A New Garza Christmas Tradition

***Disclosure-I received sample product for review.  All opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience.

I love Christmas time.  The time to enjoy with our families.  I love seeing all the lights, and decorations everywhere.  It is about traditions, old and new.  I like starting new traditions with our family that my kids can cherish for the rest of their lives and pass on to their kids in due time.  This year, a new tradition will be started...The Elf on the Shelf.  Do you know about the elf?  I always wondered about this little elf and what was the whole idea.

The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition

The Elf of the Shelf comes with a book that shares the Christmas tradition story.  Carol shared her family tradition with us and now we can join in this tradition with our families.  Have your kiddos asked you how Santa knows if they are naughty or nice?  The scout elf is hard at work at Christmas time going back and forth to the North Pole letting Santa know if they have been naughty or nice.  At the end of the book, your family can adopt the scout elf.

The scouts can be boys or girl...you can pick the gender of your scout elf.

When you give your scout elf a name and adopt him or her into your family, they get their Christmas magic.  Then your scout elf can fly back and forth to the North Pole to let Santa all about the day's adventures.  Then in the morning the scout elf returns and guess what?  They will be in the different fun spot for the kiddos to find.  This sounds like so much fun to me. 

Today is the day our scout elf joins our house.  I can't wait.  Do you have a scout elf in your home this Christmas? 

Holiday Traditions

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah everyone has some traditions they do at this time of year.  I remember growing up, visiting my mom's bestfriends family.  Going to their house was amazing.  Lots of family, food, and festivities!  Growing up, we kind of started doing our own thing.  Our family has now grown and we have started new traditions.  New traditions to our Latino family which we did not grow up doing, just seeing on tv.  Some traditions we have revamped.

1)  Build a Ginger Bread House.  We had never-ever done this.  It was so much fun!  We got creative.  We worked together.  And it is still standing!!  We bought a kit that already had everything we needed, so it was not that hard.  (Kit under $10)  We also baked cookies, made a cake, and even our very own homemade icing.

2)  Visit Santa.  My mom's job has a breakfast with Santa for all the employees' kids.  It is so much fun.  They have breakfast, cookie decorating, and best of all, everyone can sit on Santa's lap.  Well everyone who wants to?  This is as close as we got to Santa without my daughter becoming the exorcist.  They have Santa's almost at every mall now, and it is not too expensive.  We did it for FREE, so even better.

3)  Trim a Tree.  I have seen over the years of how stressful Christmas has become.  But it doesn't have to be.  Let's take it back to the basics.  Make it a family event.  Make ornaments.  Decorate the tree together.

4)  Attend a Holiday Party.  Don't sit at home alone.  Get out an enjoy yourself.  Everyone is having parties.  Invite yourself.  I was my mom's date to her company Christmas party.  It was fun.  Free dinner, drinks, and entertainment.  Mother-Daughter night, just the two of us!!  Check out my mommy rock this dress.

5)    Family Time!!  Enjoy your time together.  There is a reason for this season.  Use this time to see family you have not seen in awhile, family you see everyday but don't have time to spend with them on a regular basis, and friends that come and go, just pop in on them just to say hello.  Go ice skating.  Have a snowball fight, build a snowman, or wish for snow like us in Texas.  Wear tacky Christmas sweaters, funny Christmas socks, or silly Christmas pajamas. 

This has been the best Christmas ever with our family, especially with all the new addtions to our family.  We want to wish you Happy Holidays from our family to yours!  To new Traditions!

***Disclosure-This is a sponsored post as a Britax Latina Advisory Board Member and Blogger. As always, all opinions, ideas, and stories stated here are clearly my own.