The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Can I get a big YAY for Christmas?!? My Christmas spirit has been revitalized (I hadn't realized I'd lost it!), thanks to having a two and a half year olds eyes to see it through.

Everything is so much fun. We finally put lights on the house! Addison thinks this is just the coolest. (I do, too) The trees are pretty puny still, I'm aware. It's a work in progress.
I never knew how hard it is to get a good shot of Christmas lights!

In addition to decorating, this is such a wonderful time to pass along family traditions. There is one in particular that I've been soexcited about. Growing up, we had "Christmas Calendars". My mom sewed these amazing wall calendars, with a place to hang a small gift for each day in December- counting down to Christmas. I LOVED this every year and, like I said, I couldn't wait to introduce this to Addison. My mom sewed Addison her very own calendar, and tonight I hung it up. I hung it crooked, but whatever.I suggest clicking on these images to see the detail of these calendars. My mom's wonderful!!

Tomorrow's the big day- she gets to open her first gift!! (It's a Santa Claus Pez Dispenser). She has lots of goodies in store for her: Sleeping Beauty lip gloss, silly putty, nail polish, Tinkerbell lifesavers... :-) I didn't put the calendar up until she went to bed, so this is what she's going to wake up to tomorrow.

Here's what else she'll wake up to tomorrow:

This is Elfie, our "Elf on the Shelf". In case you don't know, "The Elf on the Shelf" is a little elf sent from the North Pole to watch children to see if they're being Naughty or Nice. He flies back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa Claus what he saw that day. The next morning, your Elf is in a new spot in the house, and apparently children have a blast trying to find him. (I totally am sure that's true!)

We introduced Elfie to Addison tonight. Tried to read her the book that came along with him, but she wasn't having any of it. We'll see if tomorrow she'll listen. She definitely knows who Elfie is, though, and what he's here for :-) What a great idea, huh?

So. We've decorated, started new traditions, carried on old ones... I am just in heaven! So much so that I've got all of our Christmas cards mailed off and have about 90% of our shopping done. I can't remember that last time I didn't put off 75% of my shopping to the few days before Christmas.

I'm sure I'll blog tomorrow night about our Elfie experience, and her first Christmas calendar experience as well. Can't imagine I won't... I'm kind of camera and blog- happy lately (in case you hadn't noticed).

Night night, sleep tight!