A Very Three Lockett Christmas

On Friday morning Josh and I started sorting out our finals/travel/holiday schedule and realized just how crazy our lives are. Josh is finished with two finals (woohoo!) but has two more this week (boo). Ava and I will be heading to Texas on Wednesday to spend a few days with my family, then head down to Huntsville for Aunt Jaryn's graduation. Josh will fly into Houston on Friday evening, after his last final. We will be in Texas until after Christmas, so there weren't many open mornings left for us to do our little family's Christmas. It didn't take long for us to decide that Saturday morning would be the best time for us to exchange our gifts.

We sent a special message to Santa about our new Christmas date with our Elf on the Shelf, James Lockett. Ava was so excited about Santa's arrival. She insisted on writing a special thank you to leave with his cookies and milk.

Working out the perfect word spacing

Checking it twice

Drawing a picture of Rudolph for Santa

As Ava finished up her letter to Santa, Daddy's phone rang. IT WAS SANTA!

{In reality, after we announced our Christmas date on Facebook, our kind, honey-voiced preacher at OWC volunteered to call Ava as Santa. He did a fantastic job! I think you could charge for these services next year Mitch. With just the families at church you could make enough money to cover Missy's extensive Christmas list.}

Santa remembered the last time he saw Ava

Asking if she's been a good girl this year

I think Daddy was having just as much fun as Ava.

He mentioned James Lockett (a gift from Santa's real-life wife) by name.

Santa wanted to know what kind of cookies Ava would be leaving.

In the middle of her cookie list Santa interrupted Ava to remind his elf, Buddy, to make sure to put the bike on the sleigh.

Her face was stuck like this for a while after the word 'bike'. Santa encouraged Ava to head to bed soon and wished her a merry Christmas.

Ava left Santa's cookies on the little plate I painted for her a few years ago.

All the goodies for Santa

All through our faux Christmas Eve night Ava talked through her restless sleep. Early Saturday morning she woke us up claiming that she heard Santa's sleigh bells in the night. She was thrilled and thankful for her beautiful, purple bike.

Sorting through her stocking with James nearby

You did good James, even with our spontaneous Christmas needs. We decided to open our gifts unencumbered by cameras. It was a magical morning of surprises and fun. The happiest study break we could have given HLS.

On Sunday morning at church we learned about the angel who visited Joseph in a dream to comfort him about Jesus' arrival. We painted paper angel wings with glue and glitter.

Our class is almost always all girls. This will definitely be the most popular youth group in town someday:)

Have you ever seen such sassy angels?

Future heartbreakers of OWC. Lookout.