With the beginning of December came the cooler weather, Christmas music, holiday movies, and the return of our Elf on the Shelf: Elfie. We have a number of traditions in our house during Christmas time, but one of the most fun and exciting annual events for Chris and I (particularly Chris) is the time of year when our elf comes from the North Pole to visit us and reek havoc on the house. There are not a lot of things that will get Christopher up in the morning--he is our sleeper--but the first thing that Christopher looks for each day is the overnight shenanigans of Elfie. 
Elfie always arrives on the first day of December, and usually by decorating the house overnight to surprise us. He is known for cutting out lots of paper snowflakes and hanging the from the ceiling fan, or putting-up some ornaments. Every day after that, he gets into trouble eating candy or cookies, getting into the toilet paper, making ziplines, and digging through our stockings. By the time that we find him, he is frozen in place and no one can touch him, but daily "where's Elfie" and "look what Elfie did today" games bring joy and laughter every morning.
The other daily traditions that we have that create both excitement and conflict between Christopher and I involve our Advent Calendar and the North Pole Radio.
The Advent Calendar is a wooden Santa Claus that has chocolates inside little doors that we open each day from the 1st to the 25th. Typically, we do a pretty good job sharing but sometimes conveniently forget who got the chocolate the day before and accidentally eat each other's day.
The North Pole Radio is a cool tool that allows us to call Santa's friends and colleagues. When we call, we may get the waitress at the local cafe, Ms. Claus, Elfie or the big guy himself. They usually ask us about what good deed we did for our parents, what toys we like to play with, or how we are helping our parents. The big moment comes when they check the naughty and nice list to see where we stand. Christopher literally jumps up and down when they read the results. Our belief in Santa and his world are alive and well!
Finally, the day after we returned from Thanksgiving was the traditional day to get our tree, pull down our Christmas gear, put up the lights, and watch "Christmas Vacation". This year, we had to wait until the Monday after our Thanksgiving trip to the Central Coast to do our Christmas Kickoff. After recovering from the flu outbreak, we checked out of the hotel and drove back to Long Beach to get haircuts, put up the lights, pick out a tree from the YMCA lot (a giant tree!), go to Cotillion, and watch "Christmas Vacation". We all look forward to this day every year, and this year was no different.
The Christmas music, decorations, and traditions are alive and well in the Keisler household and there is still a very strong belief in Santa Claus!
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