Old and New Traditions

It is a holiday tradition in our house to have an advent calendar...we are still using a Dora one Nana and Papa gave Claire several years ago. It has the perfect sized pockets for a small piece of candy each day. This year, however, in addition to the candy I added little pieces of paper with something written on them. It may be a craft, or some special family time activity, but they are all Christmas-themed. This has gone over well with both kiddos and we are having fun spending time together. Today's paper said "Christmas craft", and the kids picked the annual Gingerbread House. Beautiful, isn't it? I let the kids take the reigns this year and only helped keep icing distributed evenly. Our new tradition this year is a version of elf on the shelf. If you are unfamiliar with this, here is a short overview: Santa sends an elf to your house (think babydoll size to sit on a shelf) that watches you all day. Then at night it reports back to Santa about your behavior. He returns the next day somewhere new in your house. We have a "Hokie Elf"...seems right for our house, huh? The kids thought this was awesome since it was different than what they were expecting. You can only guess how this elf came to be, and I won't tell since my child may read this! Anyway, it has made my children sweet as pie, and if they are on the verge of becoming naughty, I just have to remind them of the elf, and all is well. Magical...