Christmas traditions

It's hard to believe that today is December 1st.  I can't believe how the weeks are flying by.  Everyone around our house is pretty excited for Christmas, especially Reese & Ryan.  They think it's the greatest holiday ever and I totally agree.  I think one of the things I love the most about Christmas are the traditions.  Our little family of five has stared our own traditions the past few years and it's so fun to keep it going each year.  These are a few of our favorites.

Of course we love Elf On The Shelf.  I wrote about our little buddy, Kahtee landing in Ryan's stocking yesterday to watch over her with an extra close eye.  We thought it was a brilliant plan, but it kind of backfired.  Ryan didn't like the idea of Kahtee watching her every move so closely.   She grabbed a towel (so she wouldn't technically be touching the elf) and moved him to Reese's stocking.  This is classic Ryan.  How can you not laugh at that mischievous behavior?  Kahtee will now be landing in VERY inaccessible spots so no on can touch him.  Like this morning, when he landed at the very top of our fake tree. 

The last few years we've bought the kids new pajamas and they open them on Christmas Eve to wear to bed that night.  It's fun to snuggle up in our cozy PJs, say goodbye to Kahtee for the year, and then read 'Twas the night before Christmas.

I'm starting a new tradition this year with Christmas books.  We have a LOT of Christmas books--more than I realized, so I'm wrapping them up and we're going to open one each day.  We opened Santabear's First Christmas this morning. This is one of my favorites and great one to kick off our 24 days of books.  I think the kids are going to love opening a book a day.



Ornaments.  I love 'em.  We'll never have a designer looking tree because I love the Popsicle stick ornaments and homemade crafts.  We fill up the tree with what seems like hundreds of ornaments.  We make homemade ones each year and we also get a personalized one with all our names on it made every Christmas.  It makes decorating the tree so much fun.

Next up is Christmas breakfast.  This has been a long time favorite in my family.  I love making cinnamon rolls at Christmas time.  We had them on Thanksgiving morning and they will make another appearance on Christmas morning.  So delicious.  Just look at all that gooey, naughty frosting and sugar!

I'm totally in the Christmas spirit, especially now that some AZ winter weather is arriving :)