Hollying and jollying

It's early December, and Christmas has arrived at the Bradshaw house! Last weekend, we took down all of the fall decorations and brought out our garland and tree! We decorated the inside of the house, hung ornaments, and introduced Clay to our new Elf on the Shelf.

If you've never had an Elf on the Shelf, I'll tell you a bit about it. My younger sister gave it to Clay last Christmas, so this is our first season using it. Basically, it's a little stuffed elf that comes with a book. The book tells you that the elf watches the goings-on at your house every day and flies to the North Pole each night to report to Santa. Each morning, he's in a different spot, so you have to wake up and find him!

We named our elf Jingleshanks, and he's doing a ton more than just reporting to Santa. He's couriered letters to and from Santa back and forth from the North Pole, in addition to bringing out our Christmas decorations, stocking the Advent calendar, and more. I have tons of plans for this little guy before the season is through!

We introduced Clay to him over a special Christmasy breakfast with snowmen doughnuts, fruit and milk.

This weekend, we decorated the front porch with lights and garland. We also went light peeping! There are some houses that are really done up! I also volunteered with a couple of friends to ring the Salvation Army bell outside of a grocery store, which was really fun! We wore nutty Santa hats, brought a boom box and a Christmas CD, and danced and sang along to the carols as we rang our bells. If you gave both going into and coming out of the store, you got four high kicks, a la The Rockettes!!