Christmas Visitor

Our playhouse got a little Christmas cheer today.

 Jingle bells on the door.

 I made a little tablecloth today and drapes and decorated the tree and baked cookies!!  

 {Anyone who knows me, knows those green chairs are just bugging me.  They started life pink, and looked cute with the princess stuff, but then Halloween came and I painted them green.  I so want to get my red spray paint out and fix them, but my whole house is pretty much a disaster so I am going to try to ignore them.  I had planned on much cuter fabric anyway, but this is all Hobby Lobby had.  Next year I am going to buy in October!}

Like your family, ours has a lot of Christmas traditions.  I grew up with fun Christmas celebrations, but the fun was going to Grandma's and seeing my cousins.  We had a tree and decorations, and I loved all of that, but we didn't do a lot of story reading or the little things that are so special.  So, when I had children I was always looking for special things to do with them.  I think I knew that with just 2 children and no family around us, I would have to make the fun.  I think part of my fun as a child was the sheer number of us - 4 brothers and sisters, and 8 cousins.

  I would have LOVED all the ideas that can be found in blogland, but I didn't have resources like that.  I just stole gleaned ideas from other people or adapted things I heard about.  One tradition we had was "the elf."  Now I know today there is the elf on a shelf, but I had never heard of him, or anything like that.  Our girls were in 1st grade, and Jessica came home from school early in December with a note from "the elf".    He said "this desk is so clean I would like to live in it"  and she was one excited little girl.  That was all it took.  A few days later I left a note in their room from "the elf."  The next day he left a hershey kiss on their pillow, and on it went.  It developed into a tradition that began on December 1st when I got out all of our advent things.  The elf came for 24 days in December and left candy every other day and a little gift or note the other 12 days.  This was a great opportunity for me to give them the things  I had purchased 50% off last year - Christmas socks, toothbrushes, hair things, pencils, etc.  {Remember this was the olden days, no dollar spot at Target or Dollar Stores.}

Once I had grandchildren I thought I would continue the tradition, but I was overruled, and my daughters have taken the tradition.  Of course, that 's what traditions are for, continuing on through the generations.  But, I have decided when they visit the playhouse in December, they just might find the elf has been to Grandma's too!!

See, there he is!
{this cute guy is a treasure from my grandma's - plastic mistletoe and all}


Merry Christmas!