Oreo and the Christmas Season!

This is our elf on the shelf "Oreo". I have heard a lot of controversy this Christmas about this little elf....things like "what a great way to traumatize your children" or "who has time to waste on doing things with the elf" and so on and so on. Well here is my thoughts on it I DON'T CARE!!!! This has been one of mine and the kids most favorite thing about Christmas this year.

Basically what the elf does is it watches for Santa Claus if you are naughty or good and then reports back to the North Pole every night and comes back into a new spot, so each morning you have to look to see where it is. You can't touch the elf or it loses it's magical powers.

Anyways at first my little Kyanna was nervous she said "it's not going to come into my room is it?" so I was thinking uh oh this might have been a big mistake cause really I don't want to traumatize my kids:) but after about two days she LOVED it, in fact she probably loved it more than any of my other kiddies!

We didn't spend a lot of time or money with the elf. Occasionally it would do something like the picture above or if the kids had a really good day maybe a gift from the dollar store. But it was one of the best things we did all Christmas season.

I do have pictures of Christmas I just haven't downloaded them so they are coming! However I was a really disaster when it came to taking pictures of the Season.

We kicked off the season with celebrating my Grandparents 65th wedding anniversary!!! Can you believe it! I LOVE them! and a walk through temple square.We made cookies and gingerbread houses, wrote letters to Santa Clause, went to a community Christmas concert (which was awesome), went to the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, did the 12 days of Christmas, and had our own nativity (in which William said let Mowgli, our dog, be the Angel and we can tie him up to the ceiling fan and he can fly around the room).

This has been one of my most favorite Christmas Seasons I can ever remember! My kids, at least the older two, are right at the age where they totally get it and they totally believe. I hope that they believe for a long long time, although I am scared the end is coming soon. Of course what a good friend said to me "once you stop believing you get underwear!" I am also so thankful that we were able to go to church on Christmas this year and be even more reminded why we celebrate Christmas and to feel the spirit just that much more. I kind of wish that we always had a service on Christmas....kind of like the catholics....I think it just brings a even more special spirit and feeling to that day.