When Lainey gets tired, she gets hyper and a little silly. The other night she was singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” so I grabbed the camera and asked her to repeat it for me… this is what I got. Please excuse the bad lighting since I didn’t want to blind my kid with the optional light kit. (And yes, she’s still in a crib… and I love it… I know right where she is.)  And her request through this entire video is for me to turn the viewfinder around so that she can watch herself… why not?  She is her favorite person.

This year we went with our out-takes instead of trying to get the ‘perfect’ shot. We wanted to stick with our tradition of using our vacation pictures on the card but this year Hurricane Ike blew through the Gulf so we had a very difficult time keeping the Santa hats on and hair out of the face.  So like we wrote on the card… Enjoy the ‘out-takes’ of Life!

There are only five elves so we couldn’t add Duke and Maximus but Vedo can bust ‘a move (for a Great Dane).

Lakyn humored us once again and sat on the Big Man’s lap for the sake of her little sister. And although Lainey was very excited to go see Santa, she was still apprehensive with the idea of sitting on his lap. She did talk to him AFTER he gave her a toy and sang “Santa Claus is coming to town” to her. (Actually St. Nick might have a good chance of passing through to Hollywood on the first round of American Idol). He sang “I am coming to town” and Lainey thought that was pretty funny.

This year Lakyn’s friend Allie went with us so they were able to get a picture too. 

for Lainey.  She is driving me bonkers with this song right now.  It’s all she wants to hear on my iPhone (and she prefers The Boss’ rendition with the E Street Band).  I will admit that it is cute since this is also the first Christmas song that Jay and I taught Lakyn.

And don’t get me wrong… I love Christmas.. it’s my second favorite holiday right after Halloween (sorry Jesus but I do love a good costume party).  But I am tired of listening to this song over and over (and it’s not even Turkey Day yet).  Sadly, my favorite thing about Christmas (so far) this year is that Lainey is old enough to ‘threaten’ that Santa is watching (like a lunatic lurking in the woods) and he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!

Now what can I threaten Lakyn with since she is too old for the big-guy-in-red story?

 ”Clark, the little lights aren’t twinkling.”  Well, the Griswold’s had yet another fun-filled Christmas this year starting with Lainey (our 2-year-old) permanently knocking out power to half of our Christmas tree and ending the evening by throwing up all over herself, Jay and her carseat.   There were some good times in between though…. like when  Lakyn presented her cousin, Coulton, with his secret Santa gift.  She really wanted to get him something that 

 he would love so she got Jim Tressel (Head Coach for the  Ohio State Football team, for anyone living under a rock) to sign a photo “To Coulton, Go Bucks! Sincerely Jim Tressel.”  She also got Coulton an OSU baseball jersey that has actually been worn in a 2007 game (yes it was washed first) and a football that records the distance of throws.  Sam (Coulton’s big sis) is going to try 

 to rig the drawing next year to get Lakyn as her secret Santa.  Lakyn even got a big hug from Coulton… check out how far apart they are in the picture  The picture is a little out of focus but there was no way they were hugging twice for the sake of a photograph.  My nephew Carson gave us a few laughs when he tried on his camouflage Under Armour… everytime he got near the Christmas tree we’d stupidly say “Where’s Carson? We can’t see him.”  Aren’t we hilarious?  Karley got a new camera that Lainey decided she needed to try it out by 

sneaking a picture of Claire.  (Notice that Lainey holds the camera backwards because she is left-handed.)  And since Jay is in charge of taking our traditional Mother/Daughter picture, we always have to use a stand-in while I line the picture up and then Jay comes up and snaps it   (once we  get into place).   This year Coulton volunteered to help.  (In case you’re wondering, that is a Hannah Montana wig that Karley got from Santa.)  All in all in was another wonderful holiday season for the Griswolds… even though the tree made us crazy and we were cleaning up puke the entire week of Christmas. 

Lakyn and Lainey got their picture taken with Santa today and as we assumed, Lainey is still very leery of the big man.  We went over to the Worthington Mall so that Lakyn wasn’t see by any of her Middle School friends while sitting on Santa’s lap (and there are no lines there).

Today a package arrived in the mail for Lakyn and Lainey from their Grandma Dedi that will add a new tradition to our family Christmas.  She got the girls the “Elf on the Shelf” set.  If you haven’t seen this, you are missing out.  It is such a genius idea!   It is a little pixie-like elf and a big hardbound book with a story about the elf.    Here is an excerpt from the creator’s website.  

This charming tradition began for our family when my children were very small. Plagued by their desire to know how Santa really knew who had been naughty or nice, I searched through the Christmas decorations for a plausible explanation. Nestled among them was the answer; a small elf doll from my own childhood. With that discovery, the idea for the elf tradition was born.At our home the elf would arrive around the holidays, usually at Thanksgiving. His sole responsibility was to watch my children’s behavior and report it to “Santa” each night. The next morning after the children awoke, they discovered the elf had returned from the “North Pole” (with some parental assistance) and was hiding in a different place. My children would race each other out of bed to try and be the first to spy him in his new position.Over the years the tradition was perfected and rules were even introduced. For example, to better preserve his mystique the children were not allowed to touch him; however, they were allowed to talk to him. For obvious reasons, he was not allowed to reply. Eventually, my children even gave him a name – officially adopting him into the family.Unwittingly, the tradition provided an added benefit: it helped the children to better control themselves. All it took was a gentle reminder that the “elf was watching” for errant behavior to be modified.I never dreamed this simple tradition would lead to so many Christmas memories for our entire family. It is my earnest desire that The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition will bring as much joy to your family as it has to mine.                        Make it your own, 

So Lakyn named our elf “Buddy” and added his ‘adoption’ information into the book.   (If you are wondering, yes he is named after Will Farrell’s character in the movie ‘Elf.’)  Then we placed Buddy into the wreath on our mantle to keep an eye out for naughty behavior.   Because Lainey is only 2  we are going to wait for the ‘hide and seek’ portion of the tradition until she is older.  For now, she likes him just where he is… in fact, she waved to him and said “night Buddy” before going to bed tonight.

Today when we opened our front door we found this in a big Ziploc bag.  This is something new in our neighborhood and I have to say I Like It!  There was a gift, a sign for our front door and a letter explaining that we’ve got a secret Santa in the neighborhood who gave us this gift and that now it’s our turn to pass along the cheer.  So I wrapped a gift and went sneaking through the neighborhood to drop it off… you just have to make sure that you give it to someone who hasn’t already joined the Asbury Ridge Reindeer Games (thus the sign in the package that you are to hang on your front door, letting the next Santa know to move on to another house).  By the way, the gift we received was a cute Christmas picture frame (Lakyn will love it) and a note pad with a magnetic background that I will use for the grocery list.  Thank you to my Secret Santa.