Day 7 - Ornaments

Last year, I started, I mean CLYDE started, the tradition of making Christmas ornaments with the kids' Christmas lists on them. It's a really cute way of preserving the memory of what they liked each year. I think they will be especially cute when the kids are grown.

He leaves all the supplies for kids to make the ornaments and a little note telling them what to do. He actually leaves a note everyday, but I don't always post them on here. The ribbon he left to string the ornaments with happens to match the sweater he was wearing the other day. ;) What a wonderful little coincidence!

The best part about these ornaments is that it finally got my kids to sit down and write out their Christmas lists. I had been nagging them to do it for days! Then Clyde asks them to and they sit right down and do it!

Here is a pic of last year's ornament next to this year's ornament on the tree.

Merry Christmas!

Day 6 - Monkeying Around

Clyde showed up this morning with some friends! He and these monkeys were hanging out on my banana stand. Little stinkers! ;)

Back in Flagstaff, I found these adorable Christmas Sock Monkeys and I knew I had to use them somehow in this year's Elf on the Shelf adventures. They actually worked out perfectly, because Katie and Matthew had been asking Clyde if he could bring them plush versions of Elf on the Shelf so they would have something to snuggle with at night. And those things are like $13 a piece, when I got these guys for $6 or $7 a piece.

The kids were excited! They were dying to get their hands on them, but didn't want to ruin Clyde's magic by taking them. He left them at their bedroom doors when he went back to the North Pole.  ;)

If you'll notice, Clyde has some cute, little monkey ears of his own. When stocking up on Christmas craft supplies at Michael's before we moved, (there isn't a Michael's here! SOB!), I got a bunch of felt sheets.

I don't know what I'll use it all for yet, but I realized that I could potentially make all sorts of accessories for the elf with just felt! For the ears, I chose a few shades of brown that seemed most monkey-ish to me. 

Then I just free-hand cut out an outer ear and inner ear shape for each side of Clyde's head. I glued them together with felt glue, but I'm sure any liquid glue would work. I just happened to have felt glue from a Halloween craft. 

And I simply taped them on to Clyde with a small loop of scotch tape. If you are worried about the tape sticking, you could probably hot glue them on and then just pop the glue off the next day.

I tried it out in Flagstaff first. :) 

I have to say, it's much easier to take decent pictures here. The lighting is so much better! I think there are a few factors at play. #1 The sun isn't as harsh at sea level as it is at 7,000 ft. #2 This house has many more windows and white walls, which allows for a more diffuse, softer light. I can take pictures of the elf in place, where he shows up and they turn out great! Not so much last year. I had to wait for the right time of day and try several different angles. Or move lamps around. It was a huge pain!

Party Time!!!

Tomorrow is the big day, Birthday Party Day!!! I'm busy cleaning the house and getting everything ready for the party. I've found some fun ideas on Pinterest that I can't wait to try. Katie got a Hello Kitty Popcorn machine for Christmas. We are going to use it to make Party Popcorn. :) She Wears Many Hats used white candy melts, but we're going to use pink. If you've met Katie, you already knew that we were going to use pink. There is no question, the candy melts will be pink and so will everything else!

We went to Target to pick up the party supplies and so Katie could use her birthday money from Grandma. She got a few items from the dollar section. A pink microphone for her and a blue microphone for Matthew. The last thing the-loudest-person-I-know needed was a microphone, but it was her money and I let her spend it the way she wanted. Seriously, she does not possess an "inside voice". She got a few other things, but the one I wanted to tell you about is a Barbie Convertible. So? Those have been around forever? Okay, maybe not forever, but still. The reason I'm so excited is that they are on sale at Target. Not a little fake 50 cents off sale, but almost half off!! Regularly, $19.99, it was $10.49! And the second part to my weird excitement is that it is a great Elf on the Shelf prop! Especially since I got Clyde a girl elf friend. I know this year's elf season just ended, (and maybe some of you are happy that it has), but I love Elf on the Shelf and it doesn't hurt to think of a few new ideas when the pressure is off.

