Jingle is Back!

It's December, and guess who's back?  That's right, it's Jingle Bell, our friendly elf off the shelf.  Not sure why he's called an elf on the shelf anymore, given that he's generally not on any shelves lately.  He's all over the place, which you can see here above - tonight he was spotted roasting marshmallows with a few friends over at the piano room fireplace.  Nobody's had the heart to tell him that the real fireplace is actually in the other room, but at least we won't have to worry about any fires or burning marshmallows.

Today was also the first day to use the advent calendar - this year we could only get the LEGO Star Wars calendar, which we ordered a long time ago it seems.  But we weren't able to get the chocolate one this year, for some reason.  That's okay, as there will be plenty of chocolate this season.  And egg nog.  I have been trying different egg nogs lately, ones that won't upset my stomach so much - the lactose free one has been fantastic.  The almond ones are okay.  

Anyway, Jingle Bell had the advent calendar sitting there alongside the three others we've done the last three years.  The very first creation Maddie made for day one was a little more involved, but it came out really well:  it's a tiny Razorcrest, which is the spacecraft from "The Mandalorian."  All the LEGO builds from this calendar - I think - are from that show, so it should be pretty interesting to see all the creations that come from it as we inch closer to Christmas.  

Today was a busy day for filming for the Christmas production.  Mom had those shepherd costumes ready, plus a Mary and Joseph costume as well.  We used the huge LED screen up top for a background, to make it look like these actors were really in some far off setting like Bethlehem.  It was a full day at work, and when we all got home, we were ready to just watch something on television and go to sleep.  Tonight we managed to watch "Muppet Christmas Carol," the extended and much better version of the movie.  We're big fans of "The Love is Gone," and we're glad to ear that has survived and will continue to be included in future versions of the movie.  Not sure why it got cut in the first place, although I'm pretty sure it's the same guy who wanted to cut "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid."  Anyway, we saw that and then we watched episode three of "Hawkeye," which was just fantastic.  It's a fast-paced, fun show, and we're excited to see Hawkeye have his moment in the spotlight.  This show is incredibly good, something we're all enjoying quite a bit.  It's my favorite show since "WandaVision," in fact.

We did our reading tonight, with Finn throwing a wrench at Cruella De Vil, and a funeral for another major character.  We keep reading, and Maddie is enjoying this series so much, we're not stopping until we've gone through all the books.  Tonight we said our prayers after reading, and after that... bed.