Christmas Programs and Cowboy Elf

Aiden and Daddy at the school Christmas programs over the weekend.  Aiden was being a bit of a stinker at this point.

Luke and Liam in their Christmas program at school

Luke as "Santa" with his very cute reindeer

Liam played the part of a penguin and did a perfect little penguin dance that made everyone laugh

Trying to get a picture after the program

Family picture

After Luke and Liam performed, we had Aiden's program

AJ played the guitar in a "Bayou Christmas"

3rd Annual Christmas Movie night with our friends Jack, Charlie, and Andy

We had another eventful weekend with holiday programs for all three boys.  Luke and Liam sang in church on Sunday morning and then we headed home for a quick lunch before leaving for the school programs.  This was right around naptime for Aiden so his enthusiasm was fading by the time of his program, but he did wonderfully.  Everyone sang and stood nicely for the program in hopes of getting to visit with Santa and enjoy Christmas cookies afterwards. 

On another note, here are a couple of funny things that have happened this year with our Elf on the Shelf, "Cowboy" Elf.
1.  The boys have started to notice that Cowboy always appears in places that are pretty high off the ground.  They know the number one rule with Cowboy is you cannot touch him or he will lose his magic.  Mom and Dad are a little afraid that touching Cowboy is too tempting so we always pick pretty high places to hide him like near the top of the Christmas tree on one occasion.  We had Cowboy holding the ornament that we gave each of the boys this Christmas.  He held Luke and Liam's at the top of the tree, but AJ wanted his ornament left at the bottom.  Then, the other day, Aiden suggested moving one of his ornaments up to the top of the tree so that Cowboy would sit by it.
2.  Aiden woke up one day this week screaming at the top of his lungs..."Cowboy, where are you?"  Cowboy, Cowboy, where are you?"
3.  One of the not so desirable things that has happened with Cowboy is our urge to tell him when someone is not doing what they are supposed to be doing.  Rather than running to tell mom or dad, we run to tell Cowboy whatever it is that our brother just got in trouble for. 
4.  Luke has come up with several great questions about Cowboy such as, what does he eat, where does he sleep, how does he go to the bathroom, or how does he get in the house?  His conclusion was that maybe Cowboy eats and goes to the potty while we are gone during the day.  We are still not sure how he gets in the house, though. 
5.  My sister sent us a "Cowboy care package" complete with school pictures from each of the boys with Cowboy.  She wrote personal notes to each of the boys (on behalf of Cowboy) and discussed what they were doing well and a few things they should work on.  One of the big things we try to work with Aiden on is staying in his chair at dinner.  If he isn't hungry or interested in eating, he is a jack in the box getting up and down at the table.  When Cowboy mentioned in his letter that Aiden should work on sitting better at the table, Aiden's face lit up light a lightbulb!  We had quite a peaceful dinner that night.

Happy Holidays!