The Nelson Elves. We took over 100 and picked this one as the best one. We used my phone with Fei's mini tripod balanced on a couple tables stacked with a Bluetooth shutter button. What we forgot to factor in is that you really need an actual person to call the dogs so they look forward. Haha. Amateurs. There were others that we the peeps looked better in but we all prefer this one with Isabel included.
The boy elves.
The girl elves.
The haggard parent elves.
The elf who came home for photos and food but was very absorbed in a new music release (I think) so she had to be called back repeatedly, adding to the length of time and Kai's melting threshold.
The budding photographer elf who loves these projects. Thanks for the help Fei.
The gamer elf who had to get off line and say goodbye to friends and was supposed to put her laundry away and get ready but didn't so we all had to wait. Sigh. At least she cooperated when it was time.
The miserable Elf. Kai wanted no part of this fun family time. He let the autism fly big time and made the day difficult for all of us. In these moments it's super hard to remember he's not trying to give us a hard time he is actually having a hard time. There is just no logic or reasoning for him. So he didn't want to play along which made things take sooooo much longer than necessary. Including starting, stopping for the meltdown and restarting later. We just kept going and plugging through until he lost it again. No clue how to ever get him to realize he was the only one making it take so long. Sad to look at the photos and know he's basically unhappy in most of them. It is what it is. Letting him off the hook to escape a family photo session wasn't a great option.
Our most eager and enthusiastic elf. Sooo appreciate our Luk. Such a good sport. And sooo cute.
The exhausted elf. Isabel is hard to photograph she moves a lot. She loves just laying down in the middle of all of us.
The hider elf. It was nap time. Elf Sasha actually slept in our arms for most of the photos.
The baby elf. Coco was a hoot. Loved her scarf, was running around all happy in the chaos.
We ate dinner together and watched a Christmas movie and had blueberry pie. Fei's grad came up, it's spirit week and Lili asked if she had a partner for prom/grad and Fei dropped the news that she does. With a boy. She was asked Wednesday and didn't tell Eric and I. Now I need therapy. Haha. They're just friends. I don't know him. Have never heard his name mentioned. Although obviously our Fei doesn't always tell us everything. Still exciting and I'll grill her for details later. Lili was up early this morning doing her laundry. We sat the two of us and played Nertz. That was nice. She left just after lunch. Whirlwind visits. The rest of us are lounging. I've started watching The Pack on Prime. Like the amazing race but with dogs. So that's fun. Then Kai came to tell Eric there was a problem with the toilet. Unbelievably he has flooded the house again!!! Fourth time that I know of. This time he told someone. Too late. But still. Of course he's not allowed to poop upstairs....we need him to flood the basement not the top two floors. The kids bathroom upstairs has a bolt now to keep him out. One flood there was enough!!!
Three floods on the main floor now. One caught quickly. One a nightmare but before Eric had drywalled the basement. This one, oy, totally into the basement bathroom. Drywall will need replacing. Eric is not happy in the least. Kai has been reminded sooooo many times. Clearly we need to spend every minute of every day shadowing him. Basic toilet use is just too complicated. He gets that something went wrong but honestly I don't think he gets it. I've told him today that after pooping he must come and get someone to flush for him. He said ok. But he won't. Worth a try but fruitless. Crazy. We could use suggestions. Other than the obvious that we need to shadow him. In the tmi, we also need ways to get him to stop using all of the tp all of the time. Can't tell you how many times we've had to scoop a full bowl of it out. Why, why, why, why does he still do this?! How much more can he learn from the excercise? Our giant toddler. Soon one of us will be stationed outside the bathroom door 24/7 with appropriate size alotments of toilet paper. In my brainstorming I've envisioned a separate bathroom off the kitchen that is strictly Kai's and that can not flood any of the house.
It's kind of hard to stay happy, upbeat and positive in these moments. Feeling a bit like we're moving backwards in slow motion. Off to watch more of The Pack or finish Dawson's Creek, I'm on the last season. Also started the Crown with Eric. We sort of like it but we have to keep stopping to look things up because they aren't telling the story in enough detail for us. We're weirdos.
So how is your pandemic weekend going?
Ok, maybe a toss up, this one is actually good, just missing Isabel and Sasha is asleep.
