The Spirit of Christmas

December 1st has arrived!  And that is when the spirit of Christmas really starts...at least in the eyes of the children.  We have started many traditions over the years and we have added a new one each year as it seems.  My grandmother made an advent calender and she passed it down to us  several years ago. Christian has been asking to put the first of the ornaments on the tree for about a week now.  And today he was able to!

Also, last year my in laws bought the children a chocolate advent calender.  And this year the tradition continues!  I have been hearing "How many more days, Mom?"  for way to many days now :)

And lastly, our newest tradition that I think I am more excited about than anyone!  Elf of the Shelf :)  I started hearing about this last year but didn't really understand what it was until this year.  So I had to get one for us and since I'm a little behind, our little elf will be making his debut tomorrow morning!  I will be sure to take you on the journey of our elf this year!

I also found these super cute miniature trees at Kohl's today!  They are perfect for the kids rooms!  I bought little ornaments for them but Bryan made a good point about waiting another year to decorate them.  Since the trees are in the kids rooms... unsupervised... I can only imagine the places that we would end up finding ornaments.  So we will just have plain trees this year until we can trust our littlest rug rat to keep her hands off the tree!

Happy 1st of December everyone!  Only 3 more weeks and this girl can say that I finished my first semester of graduate school!