A year and half ago I went to the Book Expo with my mom. One of the things I received there was The Elf on the Shelf book and elf. I even got the book signed. I was very excited about this book because I thought it would be a great tradition to do with Zane.

Last year I read him the book but we didn’t really go beyond that. This year now that Zane is little older we opened up the book after Thanksgiving and read it to him. And we let him name his elf, he named him Puzzle.

The idea behind this special little elf is that he goes and tells Santa if you have been good or bad every night. So every morning when the children wake up they can find him in a new spot.

I wasn’t very good at moving him at first. Mainly because I think Zane is still a touch too young for it. But as we get closer to Christmas and since we have met Santa Claus I have been moving him.

We have also integrated the advent train with the elf. We tell Zane that when he is a good boy Santa sends back a hot wheels car with Puzzle to hide in the house. This has been great fun.

If you want to learn more about the Elf on the Shelf you can visit their site.

This is the first week in December and the first week I will be sharing our family Christmas Traditions. If you wish to join in please add your link below.

This year we are going to be starting a lot of new traditions, now that Zane is more aware of Christmas. Last year I bought this Train Advent from Target after Christmas and got a great deal on it. Zane loves the train and for the whole first day we had it up he was trying to convince Granny he needed a ladder to get to the Choo Choo.

The compartments are very small so I cannot fit very much in them, so we write a little note and put a small piece of candy with it. Usually I put in a starburst or a few smarties or skittles in the slot (from his Halloween candy ~_~ ).

On the note we write a place for him to find like Daddy and Mommy’s shoes or baby Zarek’s high chair. We are giving him one new Hot Wheels or Matchbox car for each day. We were wanting to fill up a little car case we had gotten him this summer, so this seemed the perfect way of doing that.

Do you do and your family do an advent? What is your favorite tradition every year? Feel free and add your link below if you have posted about your family tradition or traditions. Please link back to this post, thank you!

I’m so excited about Christmas coming up. I keep thinking, “Oo, I need to start pulling out the Christmas decor.” But then I realize we haven’t even celebrate Thanksgiving. I want to be able to take time and enjoy Thanksgiving.

This Christmas is going to be a fun year with Zane. He is more aware of things now and we will be able to start making some family traditions and next year he will remember them.

So December I will be posting about some of the traditions I am excited about and making a point of doing this year. I will posting a new one every week. Some of the traditions I am really, really excited about this year are doing an advent calendar, hosting a cookie party, making ornaments for friends, and the Elf on the Shelf (which I may pull out right after thanksgiving!).

I want to invite you to join me in posting your holiday traditions, so if you are interested in joining me next month please leave a comment.

What are your favorite traditions? Do your children get excited about these traditions?

Every year I make Christmas ornaments for our friends. Some years I find an idea right away, sometimes it comes right down to the last minute. I have been making them for years.

It started out of necessity. Money was tight and we were not going to be able to buy our friends presents. I pulled out some of our glass ornaments and pulled out some stain glass paint from a past project. I painted snowflakes, gingerbread men and more on the ornaments. Then I put our friends names on the ornaments and the year.

Everyone loved them so much that I decided to make ornaments the next year, too. And so it now is tradition for us to give our friends a special Christmas ornament every year. Sometimes this there only gift sometimes we give them a little more.

The second  year I created an ornament by pouring acrylic paint into clear ornaments and swirling it around, you can follow this tutorial if you want to try it. This is a great craft to do with children, too.

Then I created an ornament by stuffing snowflake sequins into the glass ornaments and adding glitter. I used glass paint to date them. Then I tied fun blue and white yarn all over the wire that sticks out of the top. And then added a nice ribbon to hang it from.

The year before last I used Styrofoam balls and wrapped them in ribbon. With them my friends received word plaques decorated with ribbon to  match the ornaments. Here is an example of how I decorated the words. To decorate the balls I wrapped them with the main color over and over. Then used the accent color to add little decorations. Here is a simple tutorial on how to make some similar ornaments.

Last year I found these really neat metal word tags that were meant for scrapbooking. They were on sale and I knew I could use them to make ornaments. I snapped them right up. I used wire to add some large crystal beads above the words and to create a hanger. They turned out very elegant and unique.

I also started creating ornaments for an ornament exchange that I am a part of with my Ladies’ Game Night. I always create something with a dice theme. I created dice with Styrofoam and sequins with a tutorial similar to this. Last year I created an ornament similar to my snowflake ornament but added tiny dice to it. This year I created a die with a box I made from cardboard and glitter pom poms.

You can use this tutorial to make similar ornaments.

I wish I had taken more pictures of my ornaments, but the memories of making them are still with me. I also love when I go to my friends homes and see them on their trees.

Want to find more ideas on making homemade ornaments? Check out Craftster.org a great site for anyone who loves to craft. Or you can just head over to flikr and search handmade ornaments for inspiration.