All Spruced Up — Stolen By a Bohlen

I would normally tell you that I’m only a Christmas person on December 25th. This year was a lot different than previous years for us. Ben may not be thrilled at me for admitting this, but we totally binged Hallmark-like Christmas movies even before Thanksgiving! 🤣 We all know the city-girl baker ends up meeting the hunkiest country boy in a town where she conveniently gets a flat tire and the mechanic is somehow out for weeks. WE 👏 DON’T👏 CARE! Their happiness is addictive at this time of year, no matter if it is the same plot every time.

Perhaps getting into the Christmas spirit this year was easier due to our already decorated chimney from Waylin’s Merry Birthday party (read about it here!). It couldn’t also be the Bohlen trademark of frequent trips to Menards…sometimes not for anything in particular. If that doesn’t sound Midwest, I don’t know what does, but Menards usually has a pretty nice Christmas area with lots to look at!

I think something that people don’t know about my husband is that he is INCREDIBLY sentimental. It’s something that I learned about him when we first met and am surprised even to this day what this man holds dear. I sometimes feel cheated because he (and his mom) have kept so many things and it’s all in pristine condition. Maybe it’s because I came from a single-mothered household, but when we were done with something, we sold it in a garage sale. 🤷‍♀️ My mum kept very little, whereas Ben has an entire chest full of STICKERS he never stuck anywhere! #howdidhehavethatkindofselfcontrol?

Another thing that made this Christmas exciting was the introduction of our elf! I’ve had the Elf on the Shelf book/box set for two entire years now and decided we would try it this year. Now, the folklore (…can I call EOTS culture folklore? ) is that you are supposed to read the EOTS book to activate the magic of the Elf sent by Santa to spy on kids before Christmas. Somewhere along the way, other rules were applied about the elf having a need for mischief and that the elf’s magic would be lost if the children touched the elf.

There was ZERO CHANCE in hell that Waylin wasn’t going to want to touch the elf…and I DEFINITELY didn’t want to clean up messes left by the elf! #nah And despite my sister coaching me through my first year of “elfing,” I decided to make my own rules:

The elf enjoyed innocent games of hide and seek and not throwing powdered sugar all over my kitchen.
The elf can be touched, cuddled, pet…whatever Waylin wants to do with an elf that came to live with us.
The elf has a house and likes to be tucked in to bed at night (which adds to the fun of waking up to see where our elf went last night…kinda like she was a drunk 20 year old).

My sister made a really neat home for their elf (Snooch) out of a cat house! She was thrifty as fuck and got little pieces of furniture from Goodwill and made it look like a real person could live there. I used to be creative like that, but I’ve been tired since about October 17th of 2017. 🤣 I came up with the idea of buying an actual Barbie house that was the exact same size as the elf! I added some lights and plan to make the elf’s house more Christmas-y as the years go on.

When I bought it, I could feel Ben’s “What-the-fuck-ness” daily! He didn’t grow up with the elf (neither did I), but I kept telling him that this is fun for her! When he saw the elf house, I knew what he was going to say…I guess, a couple years of marriage together will do that to you. He was annoyed we had to store this “elf house” around for years. < SO MUCH FOR SENTIMENTALITY, RIGHT?! > 😂 I smirked as I told him that I * specifically * picked a Barbie house that folded up into a nice compact shoe-box sized box. #booyah!

Now the question is, did Waylin love the elf? YES! OMG YES! Our elf came to visit us starting on December 1st and after the first day, my mornings started like this:

Me: * asleep *

Me: * wakes to hear noises on baby monitor *

Waylin (at 5:30 and sometimes earlier 😑): “Mama. Mama? Find Elfie. Mama. Find Elfie.”

….over and over and over. It was the cutest thing ever and it kept motivating me NOT to forget to move the elf at night.

This was the first morning she was introduced to the elf and she wanted to show Elfie the lake behind our house.

Another really funny thing that our EOTS experience morphed for us is Waylin’s desire to take care of Elfie after she found her. She would always make her go to the potty and then lay in bed. Sometimes she would find chocolate chips in the toilet from Elfie. 💩 My old boss quickly sewed us some Christmas comforters for the elf house! It was a really great experience and I’m excited for next year!

We didn’t go Christmas tree shopping as a family like we did last year. Waylin and I were still recovering from sickness and Ben’s brother happened to be in town with his truck, so I told Ben to go ahead and pick out a tree. My only request is: don’t buy a monster. He ended up getting this fat pencil-looking tree and I loved how awkward it was. ❤

Speaking of last year, I should do a comparison since I never got around to making a post about Christmas.

BRB…crying at how fast time flies! 😥

She had a blast decorating the tree this year! Even the stockings were hung by the chimney with case. ❤ I had Christmas music blaring on a Bluetooth speaker and we shook our booties off (her new favorite thing to do…😂). It was a really fun experience as a family and I look forward to future Christmas decorating together!

Here’s a look at our Christmas tree this year. Our dining room got all spruced up for the holidays!