We are having donuts instead of a cake, but if I had seen this earlier, we would be having cake! This cake is so cute!!! Rainbow colored cake pops baked into a white cake!!! Where has this been my whole life?! And cake pop pans are available everywhere now. And on clearance at Micheal's. At least the Christmas colored ones are. And who cares what color the pan is?! I'm probably going to find a reason to make this cake soon, so stay tuned. :)

Day 30: Magic Reindeer Food

Clyde left us all the ingredients to mix together some magic reindeer food. You know, so the reindeer don't miss our house. ;)

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest. The tomkat studio came up with an adorable printable for bags of reindeer food to pass out to your friends. But I wanted to make it for us and before Christmas Eve, so her printables didn't work for us. Enter my best friend Google, she led me to Organized Home. They had a cute poem that wasn't Christmas Eve specific. They also had cute printables to add to bags of reindeer food, if that's what you plan on doing. Clyde left a note with the poem written on it.

The ingredients were left in cute little ceramic snowflake shaped dishes from Michael's.

Oats:

Sunflower seeds:

And glitter! No, gold sugar:

The kids were very curious about this one. They couldn't figure out what it was. There are several recipes for Reindeer Food online. But, really, you can put whatever you want! I encourage you to use only edible things for the safety of any critters that might enjoy it. Red and green sprinkles would be a cute addition.

The kids poured all the ingredients together and we have it saved in a plastic container. It is all ready for us to spread in the snow on Christmas Eve. It's supposed to snow again that night. Hopefully, it will and I won't have to go out into the yard to make it look like the reindeer munched away on it.

Day 27: Elf Christmas Tree

Clyde decided our house needed an elf Christmas Tree. He decorated it himself with mini candy canes, mini gift bows, a string of lights, a LOT of tinsel, and personalized ornaments. He got a little wrapped up in his work.

The tree is from Michael's. I need to stop going there. I keep buying things that were never on my list! I saw these trees and was inspired. They were on clearance for $3.49. You can choose from a red felt base or a burlap base. The burlap ones are really cute, but Clyde thought the red one was more Christmas-y. The string of lights, a bag of tinsel, a package of mini bows, and mini candy canes were all from Dollar Tree. I already had the lights, so out of pocket for the whole thing was $6.49. I think that is pretty awesome!

While waiting in line at Michael's, I saw some personalized ornaments and got sucked in. They were on clearance for 99 cents! How could I just ignore them! Tricky, tricky Michael's! ;)

So, if you add those to the cost of the tree, it goes up to $9.46. But can you put a price on Christmas cheer?!

A friend of mine, her elf is named Tinsel. I kept thinking of him while helping Clyde dump lots of tinsel on the tree. :)

Clyde got a little too into it.

Day 26: Elf portraits

Christmas Eve is around the corner. Which means Clyde will be leaving soon. This is making Katie sad. The countdown to Christmas has been turned into the countdown until Clyde leaves. To make the transition a bit easier, Clyde decided to leave a few portraits of himself around the house for the kids. He used the printer/copier/scanner to make a few prints. But he got a little carried away at the end. :)

With his end! Ha ha ha!

At least this time he stayed in place. I think his hands resting against the edge of the printer helped keep him up.

The first thing the kids saw, though, was the full portraits he taped up in their rooms.

Then, when they found him on the printer, the bum shot was a fun surprise.

I didn't think this one up on my own. I got it from Lil Blue Boo. Again, she's awesome. She cut the tag off her elf's bum. I should do that, too. Maybe he will stay in place better.

I've been picking up a bunch of last minute items for Christmas. I am super excited about a surprise I got for Jillian. She is the super Harry Potter fan in the house. Besides Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, I got a chocolate mold in the shape of frogs. Candy melts were on sale at Michael's and I stocked up!!! Dark chocolate and Candy Cane. I'm going to make a few chocolate frogs to give her as a Christmas surprise. The Candy Cane ones are to make peppermint covered oreos! Yay!!! I'm thinking they'd be another good neighbor gift. :) 

Random extra shot of first graders making gingerbread houses. I've been hovering a bit lately. I think you can understand why.

P.S. I think that is blackberry jelly on his face, from lunch. :)

Day 25: Pancakes!!!

