Hellobee

This is the first year that Drake is old enough to really understand some of the holidays. For Mr. Chocolate and me, it’s has been a lot of fun to watch as Drake gets excited for Christmas and the arrival of Santa. Drake often walks around the house singing Christmas songs and talking about how Santa is coming with his reindeer (he really loves Rudolph), as well as what he thinks Santa might be bringing him (so far he has named snow, a reindeer, and chocolate). This is the year that we can truly start any family traditions, so we’ve been thinking about making the season just a wee bit more magical for our children to look back on and remember when they are older.

We bought Elf on the Shelf the first year Drake was born, but this is the first year where he understands to look for him every morning. I think Mr. Chocolate honestly has more fun than Drake at this point, as he loves coming up with new set ups to place our elf, Ah-Boo, for Drake to find in the morning when he wakes up. I often get an early morning text from Mr. Chocolate these days asking what Drake thought of Ah Boo in the morning.  I suspect as Drake and Juliet get older and take to this idea of finding the elf, Mr Chocolate is going to start making more elaborate and creative scenarios, which hopefully will be a fun tradition for both him and the kids.

One of the families I used to care for always used to set out a letter and cookies for Santa.  In return, the father of the family would always write a letter back to the children, which they seemed to love receiving and having read to them in the morning before opening gifts. I remember how excited the children were when they showed me the letter Santa left for them. I mentioned that idea to Mr. Chocolate, thinking it would be a nice fun (and easy) way to add some magic to Christmas for Drake.

As it happened, we have a special reason to include a letter with Drake’s gifts this year. Drake received a Magna Doodle for Christmas last year. It quickly became one of his favorite toys as he loves practicing writing letters, numbers, and drawing animals on it. He calls the Magna Doodle “Big Fish” and will drag it around with him from room to room, into bed some nights where he draws and plays with it until he passes out, and into the car for long car rides. After so much constant use, Big Fish has become rather beat up on the screen. You can’t fully erase it anymore and the two little magnets (a triangle and square) are often lost for extended periods.

Drake also had a little drum toy that he got years ago when we first joined Gymboree classes. Drake has always loved music and drumming with the stick has always been a favorite of his.  One night Mr. Chocolate fell asleep on the couch, woke up in the middle of the night and accidentally stepped on the drum breaking it.  He felt awful. 

In the morning Drake immediately noticed his drum was missing and asked for it, and Mr. Chocolate confessed that it had broken and how sorry he was. Drake took it in stride, though occasionally he has said things like, “I miss my drum” or “Wish I had drum to play.”  

Because we no longer attend Gymboree classes, Mr. Chocolate didn’t think we would be able to find the same replacement. So he bought Drake another drum which he seems to like but doesn’t play with as much as he did the old one.

When I mentioned writing the Santa letter to Mr. Chocolate, he loved the idea and the next day he ordered a new Magna Doodle for Drake. He said we could write the letter to say Santa had not only left him some new presents, but fixed up his old beloved Magna Doodle. In the meantime, I’d also found the old Gymboree drum that Drake loved so much after hunting around online, so now he would get a new fixed drum as well.  We thought that this would be the perfect way to introduce the idea of a Santa letter to Drake, as well as start a fun new tradition for our family.

What holiday traditions are you incorporating into your family?