ernie has been keeping us SO busy that him plus regular Christmas craziness has become slightly out of control…let’s just say next year, i’ll bet ernie scales down his Christmas Joy operation a lot just a bit. ernie has a tendency to bite off more than he can chew. trust me. ernie and i are like *this* 🙂

so much to tell you about ernie and our Christmas Joy operation, so i’m going to hit you with the highlights and shower you with a ton of images. only 4 days til Christmas, and for that i am thankful!

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ernie’s had us on the run. we made gingerbread houses with friends {that lasted a whole 5 minutes…literally, five.}

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we were sent on a toy buying mission for a little boy with no toys of his own…

…turbojet cried on the ride home because the little boy would only have 3 toys. the 3 we were giving him. i took the opportunity to explain the good we were doing, the true Christmas Joy we were sharing. it was touching, and humbling, and made me feel like maybe, just maybe all my effort {dragging 2 tired boys shopping for someone else; convincing sunshine the toys most certainly were not for him; avoiding near-miss meltdowns} might be worth it. correction : it WAS worth it.

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we received a portrait of ernie and created our own.

{that’s turbojet by the way. in case you didn’t quite catch the similarities…the long spindly legs. the total lack of upper appendages. the adorable, smiling face…}

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we spread more Christmas joy by letting the boys pick out books at barnes & noble for kids that would be spending their Christmas in the hospital this year.

turbojet brought his own money to buy the books…his idea, not mine. bless his adorable heart.

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in continuing allegations that lover could perhaps be related to ernie in some round-about way, sweet pea is not helping the case…

{adorable elf-baby.}

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a different day, we were told to buy food for people in need and take it to the food bank. the drop off was coincidentally at the fire station. you can bet your bootie we didn’t leave without a checkin’ out the truck!

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what else? what else? let me see…let’s bullet list this bad boy!

• today we received fuzzy socks and were taught how to dance the *elf ‘n slide*
• reindeer pooped {it was muddy buddies or puppy chow or whatever else you call it} in our house while they were playing hide and seek with ernie one night…again, ernie {so thoughtful} thought the boys might like to eat it. for breakfast {yeah, we’re cool like that}
• ernie left us chili, cornbread and candles to eat dinner by candle light one night
• we made sugar cookies and made sure to use *lots, and lots of sprinkles* as instructed by ernie
• hmmmm…i know there’s more, but it’s late and i’m drawing a blank, and this post is getting loooooong so if you’re still reading this, i’m really impressed and really grateful 🙂

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ernie has been a fun {and tiring, i’m not gonna lie} way to count down the days until Christmas. my exhaustion will totally be worth it if i reached my goal, even a little bit.

my goal : to count down the days until Christmas all while teaching my boys about genuine Christmas spirit through : helping others, getting them to think about how blessed we/they are, and having fun of course…always having fun. essentially, cultivating compassionate, grateful hearts in my little guys.

mission accomplished.

i’ll be back friday daily dosing it up! in the mean time, take a deep breath, another sip of coffee, chant *i think i can, i think i can*, and push through…only 3 more days until Christmas! you can do eet!