I am so excited for Christmas this year. Carys has been asking to "go to Christmas time" for awhile now and it is just so fun know that she understands and is looking forward to celebrating the season. We started a couple of new traditions for the girls this year. The one I'm really excited about is a book each night in December to countdown to Christmas. And we kicked of our book advent with
The Elf on the Shelf as another tradition to start with the girls.
When Carys came upstairs to read her bedtime story she had a visitor. Our elf had arrived and we read his story to explain that he was here to monitor her behavior and report back to Santa each night. Every morning he returns to a new spot in the house and Carys needs to find him. She also needed to choose a name for our special elf. She was having a hard time thinking of anything, so I suggested Jingle (after an elf we recently saw in a movie) and Carys liked that. Of course, since Jingle Bells is her #1 requested song these days - she quickly added Bell to our elf's name. So, Jingle Bell it is! Now I'm thinking I should have bought the little skirt for our elf since Jingle Bell is a quite a feminine name for our male elf, but oh well!
She is getting more excited to see Jingle Bell in the morning as the days go on. We haven't gotten super creative like some of the pictures I've seen on other blogs and
Pinterest, but so far Jingle Bell has showed up sitting on a shelf, the TV, and in our Christmas tree. He's also been found swinging from the kitchen light (C's favorite, "He's doing gymnastics!"), and riding on the ox in our nativity. I will admit that there have been mornings that Jingle Bell forgot to come back from the North Pole to a new spot, so we have decided that he likes some spots more than others!
Some mornings she wants to get him down and play with him, but she hasn't argued the "no-touching" rule when I remind her, so I think she's catching on. I think next year will be fun when Jingle Bell will likely get a little more creative and Carys is more excited to find him. She doesn't really remember to look for him, but she does get really excited when she sees him and says "Jingle Bell...He came back!"
We also are loving having holiday themed "Mosie Night". We have watched The Polar Express and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and both were big hits. Even Harper loves to join in and last weekend we had Uncle Hoon and Brooke too!
We have had a lot of fun this month and I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We are counting down!
