I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open ajar of it every month. ~Harlan Miller

Since it is December, I can now start to acknowledge that Christmas is coming. I think Christmas starts earlier each year, but in our house nothing happens until the first week of December. My husband usually spends time deer hunting that first weekend and all my decorations make an appearance. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday and the five tubs of Christmas decorations I just hauled up from the basement would prove it. I love the spirit and magic the season brings. Growing up my brother would always sleep on my floor Christmas Eve and stay up talking and trying to catch Santa. We no longer live in the same house, but we started a new tradition of shopping together and eating dinner afterwards to prepare for the gift giving season.

After seeing many blog posts about The Elf on the Shelf I decided to start a new family tradition at our house. I love the idea of the magic the Elf brings to the month of December so I set out to make it our own on our funny farm. Before I knew it, thanks to help from my very talented sister-in-law I had a stuffed cowdeer in training named Moodolph ready to entertain my kids this month while keeping an eye on them for Santa. He flew in on the ceiling fan today and has been placed in his perch to watch us after we helped him with his lesson to be a reindeer for the day. Below is his opening note and a calendar of the items he needs help with in the month of December.

The 'tail' end - Share the traditions you have at your house for holiday spirit in the comments below.