upside was that I didn't get crabby about being woke up at all throughout the night. The act of hearing him cry, waking up, walking to his room, for some reason makes me crabby! With him in bed with us, all I could do was smile at that little face looking back at me, whether he was crying or sleeping. I loved how he would cuddle up to me and nestle in, that is the best feeling in the world. Well worth the lack of bed space I was allowed and the severe backache I woke up with. To me, those things just didn't matter.

We all received some really great gifts, and personally I feel like this is the first Christmas where it wasn't too overboard. Maybe it was because my focus was more on Jonah and his gifts than it was on myself and my own gifts. Don't get me wrong, I am forever grateful for the great things I was given, but having a baby changing your perspective not only on life, but every old experience that has turned new since his arrival. He worked like a champ through many sittings involving opening presents. If I do say so myself, the most enjoyable time was at 5:30 on Christmas Eve morning, when Todd woke me up, with Jonah in his arms, saying "Let's open presents!" I took pictures galore and Jonah was really, really into it. He loved tearing the paper, making noises, and actually playing with the presents and not just the boxes. Jonah seems to have a favorite toy already, his Little People Airplane that Santa brought him. A little later than morning, Mimi and Papa Duck came over with more presents and Jonah had a field day with them too. He even fell asleep on Papa, it was so cute! Then we headed over to Todd's parents house for MORE presents, a great dinner, but unfortunately a significantly sleepless night. After everyone returned from the Midnight church service, we opened the adult presents. In the midst of it, Jonah woke up, so instead of fighting him to go back to sleep, we let him join in on the fun. We all got to bed (some of us "back in bed") about 2:30am, to then awake around 7:30am (of course, Jonah had a few wake-ups in the middle there).
We headed to my dad's house=more presents, and then to Todd's uncle's house, for a few more presents.

The funny thing is, after writing all that, it really seems like we accumulated way more presents than we did. I am happy because Jonah got some cute new clothes, as well as some "big boy toys". We stored away the baby toys, so now Jonah can play and learn and discover how to do things with toys that are a little more complex.

I hope everyone else had an amazing Christmas, and got to spend some quality time with those most important in your lives, and in the middle of it all, you remembered the true meaning of Christmas. But if you forgot (or want a refresher), Steph posted a link to this video, so check it out.

Not long now until the start of a whole new year!

It just hit me...

Christmas Eve is in 3 days (almost 2!) and I don't have a single present wrapped.

Oops.

Christmas and Me

I have officially been tagged by Steph over at Adventures in Babywearing. I am supposed to post 12 Random Things about Christmas and Me, so here they are!

1. When I was a kid, I saw the elves filling our stockings on the night before Christmas Eve (really, I did....there were three of them, standing on each other's shoulders so they weretall enough to get to our stockings!). At our house (and when I was young, I thought this was just how everyone did it), the elves came to our house the night before Christmas Eve and filled our stockings. So on Christmas Eve morning we "opened" our stockings, then Christmas Eve night Santa came and we got our presents from him on Christmas morning.

2. On Christmas Eve in 2004, I got a speeding ticket. What a crappy Christmas present.

3. On Christmas Eve, after the midnight church service (that really starts at 11pm) at Todd's family's church, we always open presents and end up being up until like 3am! This Christmas I think will be different now that Jonah is part of the family.

4. My mom used to wrap the 3 kids (me, my sister, and my brother) presents in 3 different kinds of wrapping paper and didn't put names on them. It was torture for us to see the mounds of presents, but have no idea what wrapping paper went with what kid!

5. I am so excited to have Jonah here to celebrate Christmas with and give him far more presents than he actually needs.

6. I like how Target is open until 11pm during the Christmas season, just in case I need anything at almost any hour of the day.

7. Ever since we got the cats, we have always bought them Christmas presents as well as filled their stockings with goodies. I even sign their names to the Christmas cards (that I still have to send out!!!)

8. I love the "smell" of Christmas. And everytime I have a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone, I say "This tastes like Christmas".

9. We did not decorate or put up a Christmas tree last year because we were in the middle of packing for the big move into our new house.

10. As long as I can remember, when my mom and my siblings (and significant others) get together to celebrate Christmas we watch "A Christmas Story". It is a classic in our house. We sit around, rewinding, and quoting the movie all day long....."You'll shoot your eye out!". My mom used to always read us the book "The Polar Express" too. We have since lost that tradition sadly. But I think maybe we will start that one with Jonah by reading it to him on Christmas Eve.

11. The cats love to eat and sleep and lounge and play in the christmas tree. I mean, love it!

12. When I was a kid, I wrote letters to Santa and left them with the milk and cookies for him. One Christmas, he even wrote back! I can't remember what was written, but I can see it perfectly in my mind. I even used to leave carrots and celery for the reindeer. See! I was an animal lover from birth!!!

