The Beeston Family

I missed Kendall's first ice skating experience when she went with Kaitlyn over Fall break, but I was there for Logan, Taylor, and Alexis' first time. And actually, I am glad I waited long enough (10 years) so that the boys could manage on their own. I helped Alexis a lot at first, holding her between my legs, but it was hard on my back. When she was a little more comfortable, which was super quick, I just held on to her hand, and she did awesome. All the kids did pretty good, letting go of the side after a while and skating on their own. We might actually do this more often. The rank is super close to our house, too. It was a fun night!

Since the kids are no longer believers, they helped me with our elf for 24 days. They took turns helping, and although their ideas weren't always things that I would have done, they had fun with it. Some nights, it was close to 10 when we could finally move Crystal, but we made it work. And every morning, Alexis looked forward to finding our Naughty Elf. Crystal isn't the type of elf who leaves happy surprises and crafts. Nope, he does naughty things and plays tricks on the kids. But that's why we love him.

Day 1: Kendall: Crystal used Logan's toothbrush as a buttbrush.

Day 2: Taylor: Crystal farted in a jar and wanted us to smell.

Day 3: Logan: Crystal wrapped the kids' bedroom door with ribbon.

Day 4: Crystal didn't move because Alexis touched him.

Day 5: Kendall: Crystal hid candy canes under certain cups and the kids had to find them.

Day 6: All the kids: Crystal went zip lining from the Christmas tree.

Day 7: Kendall: Crystal made a hammock out of my bra.

Day 8: Taylor: Crystal peed in cups and tried to sell them as lemonade.

Day 9: Taylor: Crystal filled our milk jug with Grinch pee (green milk)

Day 10: Logan: Crystal went bungee jumping from the ceiling fan.

Day 11: Taylor: Crystal got attacked by the soldiers and they taped him to the fridge.

Day 12: Kendall: Crystal decorated our Christmas tree with Kendall's underwear.

Day 13: Taylor: Crystal wrote a riddle.

Day 14: Logan: Crystal and his friends rode the dryer.

Day 15: Kendall: Crystal sent us on a scavenger hunt.

Day 16: Taylor: Crystal was sent to time-out.

Day 17: Logan: Crystal found treasures in the couch.

Day 18: Kendall: Crystal went on a date with Barbie, probably to the drive-in movie.

Day 19: Taylor: Crystal tried to floss (the dance)

Day 20: Logan: Crystal drew mustaches and stuff on our family picture.

Day 21: Me at 4 AM: Crystal took a bubble bath.

Day 22: Me at 4 AM: Crystal put makeup on Logan and took a picture. Logan was not happy about it and tore the picture to a million pieces.

Day 23: Me at 1 AM: Crystal took a sELFie with Alexis.

Day 24: Crystal told Santa that the kids were good and deserved to go on the Nice list. He also let us hold him on Christmas Day.

It's a lot of work, but it was all worth it to see Alexis' excitement every morning, and the kids enjoyed it, too.

Christmas Day: the kids' favorite day of the year, besides their birthday. Alexis got a bunch of princess dresses and Frozen boys, Kendall got a bunch of American Girl Doll accessories, Logan got some golf stuff and Yugioh cards, and Taylor got Legos. Roxy got wrapping paper and ribbon. 

William got some golf stuff, a massager, and of course his Top Gold membership. And I got multiple puzzles, jewelry, a stand-up mixer, and an ice cream maker (for William- haha).

For breakfast, we had croissants, for lunch we had savory crepes, and for dinner we had steak, potatoes, asparagus, corn, and a baguette. Oh, and it rained all day. Since we couldn't play outside, we went to the movie theater, but all the movies sucked, so we saw Frozen 2, again. I didn't mind because I actually like the movie. Anyway, it's actually been raining a ton over here, which is very unusual. It stopped long enough for us to get into the hot tub, though, and that was fun.

I love our Christmas Eve traditions, but most of them don't start until the evening. This year, like in previous years, we started the day by opening up our stockings. 

Then around lunch time, we headed to Top Golf. Luckily, our membership saved us a 2-hour wait. Maybe that membership was worth it after all. We only waited 10 minutes, and we played games on the XBOX during that time. 

We just kind of hung out at home after that, and I talked to my parents, Fred, Marie, Luc, Aria, and Marine, too. Marine is over there right now to celebrate the holidays with them. 

After we dropped off the Christmas gifts to Paul and his family, we came home to prep up dinner- a raclette. It's one of our favorite meals, although definitely not the healthiest.

Then we played our annual Minute-to-Win-it games, the Christmas edition. We knocked over cups using an ornament attached to a belt, we moved cottonballs (snowballs) from one plate to another using our Vaseline-covered noses, we stacked up cups to form a pyramid (Christmas tree), we shook our bums to get the jingle bells out of the tissue box that was attached to the small of our backs, we tossed jingle bells into plates, we hung candy canes onto a string using only our mouths, we dug into a pile of whipped cream to find the candy cane using our face, etc. It was lots and lots of laughs! That night, I let the kids sleep by the Christmas tree, except Alexis, because I knew she would keep the other kids up. The next night, she totally sneaked out of her bed and slept under the Christmas tree. And as i had predicted, she kept the other kids up. Little stinker...

For Christmas, William got a very expensive Platinum membership to Top Golf. It was really a gift for all the boys, though. I wasn't thrilled about spending so much money on a membership, but it's been totally worth it this last week. The place has been super busy, with 1-2 hour waits. For us, though, we've never had to wait more than 15 minutes. AND we can stay as long as we want instead of being limited to an hour. We also get 20% off food. It makes spending a couple of grands almost worth it, but especially if William plans on practicing after work multiple times a week. And I think he plans on taking the boys at least once a week, too. Okay...