Before I can truly embrace the new year, I need to officially wrap-up 2013. We ended the year in good company and had a wonderful holiday! I was beyond excited to start a new tradition this year for Emerson and the ‘Great Santa Scavenge’ was born!

Incorporating a scavenger hunt with any holiday is always win-win in my opinion! Christmas Eve morning, I hid a series of clues around the house to lead Emerson to a special gift from Santa (she was SUCH a good girl this year he wanted to surprise her a day early). I cannot begin to explain how much fun she had! She tore around the house from clue to clue as fast as her legs could carry her. The only downfall was that I didn’t prepare enough clues and she found the gift too quickly! I am continually inspired by this beyond lovely blog, Kate’s Creative Space and printed my clues onto these perfect North Pole Telegrams. Photos of this event were blurry at best as it happened so quickly! One of these days I will get around to uploading the video, but for now here are a few of our best shots… She literally jumped with joy throughout this entire game and I knew a trampoline was absolutely the perfect surprise to find at the end of the scavenge!

Christmas morning was everything I’d hoped it would be and more! Even though I still get excited over everyone opening gifts and seeing my family smile while tearing into the wrapping paper, I had forgotten the total bliss of a child on Christmas morning! E was giddy with excitement and squealed with delight over every single gift! It was so fun to hear her reactions, especially when a dump truck of rocks showed up from Santa and she looked at me in total awe and said, “Mom, you told Santa I wanted rocks and he brought them for me!” The little things bring so much joy! We are so thankful for all the thoughtful gifts from family and friends this year! There were so many wonderful reminders of how much we are loved, and from the bottom of my heart, I will always be grateful! Once again, my sisters joined us for a whole week and we soaked up every second of togetherness! We are so blessed to bring so much happiness with us into the new year!