Lists, lists, lists

I'm a list person. Grocery lists, Christmas lists, fat lists, skinny lists, lists who climb on rocks. So now that Halloween is over and we're all done gorging on our kids' candy, it's time to make our Elf on the Shelf list. So far I have three lists: 1) 2012's plan. (<-- link to printable document) 2) 2012's reality. 3) 2013's plan. This year's plan is still under construction. There are too many great ideas out there!

The big plan last year was to have our elf bring a daily activity for the kids. I thought I had the perfect plan. But the kids got sick, then I got sick, and we got almost a foot of snow, and flying monkeys. Oh wait! Not that last one. Anyways, the magic of the internet saved my butt when I was so sick that I could barely get my aforementioned butt out of bed. There are so many fun/silly ways to pose your elf. And the kids loved them! They also loved most of the activities. Okay, yes, some of the activities bombed. Lesson learned. On to 2013!

I decided that an activity is not necessary everyday. Seriously, the holidays are busy enough. The elf doing funny things brings so much joy on it's own, adding an activity every single day just complicates things. Definitely keeping the favorites, though. Like making the Christmas list ornaments, creating pine cone bird feeders, decorating gingerbread houses, the elf sized paper chain countdown to Christmas, and baking cookies for the neighbors.

I hope to get the 2013 list done in a day or two. I will post it on here as a document so you can print it out for yourself. (Once I figure out how to do it again.) I will also be creating some tutorials for cute accessories for your elf.  Then all the planning is done for you! Okay, not all the planning. You still have to track down Grandma's recipe for green bean-sweet potato-turkey-gravy-cotton candy casserole. And you have to figure out who gets to move up to the grown-up table. Or who will get banished to the kiddie table. Don't think you can do it to cousin Mabel, again. She still hasn't forgiven you for last year! Do you know how hard it is to get cranberry sauce out of white cashmere?!

P.S. I'm a vegetarian, but the rest of my family isn't. It was my decision for me, I'm not going to make everyone else convert, too. You may think that makes Thanksgiving hard, but not really. I'll cook a delicious turkey for everyone else. (Not a nasty Tofurkey!) But all the sides will be vegetarian. Pinterest is FULL of delicious, vegetarian Thanksgiving dishes. It's no problem at all!

P.P.S. Follow my Kristin-mas Pinterest board!