St. Nick's Day!

And the Christmas Season has begun!

Andy's family has always celebrated St. Nicholas day, and though it has always been fun, I never have really wondered much about the tradition until this year.  Beside knowing he was a Saint who gave to poor and helped children, I didn't know much else about how "Santa Clause" evolved.  I enjoyed this website giving me more history if you are curious too!

A part of me would rather stick with just celebrating St. Nicolas day and Christmas as Jesus's Birthday... leaving out the whole "Santa Clause".  But the other part of me still likes that fun and tradition from life, and it is a big part of our culture that I won't be doing anything rash and outlawing Santa and our new Elf that Declan already loves!  We'll just add saying "nigh-night" to Happy Glitter Balls after kissing Baby Jesus (and the sheep and donkey!) "nigh-night"!    Regardless, I love traditions so I am excited to continue it all with Declan and we can talk about all the real truths when he is older!

 We put our shoes under the tree instead of a windowsill!

Declan got BALLS!

And our Elf on the Shelf... named Happy Glitter Balls after the silly Elf chart going around on Facebook with his first letter and month he was born.  But we decided it was fitting because Declan started saying "Happy Happy Happy" right away, and he loves his ball pits!

Today was also the 3M Christmas Party for Kids!  It was a lot of fun spinning wheels and picking Lolly Trees for little gifts.  (Shocker... Declan picked balls 2 out of 3 times... Grabbed a Play-doh once!)  He made an ornament with stickers and scooped the Magic Reindeer Dust.   We'll have to sprinkle that in Grandpa & Grandma's Lawn on Christmas Eve!  

And he ate.. a cookie and popcorn.  He did great getting his Snowman face painted... but smeared it in the first 10 seconds off the chair... but still cute! 

However he felt the same way towards Mr. and Mrs. Clause as most 18 month olds, but I was still the evil person who had to snap the pictures!  

But some fun Throwbacks... last year at 6 months he liked Santa's!