30 Days of Thanks~ #28 ~ the ELF on the SHELF!

Do you know of the book: the ELF on the SHELF? We do! I am THANKFUL for the innocent hearts and minds of children ~ especially during the holiday season!

The tradition is that a little pixie elf comes to your house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. She stays till Christmas Eve. Her mission or job is simple... she is there to be Santa's eyes and ears, to watch over the children and then go home to the North Pole and REPORT to Santa if they have been GOOD or BAD!

Cayden has just meet his little elf, her name is ALICE! Here he is posing on the shelf with his new little friend!

Sarah and Molly have had the same little elf visit for a couple of years now. They call her ABBY! ABBY moves from spot to spot every night... she surprises the girls each morning, as they look around for her! Sarah has made a "deal" with ABBY. If she is high on a shelf, the girls may not touch her, but, if she is low, where they can reach her, they may hold her and love on her a bit that day! Sarah and Molly are always a little sad on Christmas Eve, when they realize ABBY will be heading home to Santa! But for now, they are happy to report to me, that ABBY is at their house right NOW!

They show me how she sits so nicely on the shelf!
Here are some snazzy little elves...
just look at our ears!
Remember...
the little pixie elves will be WATCHING and LISTENING to every thing you say and do...

You better be good, for goodness sake!

30 Days of Thanks~ #27 Piano Sharing!

The story goes like this...
As a child, I wanted to play the piano so bad. One of the nuns at my school offered to give me free lesson since my desire was so strong! The lessons only lasted a couple of months because I had no piano at home to practice on and we all know Practice Makes Perfect. You have to practice something to really learn it! As an adult, one of David's Aunts gave me her old piano because I showed great interest in it when she first purchased it used, many years early. I took lessons for a year and enjoyed playing at my own pace! Years went by. My own kids had lessons, they grew up and left home. Soon the piano just sat here. I tried to give it to each one of my children. No one had room. It was a big, upright grand, and over 100 years old. A real beauty! I felt so bad that it just sat here in my home. So I contacted a site called FREE~CYLE. com and many, many people posted notes as to why they NEEDED my piano! I choose a lucky winner and 4 men and a truck showed up at my door to claim their new treasure!

Fast forward about 8 years. Beckie decides she would love to have a piano now. She would like the girls to have lessons. She looks online. She visits FREE~CYLE.com and finds one. She posts why she would love to own it! She tells them of her daughters, Sarah and Molly. She waits, and checks the site everyday for comments, hoping she gets a response!
Beckie wins! 3 guys ~ Dave, Danny and Cyle go and pick it up and deliver it to her house on a Saturday. On Monday, Sarah had her first piano lesson! What goes around ~ comes around!
I am THANKFUL for people who can see the value of "giving" something away.
This piano will be loved in this home.
As the men loaded the piano, I am told, a neighbor came out with cookies for the Sarah, Molly and Cayden! They sat in the driveway and colored pictures with Beckie as the guys worked to load the piano into Cyle's truck! Even the neighbor was pleased to see the piano go to a good home!