Christmas Magic

So...we finally got in the swing of things to prepare to Christmas! Last week was insanely busy. I had the naked tree up, but we hadn't had time to decorate it! Yesterday the girls and I decorated the tree and it was so cute, they were really into it. And they did a decent job hanging the ornaments. They are concentrated in the very front bottom of the tree, haha, but that's what they can reach! I moved a few around later, but mostly left it alone. I tried to grab and decorate the top with the more fragile ornaments while they were doing that to spread them around.




We got The Elf on the Shelf this year. I put the box outside the front door yesterday morning before I left for work so that when I got home we could check for packages and the girls would find what Santa left for them while they were at school! Well we got a wonderful surprise on the way home when we saw Santa walking into Lee Tailor at the corner of Hunter and Salem Streets in Apex! Wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, this guy had a full, white beard and a Santa hat on! The girls saw him get out of his truck and walk to the door of the shop and it was so exciting! I told them I thought Santa was making a surprise visit to Apex to check on us. I wonder if he left us anything...
So we get home and they run to the not yet decorated tree, haha, and nothing. We checked the porch for packages and there was our Elf box! We read the story about him and after much discussion named him Snowy. Because Sydney kept trying to describe him in a sentence. She was full of adjectives...or things he liked to do. But she could not name him! She said, "the Elf who loves Santa", "Santa's favorite elf who wears red", "A silly wiggly little elf". But she said "the Elf who loves snow" several times so I got her to name him Snowy. Mollie just kept saying all these silly rhyming words and wanted to hold him. But one of the rules in the story is that you can not touch him or he will lose his magic. And every night he flies back to report to Santa about if they were naughty or nice that day. Snowy started out on the mantle, but this morning he was on the speaker by the TV. They were very happy when they saw him!
And whoever that sneaky Santa dude having his suit hemmed in Apex gets a huge thank you for me! It was just an awesome piece to support the Magic!

Oh, and last night Mollie kept saying she wanted a train to go under our tree. Phil loves trains and actually had a toy train set that his Dad gave him that we were saving for a rainy day. After they went to bed he set it up under the Christmas tree. Mollie was so happy this morning she thought Santa left it for us early! Turns out the train set sucks, it goes way too fast so the train flies off the track, but he's going to either try to slow it down somehow or get a different one.

Here's Snowy!!