Jingle "Belle", Hear 'dem bells... Fort Walton Beach lifestyle photography

So rarely do I do personal posts but something about the holidays makes me what the SHARE and SPREAD (joy, that is... in case your immediate thought turned towards "germs").  Last year we started the tradition of the "Elf on the Shelf" - it was so much fun being creative and kooky - we don't really push the whole "be good or else" perspective, mostly because we do Santa Claus and the elf just as fun.  All my kids know that Santa Claus is "real in our imaginations" but the real reason that WE, personally, celebrate Christmas is because of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Last year, we had a boy elf named "Dash", however, because our oldest and only son, Ethan, has increasingly become more skeptical and uninterested in it, we decided the elf would don a skirt and we would carry the tradition on with our younger girls in "girly" fashion!  Ethan had named "Dash" but had more lovingly called him "the creepy elf" all last Christmas and throughout this past year.  We let Ava pick out the name this year for Dash's sister; she wanted something Christmas-y and so while doing a play on words we thought JingleBelle was cute and we have decided to call her "Belle" for short.  We celebrated her arrival this morning with a North Pole breakfast {too sugary for my taste and the kids didn't even eat everything there was - we all decided we would never make it as elves}.  Have fun looking through pictures from our morning and stay tuned for all of Belle's adventures as I document them here on the blog!