Christmas

Believe

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This may be the last year our 9-year-old actually believes in Santa and our Elf on a Shelf.  Why do I make this statement you ask?

She recently shared with me that at school she learned the tooth fairy is really the parents and not a fairy.  I pulled her aside so her younger sister wouldn’t overhear our conversation.  I asked her what did she believe? She said the boys in her class shared the “truth” and again I asked her what she believed.  She shared she wished they’d never told her.  To help her out I told her it’s the magic of the tooth fairy that you can still believe in and for now not to share what she learned at school with her younger sister.

My husband and I talked about this later that evening and are realizing it’s just a matter of time before she learns or figures out the “truth” about Santa and our Elf on a Shelf.  I hope like her reaction to learning of the tooth fairy that she will still hold on to the magic of believing.

So with that last night Earl our Elf on the Shelf returned.  Both girls excitedly were up early to see where he was in our home.  For the next 28 days Earl will continue to show up around our house getting into all kinds of fun and keeping them excited about finding his latest whereabouts.

We will go to the mall and visit Santa and get our pictures with him.  Our girls are set to write their letters to Santa as well.  We can then go to the mailbox the downtown Macy’s has that delivers directly to the North Pole.

As we wait to see when the belief stops and changes to the magic of believe, we embark on the 2015 holiday season.  As has become our family custom, the girls and my husband are currently assembling our pre-lit tree and decorating.

If your child stopped believing how did you handle the conversation?

Day 27, #NaBloPoMo, #BlogHer

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Our Holiday traditions

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union square christmas tree

The Thanksgiving holiday is just a few short weeks away.  Our mailbox today filled with catalogs to tempt even the most modest gift buyer!

Our girls know that the Halloween decorations will be down this weekend and maybe we can tempt their  Dad to start the Christmas/Holiday ones for the outside of our home.  The girls can’t wait for Thanksgiving as we get our first visit the morning after from our Elf on the Shelf Earl and our family room Christmas tree will be put together and decorated.  Not too long after we will begin the baking of cookies and treats to share with friends and family during the holiday season.

I can remember when I was growing up getting dressed up  and going into NYC with my grandparents to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center and to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  When our daughters were little, I decided we need to start our own family tradition of shows and experiences for the Holiday Season. So we dressed in our Holiday best and as a family we joined friends and rode on the Holiday Train of Lights, another time we headed into San Francisco we visited the Christmas Tree in Union Square. We have also gathered with friends all bundled up for a ride on the Christmas Fantasy Carousel in Tilden Park.Each year we have tried different Holiday performances.

The following year we attended the Family Holiday Music at Davies Symphony Hall with our regular Holiday trips as a family to the Tilden Park Christmas Fantasy Carousel, a trip on the Niles Canyon Holiday Train of Lights and a visit to San Francisco to see the Christmas Tree at Union Square.

There was one year that we went to see the national tour of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes! Both our girls sat there barely blinking while absorbing and watching the dancing, kicking, listening to the music and singing!

It was only 4 years ago when we took our girls to see the San Francisco Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. We purchased our tickets through a special Facebook offer and had orchestra seats for $25 each! It was after that first performance that they performed their own version in our home and finally asked to begin learning ballet themselves.

As our girls have gotten older we have added ice skating at the local outdoor rink, driving through the many local neighborhoods to see the Christmas light displays and attending our own town’s tree lighting event.

Once again this year, we have our tickets for the performance of the Nutcracker by The San Francisco Ballet.  All that we do for the Holidays is added by each of our girls performing at The Lesher Center with The Ballet Joyeux in a Christmas ballet.  Tim and I will be in the theater to watch our girls perform.

I realized today that I have tried many different things to make a singular Holiday tradition for us as a family and that is our tradition.  We are all looking forward to what the Holidays have in store for us this year!

What do you have as Holiday traditions for you and your family?

Day 5, my latest post for #NaBloPoMo #BlogHer