Is Christmas really 2.5 weeks away?

How is that even possible? I have a confession to make.....are you ready? I haven't done one single bit of Christmas shopping yet. Yes, I'm serious. Not one present is bought. Have I thought about it? Well, of course. I even have ideas for most of the people on my list. But actually going out and purchasing gifts? Hmmmm, not so much. I should probably be panicking just a little bit, or at least starting to get nervous. But, I'm not. It may have something to do with the fact that I have to work on Christmas day, and the day after, and the day after that too. So, Christmas with my mom and dad has been postponed to the week before New Years. And Bobby's dad is in Florida and his mom is in South Carolina. That takes a lot of the pressure off to find the perfect gifts before Christmas. Or, it makes me delusional since I have to work 3 days in a row and then we're heading to Jasper right away. So even though I don't have to have the gifts to give before Christmas, I should still have them bought. Oh well, it'll get done sometime. Right?

One little Christmas tradition we've implemented into the Chin house is the "Elf on the Shelf". My mom gave it to us last year but Trey was scared to death of the little creature so we kind of ignored it. But this year, our little elf, Rispy (Trey and Bobby named it, no idea), has been busy watching every move the kids make and reporting back to Santa. This is by far the greatest Christmas invention ever. Seriously, it's the perfect parenting tool. All I have to say when the kids are misbehaving is, "I hope Rispy isn't watching this" and they're good as gold. Well, Trey is anyway. Emerson doesn't really get the concept and could care less. Anyway, I wish I could use it all year 'round to keep them in line. The other thing the kids are supposed to do is tell Rispy what they want for Christmas. I tried listening really hard when Trey was whispering in the elf's ear but he was too quiet. So I told him he better repeat it to make sure Rispy heard him. He looked at me, got really quiet, and said, "I forget what I asked for." Great, now how is 'Santa' supposed to know what to bring?

The other tradition we decided to do was to build a gingerbread house. Let's just say that as the contractor, I sucked. I was very concerned that I would run out of icing so I was a little stingy when building the walls. Bad idea. Since the walls are the very foundation of the entire thing, in retrospect, I should have been way more concerned about getting that part right. Oops. Lesson learned. So now the gingerbread "house" is more of a broken down fort, complete with GUTS soldiers, ninjas, a wooden policeman, and firefighter. Oh well, it was fun....just as much for Bobby and I as for the kids who really just wanted to lick the icing and eat the decorations anyway.

A couple of pictures just because they're cute...

Sassy Emmy striking a pose

Such a handsome little man