Holiday Tradition

I've heard that if you want traditions, you should start them early.

So I made a few calls, worked some magic, and managed to get "in" with the elves at the North Pole.  That's right.  Apparently elves only like to visit families with children.  Well, I've got one on the way and my little family was in desperate need of some Holiday cheer--with Daniel's finals coming up, he's been "unavailable" for the past forever and I was spending a lot of time alone... in front of the TV... scaring myself with Criminal Minds or trying to put myself in the holiday spirit with ABC Family's holiday count down. Boring. But on December 1st, this all changed (sorta haha).

Daniel and I walked into the kitchen area and there was an elf sitting on our table!  He came directly from the North Pole with a note from Santa, a brief introduction (written by himself), his passport (which included an "All about Me--Getting to Know Your Elf" section), and a traditional "North Pole" breakfast: "snow" covered donuts, marshmallows, and "hot" chocolate just the way the elves drink it at the North Pole--ice cold (chocolate milk).  It was a beautiful morning.  Daniel was so excited to learn that an elf was staying with us for the month of December.  He couldn't stop laughing all morning haha.

Anyway, I left to go to work and apparently Walnut (our elf, who prefers his friends to call him Wally) decided to watch a little TV.  ESPN to be exact.  Daniel, who was in the back studying, was confused because he thought that it was me watching TV.  He was delighted when he saw Wally making himself at home.

Since then, our home has been filled with tricks and treats (sounds like the wrong holiday huh?! haha), but it's been a lot of fun.  Santa, in his letter, warned us that Wally had a history of mischief so luckily we were warned and not surprised when we found the little rascal hustling other toys and betting all of Daniel's cash and valuables in a poker game. I even walked in the apartment to him mooning me (that's right... didn't think I'd ever be able to say I've seen elf butt cheeks!).  But overall, he's a very sweet little elf.  He won me some popcorn in a gambling match against Penny (my build-a-bear), he hitched a ride all the way to Hickory just to help Daniel and I pick out the perfect Christmas tree (I'll tell you all about this trip in a minute), and he even left Daniel some York Peppermint patties in the freezer.  Wally was hanging out in there because he's a little homesick for the North Pole. Elves.....

ANYWAY...

Last weekend, Daniel and drove to Hickory so that we could drive into the mountains with his parent and help them pick out their Christmas tree. In all the hustle and bustle, I forgot to grab Wally and was really sad that he was going to miss our first tree hunt.  We got up the next morning and were helping around the kitchen when to our surprise, Daniel found Wally sitting on the car in the garage with a hand-made book entitled, "An Elf's Guide to Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree."  As I mentioned earlier, he hitched a ride all the way to Hickory to help us out.  What a sweet little elf.

We had a lot of fun picking out our trees.  The branches made great swords and Daniel and I had a fight to the death on the mountains.  He died, but then miraculously came back.  We got free hot chocolate, bought some candies, stopped on the side of the road for a picture, ended up taking a little hike, and then went to lunch (PS. It was about 60 degrees in December!).  We all had some great hush puppies, slaw, and pork BBQ. 

Daniel and I were planning on driving home that night, but instead we went and heard his parents sing at a nativity event at the church.  After that, I rested while Daniel did homework/ watched the BYU football game.  Also worthy of note, that night I experienced the worst heart burn of my life and also the worst leg pain of my life.  I made Daniel massage my leg at 12:45am it hurt so bad.  Luckily, it was gone in the morning.

Kelten was blessed on Sunday and that was a very sweet event, Daniel and I set up and decorated our first ever Christmas tree (I've included a picture of my favorite ornament--we got it for our wedding), and in the evening Daniel and I went and played a game at one of my old BYU friend's house (I met this boy years ago while living at the Colony at BYU.  He's now at Duke getting his doctorate.  Daniel and I ran into him and his beautiful new wife our first Sunday in North Carolina.  Small world!)

That's all we've been up to.

TEN days until we fly into Utah and the real holiday celebration begins.  I can NOT wait :-D