Day 1: He's HERE!!! Elf arrival day!

GOOD MORNING!!! Happy day-after Thanksgiving!!!! I hope you were able to shake off your stuffing induced stupor and remembered to bring out your elf! If you didn't, don't worry. A lot of people wait until December 1st. Seems just as good of a start date as the day after Thanksgiving. Especially if you're one of those cotton-headed ninny muggins who participate in the Black Friday melee. :)

Ours showed up in our dining room light, just like I thought he would! ;)

The plan was to have him leave a note directing us to put up our Christmas tree. One problem, though, we weren't able to get one yet. We're going to have to wait until next paycheck. Luckily, I happened to find another cute idea whilst perusing Pinterest and had it tucked in the back of my mind "just in cases." (From my absolute FAVORITE Christmas movie, Love Actually.)

We had a North Pole breakfast! Our elf, Clyde, brought us a box of munchkins. The authors at Making Life Whimsical went all out and made sure each item at their North Pole Breakfast was white. I thought about trying to find some white powdered Hostess donettes for our breakfast, but it was all I could do to just get the ingredients for Thanksgiving! (My dear hubby even had to stop by a grocery store on his way home from the night shift on Thanksgiving morning to pick up some celery!) Maybe that will happened on Christmas morning. I even have a bucket like the one they used. As luck would have it, last year, I bought a set of Christmas cookie cutters that came in just such a bucket!

After spending a looooooooong day in the kitchen on Thanksgiving, I almost gave up on the idea entirely. But my husband brought up the idea as we were going to bed. (He thought of it all on his own. I hadn't spoken to him about it at all!) He set his alarm for 6:30, even though we stayed up quite late watching a movie. Unfortunately, he set it for 6:30 PM! On a school day, you can't get those kids to crack open their eyes a second earlier than they absolutely have to. But on weekends or vacations, they some how manage to hop right out of bed at the crack of dawn! But by some chance, maybe a little Elf magic, he got up before they did, got the donut holes, and made it back just as they were stirring.

Clyde left us a little note on the box, "Enjoy a North Pole breakfast! <3 Clyde" Except Clyde always writes his "y" backwards. Thank goodness or the kids might think that it is my handwriting. ;)

He also left a fun surprise at the bottom of the box!

The kids had to wait until mid-afternoon for this part. (Even though it's Clyde's big arrival day, we weren't going to let the kids eat 25 munchkins for breakfast!) The hunt was on to find the surprise!

Our son, 6, found the surprise in the hidden kitchen cupboard. It's hidden, because it is on the backside of the counter and only accessible from the dining room.

After a nice nutritious lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers, they each got two donut halves. One of each flavor. 

The kids think that Clyde is the best elf ever! Tomorrow, Clyde will leave us a note to make an ornament. And we'll be back on schedule! :)