Oh What Fun it is..

..to ride in a one horse open sleigh! I have been singing lots of sweet Christmas songs and Carols around here lately, and we have really been enjoying the Christmas fun around here too!

Look what arrived on our doorstep from Santa! There was a ring at the door, and we asked Ryder to get the door (we don't normally do this obviously!) We waited until Scot came home from his business trip to give Ryder his Elf on the Shelf. Ryder had never seen or heard about Elf on the Shelf before, so we had to read up on what to tell him first. He was very timid at first, and wasn't sure just what to think of his Elf, but once we explained that Santa had been to our house, and he saw all of the snow to prove it, I think he got the idea of what his elf's job was! We first asked Ryder what he wanted to name his elf, and he just stood there looking at us, all shy, and so we spouted off a few names to him and he decided on Freddy. We found the snow at a cute gift shop in town and we plan to use it on Christmas day too! It's a mix that you make and it's even cold once prepared! It's soo cool. I think it's actually the material that is inside of a diaper, who knew!

Somehow Ryder managed to get snow all over himself ha! He had more fun playing in the "snow" than checking out his Elf on the Shelf. I've gotten a lot of great ideas for our Elf, Freddy, to get into here

Let the fun begin! Freddy has really gotten into a lot of mischief since he arrived ha! I can't wait for Ryder to watch the Elf on the Shelf movie that comes on this weekend on CBS. I think that after this past week he will really get the idea of what his Elf does and that he reports back to Santa each night.

One of the Christmas traditions I want to start each year is to let the kids open ornaments each year the night before we get our tree. This year however, I was a little late on getting their ornaments, so instead we went to Hallmark and I let Ryder pick his out. I'm sad that they are discontunuing the ones we started collecting each year with his age, but the pictured ones are the new ornaments to be replaced.

I've also let Ryder open the door of his Advent Santa each morning and some of the treats have been chocolate coins, Snoopy Christmas pad and pen, stickers, and Laffy Taffy candies. He has really enjoyed it and this Christmas has been the best celebrating with Ryder so far! I continue to remind him that the best gift of all is baby Jesus' Birthday, but I don't know how much of this he understands just yet. We had "make a gift day" this week where we colored pictures of gifts, and learned about the 3 Wiseman and he now understands why we receive gifts each Christmas. I love hearing him say Baby Jesus and I just pray that he will truly know the real reason we celebrate Christmas and not just the worldly reason.

Tomorrow we have a fun playdate and cookie exchange planned, so I am making these Southern Living's Sea Salted Caramel Pecan bars (and you can add chocolate too if you want more indulgance). Can't wait to have some myself!!