Traditions underway......

With only ten days to go before Christmas, shown below are two of our traditions. Lizzie, our Elf on the Shelf, returned as normal a couple of weeks ago and we're very thankful that she is giving a full account of everybody's behavior to Santa each night. Secondly, we had a Panettone for dessert on Sunday evening, it's an Italian sweet bread eaten traditionally over the Christmas. 

 
 

Peace Treaty

I found this little project that Anja and Isabel just finished amusing. It’s a peace treaty between their respective imaginary worlds, “Anjatopia” and “Isabellealand”. This treaty is in honor of Lizzie’s imminent arrival, she is our Elf on the Shelf who informs Santa of all children behaviors from now until Christmas.

Thanksgiving Marathon Roundup

We just had a three-day Thanksgiving bonanza of friends, food and fun. I have three separate blog posts below on our day with Kaisa & Kevin on Thursday, Lisa & Brad on Friday and Randy & Lorraine on Saturday. Today, Sunday is our day of rest. I said to the girls this morning that if I eat another slice of pumpkin pie I’m going to explode. We had lots of fun, great to have such great friends. We did mange some of our own family activity. On Friday morning, as we do every day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree. The girls were so excited but Connor couldn’t have cared less. Lizzie, our shelf elf, was also back.

Busy Day

We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving yesterday with Kaisa, Kevin and family. They cooked a fabulous dinner, a big roast turkey with many trimmings and two great desserts. Thank you both again for having us over.

It was nice to get a first picture of Connor and Anton. We have literally hundreds of our four girls together, so it was nice to get one finally with the boys. The picture of the girls below on the sofa was taken during a "show" that they put on for the adults. I was warned beforehand against flash photography during this show so they were very upset when I took this picture :)

Today we got our Christmas tree and decorations up; the kids were hyper during that. Would you believe that Lizzie also returned last night right on time. We also had a little trip to the mall to buy some new chairs for our new kitchen table. It was a full day and tomorrow will be even busier.

Lizzie, our Elf on the Shelf

We also have a new addition to our family, for the coming month anyhow. Lizzie, The Elf on the Shelf. Some of you may already know about the visiting Elf at Christmas time, if not it’s a pretty nifty idea. You can read about it at their website but in summary, between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, an Elf who is Santa’s helper comes to visit each household with children but only stays during the daytime. He or she then returns to Santa each night to report the news of the day and but returns each night to a different location in the household. The children must find him each morning; he generally sits high on a shelf.  The Elf, can indeed speak with adults but not children and must not be touched. Each household Elf has his or her own name, nominated by consensus. We already love Lizzie our Elf :))