The Elves have arrived

The elves have arrived! If you are not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf it is a must holiday tradition! Ours has arrived and is ready to report for duty. They have also been hard at work decorating and they have a couple of the trees up inside and the front entrance decorated. The children love this and it adds a bit of magic to the holiday for everyone.

Our holiday traditions are beginning to come to life and I love that. I am very excited about a couple of new ones. In an effort to keep the focus of the season on Christ, we are implementing a new policy about gifts. The Children will each get three gifts representing the three gifts Baby Jesus was given by the wise men. Father Christmas will only fill stockings from this point forward. NOW, there are no regulations on size or cost on those three gifts but there will only be three. Of course grandparents, Aunts, and Uncle's are not required to adhere to this policy. I have already been informed they won't be. LOL

Another tradition that I love is the baking of Jesus' birthday cake. We have a star shaped pan, and we cover it in yellow sanding sugar. This represents the Star of Bethlehem. On Christmas Eve we sing Happy Birthday Jesus and leave Father Christmas a piece of cake as opposed to cookies. With a big glass of egg nogg.

I look forward to sharing more of our traditions this month.

The Polar Express; Zoolight Safari; Christmas baking; Christmas hayride while carolling; hot chocolate and s'mores