We named him Ernie....

So the 'Elf on the Shelf' joined our family over the weekend.  An adorable book and fun magical idea for Charlie.  Charlie has LOVED having Ernie around, loves finding his new spot each morning, and is very into following the one elf rule 'You are not aloud to touch the elf'.   It does highlight Santa probably more than we were ready for around here but its still such a sweet and fun idea.  Check it out for your dreaming little ones!!   

Be prosperous and multiply...

Can you believe that one year ago this month, Charlie was the only member of this group under 30??  Our community group from our church has been very prosperous this year and blessed with many babies.  There are even a couple little boys Max's age missing from the photo who were napping or home with Grandparents.

We have so enjoyed this local group of friends which makes the trek into San Fran for church every week even more worth it!!

C & M

My favorite part of our tree this year is the capital C and capital M.  I bought them at Restoration Hardware last year after the season sale...for @ $2.  I bought the C obviously for 'Charlie' and the M, just in case we named our new little boy 'Max'. SO FUN to have sweet Max here this year in our family.  Love the boy and love the name.

Charlie is showing me his favorite ornament on the tree.  Which is the shell angel from Jeff and my honeymoon in Maui 1996.  We love having all our travel ornaments on the tree, so fun to reminisce each year.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

What a wonderfully festive weekend we had.  Burlingame welcomed in the holidays with Christmas fun! 

Of to the Burlingame train station to see Santa and his helpers on the train....

Max and his buddy Matthew were the most adorable little Santas around.

And then the Christmas parade down our Avenue.  
Here comes the parade!!!!

Santa came early....

With a new big boy bike for Charlie!!!

Since we are leaving for the midwest in 10 days and the weather has been so nice here lately, Santa decided to drop by early with Charlie's Christmas present.  Charlie found the bike by the tree after waking up from his afternoon nap.   Fun!!!

Sweet tooth

Charlie and I had fun making our holiday gingerbread house.  It is definitely not the prettiest, maybe even a little funny looking.  But we enjoyed being creative together.  At least we made more progress than last year.  And this year we had the best creative director ever...little Max!

Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...

Have to say we did feel a bit like the Griswold's looking for the perfect spotlit tree.  And even more so, when we arrived home and our tree was about 2 feet too big for our ceiling.  Out with the power saw!!!  Finally the perfect tree.