Edmond Attacks the Santas

I was just beginning to think that Edmond had been fairly good since his last adventure.  I figured “Cookie”, his girlfriend, was a good influence on him.  He had made a beautiful Christmas card and he was keeping a low profile.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.   This morning, as I rounded the corner the above scene greeted me!  What?

Shock and Awe

I have developed a little Santa Collection over the years and I put them by the front door to greet any visitors that may come by at Christmas time.  Apparently, Edmond decided he would have a little fun with these Santas.  He dragged a bag of mini-marshmallows into the entry and began pelting the unsuspecting Santas.  Several of them fell over out of shock.  The rest were in awe of what the little elf was capable of. I guess he figured he was already in the “Naughty” category, so he might as well go all the way.  No sooner had I shooed him away so that I could clean up the carnage (no Santas were hurt during the filming of this post), when I heard the candy jar top being unscrewed.

I hurried into the other room, and discovered this:

Edmond Pop

I need to apologize to the men in my life because I had accused them of eating all the candy when all along it was this little imp.  The bad thing is that he wasn’t the least bit remorseful.  In fact, he was rather proud of his accomplishment and offered me first lick.

Edmond put in his thumb and pulled out a pop

I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I told him that I was on a diet.  He looked a little hurt, so I assured him that it was the thought that counted.  Probably the whole candy thing was a ruse because just as I was beginning to relax a bit, he was off on his real mission:  to challenge the Angel Christmas Tree Topper.

Edmond Challenges the Angel

Luckily, she’s not quite as sweet and gentle as she looks.  She put the potential coup down in one quick lightning bolt aimed just past the little elf to teach him not to fool with her.  I was a little surprised because I had never seen that side of her before. (Note to self:  Don’t tick off the Angels.)

I think that whole episode scared a little bit of sense into Edmond because he hurried away and hid.  Unfortunately, he’s not very good at hiding.  I found him  in the basket of Santa hats with his hands covering his eyes.  I guess he figures that if he can’t see me, I can’t see him. I pretended like I didn’t see him so he would stay there for a while waiting for me to find him.  Every time I walk by the basket I hear giggling.  I’m sure he will figure it out soon enough and then I will have my hands full.  But, for the time being I’ll let him think I’m still looking for him.

Edmond "hides" in the Santa Hats

PS. you may be wondering why I have a basket of Santa hats.  When you visit my house at Christmas time, we always invite you to get into the spirit and wear a Santa Hat.  You would be surprised at how wearing a Santa Hat can brighten your day and make others feel good too.  Joy! to the World Christ the Savior is born.

If you would like a mini portrait shoot, contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net.  I’ll make sure I leave Edmond at home.

This morning when I went over to my computer to do some editing of a photo shoot I did on Saturday, I discovered an elf in my coffee cup with a memory card.

The back story about this elf is that about two months ago a friend took me to a “Seconds” store in Carson City Nevada to “look around”.  I discovered some darling elves made by “Annalee”.  I purchased six elves dressed in red and green to add to my collection of bendable elves.  Everything was fine until we brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic.  That’s when the mischief began.

I’ll take a look at the memory disc and see what he’s been up to, but I have a weird feeling about all this.  I don’t know too much about shelf elves, but I’m thinkin’ they are supposed to stay on the shelf.  At any rate, here’s a couple of my favorite photos from the photo shoot.

Red Dress and a Mink

Red and Green look good on her

Blue Truck Red Truck

I’m sensing a theme here…

It’s been a rough season for us as my dad has been in and out of the hospital since the middle of November.   This will be the first Christmas that he has not spent with his family…ever.  He’s in a full care nursing  facility at this point after living in an assisted living apartment just a month ago.  The difference?  A stroke.  Strokes are not good for anyone, but it is especially hard on him because he is also struggling with his memory.

So, I’ve been trying to document all of our Christmas activities in word and photos…like a docudrama…so that he will be able to participate through photos.  I was over there today visiting him and I brought my little photo book.  He was able to pick out several members of the family and even smiled a little.

These photos are for my dad, who has always been there for me.

My brother sent me a beautiful flower arrangement with a candle in the middle.  I used my star light filter to get the lights to sparkle.

The other day it snowed and I wanted to go out and take some photos, but the roads were pretty icey.  So, I settled for taking a photo of our street on the way home.

Corby has been actively involved in decorating the house this year, unlike years before.  Usually he dreads the whole Christmas decorating thing, but not this year.  It even makes this little snowman happy to see my husband involved.

We like to make a gingerbread house every year, but this year it hasn’t turned out so well.  First, the frosting was too stiff and we couldn’t squeeze it out of the container.  Then, we thinned it out a little which made it too soft, so the roof kept falling off and the walls were caving in. Sigh.  When the houses (we did two this year) were finally ready to decorate, all the decorators had given up and gone home.  I wonder if the dumb houses will last till next year.

This is a picture of my oldest son trimming the tree with some of the ornaments we have collected over the years for him.  It was always our tradition to purchase one special ornament per child per year so that when they got their own home, they would have a start on their own ornament collection.  Even though my son doesn’t live with us anymore, he put his ornaments on our tree because he didn’t have a tree of his own.  Maybe next year.

So these are some of the photos I made for my dad’s Christmas photo book.  So far, he likes them.  They are good memories for me, too.

You can look at some Christmas ornament photos while we are waiting…

When my husband and I were first dating we were both on limited budgets, so he helped me make my Christmas decorations for my tree.  I bought a bunch of little white plaster ornaments, some paint and some brushes and we painted our ornaments.  He painted this little penguin over 25 years ago, and it’s still one of his favorites.  I think he is waaay cuter than the ornament.

Some of the first ornaments I ever made were little felt ornaments.  I think I made these in the 80′s, and I still love them.  Here’s a little Santa from the set.

I bought this little plastic ornament in honor of my husband’s and my first Christmas as a married couple.  It is really not very pretty or interesting.  I’m not even sure why I got it, but we still hang it every year.

I made this nerdy little ornament (photo shows front and back of same ornament) the year after we got married.  I think I was learning to cross stitch and this was my first attempt.  This one always makes me smile.

So…I always like to go down memory lane at Christmas time.  These are just a few of my memories.

(PS  I did a little digital scrapbooking on these photos.  I used elements and papers I purchased from scrapbookgraphics.com.  There are a bunch of very talented designers over there and these little graphics make digital designing a snap.)