I remember lots of Christmas traditions from when we were kids. Rhea and I weren't allowed to open anything until Mom had her cup of hot water and Dad got "decent" (aka- combed his hair!) Rhea was usually the first to rise in anticipation and would come jump on my bed, then we'd head into Mom and Dad's room and shake them until they got up. We always started out with our stockings which had funny things in them we always "needed"- some Pantene, a lotto ticket or two, tic-tacs, Rhea's jumbo candy cane, etc. Usually Rhea got to open a gift first, since she was the youngest. We always had one BIG gift to open--one year it was waterbeds, another was nice Nikon cameras, in college we each got a DVD player and television. Christmas was full of traditions and surprises!

As a young family, Trey and I really wanted to kind of meld our own traditions. The two of us started out eating fondue on our first Christmas together. Last year we ate Monkey Bread on Christmas morning.



Aunt Rhea bought us a fun family traditional thing that I had once heard of but had never seen anywhere. We promised her that this year we would start the tradition and would do the Elf on the Shelf for Reece because it seemed like so much fun!
Reece and I read the book tonight and decided to name our elf "Oodle". Oodle will jump onto various shelves or hiding places each night and will report to Santa any trouble that Reece has been in from now until Christmas. The book is so cute and explains all about the elf and why he is in our house. Each night I'll put him in a new spot and Reece and I will look for him in the morning. Of course as he gets older this will become a fun game. There is one stipulation, though: Oodle must never be touched. If he is touched he cannot fly up to the North Pole and report back to Santa.


Thanks, Aunt Rhea, for giving us the gift of tradition...we will certainly have fun with this one!