A few weeks ago, we were having pancakes for dinner. The kids always love it when I make a few extra tiny ones with the end of the batter. It occurred to me that they looked like elf-sized pancakes. So, I made a bunch, threw them in a baggie, and threw the baggie into the freezer. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them yet, but I knew I HAD to something with them.

Last night, we had pancakes for dinner again. We really don't have pancakes that often, but the cold winter nights just call for comfort food. I knew it was time to put out the elf pancakes. I wish I had a tiny plate to put them on. Instead, I used a Christmas tree shaped ceramic dish that I got at Michael's. For a buck!!! I got a bunch in all the colors and I'm going to use them when we have a hot chocolate bar and when we make reindeer food. (Speaking of reindeer food, I have a special treat to show you at the end of this post.)

I stacked up a little pile of pancakes and plopped Clyde down next to them.

I don't know about you, but I'd LOVE to eat at the North Pole kitchen! What a wonderful time that would be! Ooooo, I should look around to see if there is a North Pole Kitchen Cookbook out there.

Again, Clyde couldn't keep his butt in place. I even tried electrical tape instead of scotch tape. I guess elves can fall prey to food coma, too. :)

Reindeer food surprise: Gold Sugar! It looks like gold glitter, but it's edible, so you don't poison the poor reindeer. Or whatever critters scamper through your yard. It will sparkle in the moon light when you sprinkle the reindeer food in the snow, (or grass), to attract the reindeer to your house. :)

Day 24: Elf houses?

Remember the Christmas themed bird houses I told you to go get at Michael's? Well, the time has finally come for them to appear! 

Clyde arrived with the three bird houses, a fresh supply of paint and some new paint brushes. He's sitting on our banana hanger thingy, but he kept sliding over. I was able to put him back without the kids noticing all but two times. They think it is okay for adults only to touch the elf if he needs help. That would be the lesser of two evils. I've had a problem with him slipping sometimes. Scotch tape does not work. It doesn't stick to his little felt butt. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Silly guy thought that they might be elf houses! :)

The sun has come out again and made the snow even more beautiful!

And since the roads were clear, Hubby grabbed the kids and ran off to go Christmas shopping for me. :) And I took the opportunity to wrap as many presents as I could. I still haven't figured out how to wrap Thor's hammer. I'm sure that's an ancient riddle from some where.

One of the things I have been planning are some fun stocking stuffers from Clyde. I found these cookies at Barnes & Noble and had to get them!

One for each! They were expensive for cookies, about $3 each, but for a once a year present from an elf, it was worth it. I was at Barnes & Noble to pick up some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Flavour Beans from Harry Potter. The kids talk about them all the time and I thought they would be a funny gift from their mischievous elf.

If you have no idea what these are, they are a mixture of regular flavored jelly beans and disgusting flavored jelly beans. Dumbledore famously popped what he thought was a toffee flavored bean into his mouth only to discover that it was earwax flavored! :p

In case you can't read it, the flavors are:
Banana, Black Pepper, Blueberry, Booger, Candyfloss, Cherry, Cinnamon, Dirt, Earthworm, Earwax, Grass, Green Apple, Marshmallow, Rotten Egg, Sausage, Lemon, Soap, Tutti-Fruitti, Vomit, and Watermelon.

I often sneak bits of the children's candy. I will not be pinching any of these. ;)

Day 23: Funny looking stockings.

We haven't been able to find Matthew's stocking. I don't know if it didn't make the move or if it is hidden away in a box in the garage. So, I have been searching store to store to find one that matches the girls'. They are just the basic red and white Santa outfit-like kind. But I haven't been able to find an exact match. I finally caved yesterday and bought one that is almost the same.

I stayed up really late last night wrapping presents. And when it was time to move Clyde, I was tired and just wanted to do something simple. Enter the underwear! I decided to do the funny trick where the elf switches out the stockings for underwear. Some advice though, plan ahead and get the underwear out of their drawers earlier in the day. I had to sneak into their rooms while they were sleeping. With the littles, it was easy. They are really heavy sleepers. I used my phone as a light source as I dug through their messy drawers to find some undies. No problem. Jillian is a light sleeper. Her clothes are on shelves in her closet. I almost got caught! I held my phone against my shirt to block the light and held as still as possible until she rolled over and went back to sleep. But it all worked out. :)