That's my Random Christmas Facts. What about you?

I tag Arianne at To Think Is To Create!

Christmas at our house.

I have always had a thing for Bing Crosby. Every winter, we go to the Music Box Theater in Chicago on Southport with Todd's family to see "Miracle on 34th Street" and "White Christmas" in the old theater. It is so cute and nostalgic. A lot of people dress up and we always buy fake snowflakes to throw all over the place during the final scene of White Christmas. And between movies they have a "Santa" who plays the organ and we all sing Christmas Carols and the theatre ALWAYS runs out of popcorn, every...single...year. But we always go back. It's the memories that are most important. Yet, Jonah will not be going with us this year. It's not exaclt an activity for a baby boy. But I can't wait until he is old enough to jump right in to the tradition. Hopefully, he will love it as much as we all do.

Tonight, Todd and I decorated for the holidays. We got all of the boxes out last night, so the little bit of decorating I was doing this morning, Jonah was helping me with. I also made up a mix CD of Christmas songs for Jonah to have as his bedtime music. I put a lot of Bing of his CD, he seems to like his singing, too.

We finally got the Christmas Tree assembled and decorated along with the rest of the downstairs. We even hung ALL of the stockings (from left to right) Mommy, Jonah, Daddy Chester, Omelette, Abby.
And here is my most favorite decoration of all. Todd's mom gave this to me yesterday, isn't is adorable? I just love it!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Every day, I see more and more amazing things I want Jonah to get for Christmas even though I already vowed that I was not going to buy him anything else. And since I officially sent off the Christmas Lists, it is out of my hands. Since we are done buying for him, it is up to the grandparents to get him the remaining "wants" on his list. Okay, okay...i know. How can an 8 month old baby boy have a christmas list? Let's just say Mommy wants to make sure little Jonah only gets the best! A majority of the toys on his list are the wooden ones, so hopefully he will have safe toys to play with, without the worries of lead paint toxicity.

I would like to mention that Mama Speaks did a review on Holgate Toys. The cool thing about this is that this company makes a TON of Mister Roger's Neighborhood toys, even the Classic Trolley. Yes, the Trolley is on Jonah's list! Along with the hand puppets of King Friday, Queen Sara Saturday, and Lady Elaine Fairchilde. Pretty neat huh?

Hope Santa gets Jonah's (and my) list this year!!!

Jen

p.s. another sleepy post! ZZZZzzzzzzz

Joseph's Lullaby

I know it' s Thanksgiving, and I really should be focusing on today and everything that I am thankful for, but I can't help but tell you all about the best Christmas Album ever! Now, don't get me wrong here, I LOVE Bing Crosby and I will watch White Christmas probably 100 times this holiday season. But the most beautifully amazing and touching song comes from the MercyMe album "The Christmas Sessions". These aren't your everyday, christmas jingles either. Okay, well maybe they are the same songs you hear over and over and over all December, but when you hear these songs performed by their 6 man band, you can only be captivated by their voices and their emotion.

Now, the song I am pointing out in this post is "Joseph's Lullaby" (Track # 12). I bought this album last Christmas and I cried my eyes out the first time I heard it (and the second, the third, the fourth...you get the picture!). I was pregnant, and the first couple times I heard it, all I could imagine was being Joseph and feeling this way about MY son. I looked at it from the parent's perspective. It was (and still is) so moving. As I listen to it, I just want to go pick up Jonah, and hold him close, and love on him profusely, and never let him go. It sort of reminds me of how I should be viewing God. I should be holding onto Him that tightly as well. Hm, never really thought of it that way until I just typed it out here.

Anyways, here is a synopsis of the song: It's (obviously) a song about Joseph and his relationship with his son, Jesus. He is asking God to let him just be his child for one night. And he asks Baby Jesus to just "rest your little head" and "go and chase your dreams". I am going to put the lyrics here but also go to Rhapsody Online (it's FREE) and listen to the whole darn song because just reading it won't do it for ya'. But listening to it...will give you goosebumps, guaranteed.

"Joseph's Lullaby"
MercyMe

Go to sleep my Son
This manger for your bed
You have a long road before You
Rest Your little head

Can You feel the weight of Your glory?
Do You understand the price?
Or does the Father guard Your heart for now
So You can sleep tonight?

Go to sleep my Son
Go and chase Your dreams
This world can wait for one more moment
Go and sleep in peace

I believe the glory of Heaven
Is lying in my arms tonight
But Lord, I ask that He for just this moment
Simply be my child

Go to sleep my Son
Baby, close Your eyes
Soon enough You'll save the day
But for now, dear Child of mine
Oh my Jesus, Sleep tight