[topsy_retweet_small]
We’ve instituted some new Christmas traditions this year. The first, the opportunity to achieve the inconceivable: one month of model behavior. Just one month… that’s all we ask. And, the second? The ideal answer to the number one Christmas conundrum for little ones – is it Christmas yet?
Our restless, three-year-old seems to be immune from the charms of either.
When I first was introduced to the Elf on the Shelf, I didn’t get it. Reagan was still a baby then. Now that she is an often-naughty, but always loveable, little tyke, I see the draw. Santa’s elf is always watching… if you really want that Dora ____, you better be good!
But, the original Elf on the Shelf isn’t much to look at for what he costs, quite frankly, even with a book, so, I bought my own version. Kind of cute, isn’t he?
Reagan noticed him from the first day he appeared and asked what he was doing here. We explained, as the tradition goes, he was sent by Santa to keep an eye on her and make sure she behaved, otherwise she’d be on Santa’s naughty list, and you know what that means?! She has remained unswayed. She carries the Elf around with her from room to room as her partner in crime, unabashedly making mischief, cotton balls in her ears and always full at the dinner table until it comes to dessert.
She has named him Bert.
The second tradition is the Advent Calendar. I found a simple one at Michael’s, where I bought Bert. Hoped it would help Reagan – who has been asking if today was Christmas ever since we put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving – to understand there are still many days until its’ arrival. Alas, even as she pops each chocolate into her mouth, the only question on her mind…
“Is today Christmas?”
We even have this colorful chain Reagan made at preschool, to help count down the days, but, tearing off the chains is so much fun, it’s been difficult for her to restrain herself from just one a day, perhaps in the hopes that tearing off more chains will make Christmas come sooner.
Nothing has been more fun than the joy, the anticipation and the wonder of the season we are experiencing right now with Reagan. My Christmas wish is that as she gets to know Jesus, she will learn that the answer to her question is YES. Yes, today is Christmas. And, every day is Christmas if you only believe. Then, all the joy, anticipation and wonder you now know to be Christmas, will be ten-fold, and will be with you all the days of your life.
[...] the old/new tradition just now becoming popular of the Elf on the Shelf. Last year, we introduced our own elf, because he was cuter and less expensive than the commercially-packaged one some smart housewife [...]