I did forget to cut a ring off Clyde's paper chain countdown. But I did it later in the day, when the kids were busy watching the snow blow through the back yard. A few minutes later, I casually asked how many days were left until Christmas. They informed me that there were 10, but that there were 11 rings on Clyde's paper chain. And to prove it, Katie walked over to the chain and counted them. She counted them 3 times! And she couldn't believe that there were only 10! They had all counted them this morning and there had been 11! They were all impressed with Elf Magic. It was really cute. :)

Don't worry, I have already cut a ring off for tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't forget that again. I'm sure I'll forget something else. You'll have to wait and see what that will be. :)

Day 21: ELF!!!

Clyde is quite the acrobat! He appeared in our pantry hanging upside down. It was the best angle for him to get at the good stuff: SYRUP!!!

I got this great idea from Lil Blue Boo, (LOVE HER!). Luckily, he's so light that a box of Rice-a Roni could hold him in place. I was worried about the straw sinking too low, but the height of our shelves worked out just right that it could sink all the way in and be at the right level. Regardless, the syrup is thick enough that I could move it to a different position and it would stay.

And we don't have a syrup addiction, we just shop at Sam's Club. That's why there are two huge jugs of Mrs. Butterworth's in our pantry.

Christmas isn't complete without watching this amazing, hilarious movie! ELF!!! Clyde happens to know that Dad is working tonight, so he specifically wrote "with your mom" so that we could watch Elf tonight. I'm sure we'll watch it again with Dad. Just like I'm sure I'll watch Love Actually again this month. Probably while wrapping presents on Christmas Eve. It's kinda become my personal tradition. :)

Yesterday, we finally got around to hanging our homemade bird feeders outside on the giant blue spruce in our front yard. There are actually two giant blue spruces in our front yard. If I could afford to, I'd love to get them covered in Christmas lights. Anyways, we tied lovely Candy Cane striped baker's twine onto the stems of the pine cones and hung them where we could see them from our large picture window near the dining room table.

Matthew:

Katie:

Jillian:

Again, this was yesterday. This is today.

 This is Jillian's pine cone. It is now resting on the ground! It is still hanging from the same branch that was about 6 feet in the air yesterday. I guess this is Welcome to Flagstaff! School was cancelled and we decided last night to deliver the neighbor's cookies today. Well, it'll be much cuter in the snow! :)

Beautiful giant blue spruce. I hope you have a very, merry White Christmas!

Day 20: Making cookies for the neighbors

My husband told me that some of the nurses he works with were asking about Elf on the Shelf. They were wondering what this whole thing is about, so he directed them to my site. Now, they are super excited to get started. Don't worry, it's not too late! It's never to late to start a fun tradition with your family.

This morning, Clyde appeared in a beautiful snowman cookie jar. I'm not really sure where the cookie jar came from. Either I bought it so long ago that I forgot about or, more likely, it's my mom's and we accidentally packed it when we moved. Oops! It does match her Christmas china. Don't worry, mom, we'll return it!

Here's what the cookie jar looks like with it's head on.

So, now that everyone is well, Clyde thought it was time for us to go back to the cookies for the neighbors idea.

Once the kids got home from school, we got to work mixing up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. It was the first time we've baked cookies at 7000 ft. I made sure to follow the high altitude directions!

Katie, too!

Don't forget the chocolate chips!

The high altitude recipe produced really yummy, beautiful cookies! Yay!!!

I picked up a cute tin to deliver the cookies in from Dollar Tree. I can't say enough how much I love that place!!!! I'll post pics of the kids delivering them later. :)

Day 18: Two weeks til Christmas!

I love making paper chains at Christmas. We usually do red and green, sometimes with white. But in the U.K., it's traditional to make them with all the colors of the rainbow. I love that, too! So bright and colorful.

Clyde made a tiny paper chain to count down the days until Christmas.

He taped it to the side of the refrigerator. The kids didn't find him right away, because it was a little out of sight. They counted the little rings to make sure there were 14. :) Silly kids! Of course the elf got the number of rings right! And he'll be removing one ring each night.

The little boogers made me go out and get some construction paper so they could make some rings, too. :)

Teeny, tiny rings. :)