North Pole Breakfast!!! (2012)

One thing I love about the holidays is continuing family traditions that I have begun with the littles over the past few years! This year I added the North Pole Breakfast to our list.

Noteworthy:

The NPB was inspired by my favorite "Mommy" blogger, Jessica, over at Little Pumpkin Grace...Hudson Too. I happened upon Jessica's blog a couple of years ago when "googling" ideas for Evan's Dr. Seuss themed birthday party and I've been hooked ever since. I've never met Jessica in person before, but she has truly been an inspiration in my life, making being a better mommy look like so much fun, and in fact, she inspired this blog!

The North Pole Breakfast marked the return of our Elf on the Shelf, Elfa, on December 1st! To celebrate we had a breakfast with all the sweet treats that Elfa is accustomed to at the North Pole. The littles wore their Christmas Pj's from the year before to bed in anticipation of Elfa's return. This was not at all an attempt on my part to have festive pics that morning;) 

Can you spot Elfa? (Chloe totally photo-bombed this photo, but in all fairness, she was attempting to run out of the shot:))

If not, here's a hint.

 



The littles couldn't wait to get started! I let them sneak a few sweets before our actual breakfast. I introduced them to my favorite candy, Hershey's Peppermint Kisses! Evan wasn't so sure to begin with, but now he's a fan!

 

 

Bed-head, but so cute!

 

 

Not the best picture, but I love Evan's expression of sheer joy. Definitely makes it all worth it!

 

 

Breakfast is served! We had snowmen pancakes, an idea I found on...you guessed it, Pinterest;) 

 

 

Before eating, I let the littles open their gifts. You may be asking yourself, " Gifts before Christmas?!" But hear me out...We have always opened our Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve as a family, but it never really seemed practical to wear new PJ's for one night before retiring them. This way we get a full month of Christmas PJ wearing under our belts. The same is true for our ornaments, I'd rather enjoy them all season long.

 

 

Another family tradition that started on Chloe's first Christmas was receiving a new Hallmark Keepsake Ornament. The Christmas tree that I hope to pick this weekend will have many of the ornaments that I received as a child (not Hallmark, but most were handmade by a family friend). My mom was kind enough to give them to me a few years ago. One day, I hope to pass the littles' ornaments on to them for their own Christmas trees.

 

Chloe received the Holiday Barbie, the last in the series.

 

 

I set down my camera to help Evan open his gifts and later realized that I didn't get a single pic of him or his reactions when opening the gifts. So the following day, I took a picture of the littles in their PJ's. Evan is holding his new ornament. It is a question elf. You press a button and he gives you a funny answer as to whether you're on Santa's naughty or nice list. According to the elf, Chris and I always seemed to be on the naughty list! It was a huge hit. We've already had a mishap with it that required super glue. Oops!

 

 

Brotherly and Sisterly love at its finest.

 

 

The North Pole Breakfast was a success! It got the whole family in the Christmas spirit and I'm looking forward to continuing this as a family tradition in the years to come.