The Song Family: Christmas 2013

We had a great Christmas this year. The morning at home, afternoon at the Song's, and dinner at the Murray's. Isaiah had so much fun this year! Rather than Christmas just being a day that came and went, he had the whole build up and anticipation that makes the holidays so much fun. This year we decided to introduce the Elf on the Shelf. For those of you who don't know, the Elf on the Shelf is a magical elf that comes to your family during the holidays. He flies home to the North Pole every night to report back to Santa. It comes with a book that you can read and you start the tradition by giving your elf a name. Isaiah immediately named ours Bell. A very fitting name. I'm not sure where he came up with it. Anyway, the elves can be very mischievous when they come back from the North Pole. People get very creative with it. I didn't really. If I have multiple years ahead of me with Bell, then I need to save my creativity for when both boys are old enough to really enjoy it. Isaiah did get a kick out of the things Bell would do and he would wake up every morning and say, "Let's go look for Bell". But some of the ideas I've seen on Pinterest would be lost on him. Maybe next year.

This year was also our first year using the advent calendar I made for us last year. I was so so excited to hang it. And Isaiah really loved getting an ornament out each morning. I think it also taught him about the days of the month and having to wait. At first he wanted to just take them all out at once but as the month went on he really started to understand that we do one a day.

What did Isaiah want for Christmas? Well, back in June or maybe even earlier, Isaiah saw this big yellow fire truck at the store and really really wanted it. We told him that maybe Santa would bring it for him on Christmas. So then leading up to Christmas, we asked Isaiah what he wanted, guess what he asked for? The yellow fire truck. I couldn't believe he remembered! His full "order" was "a yellow fire truck and a big locomotive train". He stuck to that list the entire holiday season. And he was a lucky boy because Santa brought what he wanted.