It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

More jolly good fun has been had at the Mumpower residence this week.  Monday morning Hugo was hanging out in the freezer.  He missed the North Pole.

That day we also made ornaments for Ashlyn's pink tree in her room. Oh, Ashlyn also got a reply email from Santa!  Here's what he wrote:

Dear Ashlyn,

Thank you for your nice email. I'm glad you like my bright red coat. I love it too, but it's very hard to keep clean, and Mrs. Claus only let's me wear it when it's absolutely clean and spotless. So you can imagine how hard she has to work to get it clean after going down all of those chimneys at little boys and girls houses.

I can see here that your name is right here on top of the "Nice" list this year. So I will make you a deal. If you keep being a good girl and do all of the things that Mommy & Daddy ask you to do, like eat all of your dinner, and brush your teeth and help around the house, then I will do my VERY BEST to make sure that you get the things you want for Christmas, especially a Jake & The Neverland Pirates boat.

I love ALL types of cookies. But I think my favorite ones are the one you leave me at your house. So I will let you choose your favorite to leave out. Just please remember to leave me some cookieds and milk on Christmas night. Also, If you wouldn't mind to much, my reindeer get really hungry flying all over the whole world in one night. So if you could leave them a little something too, that would be wonderful. They love carrots...(especially Rudolph)

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas

Santa Claus

North Pole

How awesome is that?  I love it.  :)  Ashlyn was SO excited about getting an email from Santa and kept talking about it and asking for me to read it again.  She giggled throughout the first reading and it was so sweet.  She wanted to make cookies and get out carrots right away.  She's okay with waiting until it's actually Christmas Eve, though.  :)

Tuesday, Hugo made a little bed for himself out of tissues.

Aaron also had the day off, so we walked around the neighborhood looking at how others decorated their back porch.

Wednesday, Hugo was found playing cards with Kwazii.

Ashlyn had a good time at her ballet and sign language classes.  Our advent calendar activity was to go to the library and pick out some Christmas books.  She was excited because she LOVES going to the library and we hadn't had a chance to go for awhile.  We found out they have a lot of sign language videos for kids, too, so we'll be borrowing one when we go next week.

Wednesday night we put up the train around our tree, so Thursday morning Hugo was taking a ride on it.

Hugo had been moved to the reindeer after morning time so Prim wouldn't try to eat him.  And Friday, well, he forgot to move (oops).

Thursday we watched Santa feed his reindeer from a web cam set up at the North Pole.  Friday during grocery shopping Ashlyn helped pick out a few things to donate.  She was sweet because after we were driving home from dropping off the food we were donating, she asked "who are we going to help now?"  She loves knowing that she's helping someone and she couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it.

Friday, Hugo was lounging on the couch with the remote.  Ashlyn thought it was funny that he wanted to watch TV instead of hide somewhere.  And our activity for this day was... ice skating!

Ashlyn did really, really well.  We went to St. Augustine's Winter Wonderland and they also had an elf village that we visited where it "snowed!"

We also made some s'mores, but I just couldn't get a good picture there.  :(  I did get this cute picture of Aaron and Ashlyn, though.

We then drove around a bit to see the Christmas lights and then headed home.  We had a nice time and Ashlyn is already asking to go ice skating again. 

To end this long post, this morning we woke to find that Hugo had drawn some pictures on the  bathroom mirror (with dry erase markers because he's considerate)! 

And today's activity will be to watch the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  It's a must-see each year (I love Rudolph and reindeers in general) and Ashlyn loves the song and books (I doubt she remembers the movie) so YAY!  Have a wonderful, joyful week!