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!

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. :)

Review: Days 8-14

Week 2 in Review!
Even though I was quite sick this week, I did my best to keep the elf magic going. I didn't want to let the magic die. It's too much fun! :)

Day 8: Letters to Santa

(Full post for Day 8.)

This one wasn't so easy. The clothespins were too heavy for the tape holding the ribbon up. I had to keep adding more tape. But if you had a place to tie the ribbon up, it would work really well.

Day 9: The Nutcracker

(Full post for Day 9.)

Oops! I forgot to take a picture. I was so tired! And feverish! The next time the kids are at school, I'll set it up again and get a picture.

Day 10: Christmas Music Dance Party

(Full post for Day 10.)

The stinky, little elf stole my ipod! :)

Who doesn't love Christmas music?

Day 11: Reading a story

(Full post for Day 11.)

Clyde is a friendly, little guy who likes to do things for his friends. Can you believe that some stuffed animals still don't know how to read?!

Day 12: Taking a shower

(Full post for Day 12.)

Apparently, you have to watch your step at the North Pole. Those reindeer have no manners!

Day 13: Elf Sleeping Bag

(Full post for Day 13.)

I guess Clyde had a long trip back from the North Pole. He took a nap in a stocking. Maybe his plane was 39th in line on the tarmac. (That happened to me once! I fell asleep before the plane made it into the air.)

Day 14: Rocket Ship

(Full post for Day 14.)

Good thing the blender wasn't plugged in! Maybe Buddy the Elf could do a few sessions on Human Culture for the rest of the elves so mistakes like this don't happen. :)

Day 4: Bird Feeders

Last night, as I went to move Clyde, I found the saddest little note. Our middle child, Katie, has been sick the last two days and couldn't go on the hike to collect pine cones yesterday. She was disappointed that she couldn't participate and left Clyde this little note:

"Dear Clyde, for tomorrow can you think of something I can do and I am sick. <3 Katie"

Luckily, the preplanned idea for today was something sick-child friendly. :)

And that's doubly true, because our youngest, Matthew, woke up with a fever this morning. So, today, I am home with two sickies.

Clyde showed up this morning making a "seed" angel.

I've seen the snow angel in flour or powdered sugar, or even rice, idea everywhere! But I wanted it to be related to an activity somehow and not just a mess on my counter. I came up with the "seed angel" idea. The pine cones, collected on the hike yesterday, can be used to make simple bird feeders.

Clyde left us all the supplies and a little note to tell us what to do.

Mini sunflowers grow wild everywhere around here. And we passed several dead and dried ones on our hike. I happened to point them out to the kids. :) They are very excited to make some bird feeders to help out the little birds now that the flowers have all died. :)

(Plus, Hubby got the exact tree I wanted last night, on sale! So we'll be putting our tree up today!)

Tomorrow: Popsicle stick sleds. Now, if I could just find some popsicle sticks! Seriously! I been to three stores already! No luck!

Day 3: Hiking through the candy cane forest

Clyde is quite the silly elf! He showed up this morning with a backpack on, hanging from some ribbon, next to several hanging candy canes.

He tied up some ribbon on my cupboard doors. Ran it through the straps of his backpack and hung several candy canes along it.

Okay, okay. Maybe he had some help. Like, where did he get that adorable backpack?

I crocheted a simple backpack for him a few days ago. But that's as far as I got as to where and how I was going to pose him for today. Then, last night, as I was writing out his note telling us to go on a hike today, I included a line about how he loves to hike through the candy cane forest. ("Elf", anyone?)

 
And I was inspired! I have a ton of candy canes that I store to decorate the tree with each year. I thought, "I could make some sort of candy cane forest for him to be in!" If I had thought of this idea before 1 am the night of, I would have made it much better. Here's how: get a piece of floral foam from the Dollar Tree. Blanket it with fake snow. Stick a bunch of candy canes in it. And then pose your elf among the candy cane forest!  I'm definitely doing that next year!

Posing your elf can be a problem. His/her legs are not made to stand on. They are really made for sitting. But if you lean the body just right, your elf can appear to be standing. That's why I went with the ribbon last night. Your elf can appear to be doing lots of things if he is held up by string. Some people use a dab of hot glue to get their elf in position, but I don't want to potentially damage my elf. I had a hard enough time deciding to clip the little string that held his hands together! I can always use a little piece of double sided tape for when I need his hands back together.

Well, I've got to go now. We have a hike to go on! :)

The 2012 Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Activities.

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! :)

Elf magic

"Those who don't believe in magic, will never find it." -Roald Dahl

Every Friday, my two youngest only have a half day of school. We've established the tradition of getting Icees at Target after I pick them up. The kids call them Frosty, Freezy, Freezes. (Thanks a lot Fanboy and Chum Chum! And Netflix streaming for making it possible for the kids to watch Fanboy and Chum Chum over and over and over...) This last Friday, after getting their Icees, (half red, half blue), we browsed through the Christmas section. We oohed and awed at all the beautiful decorations, opened the little doors of the advent calendars, and listened to the Christmas CD samples. (We bought the Taylor Swift CD and the Glee Christmas 2 CD. The Glee one is already on repeat in my car! Love it!)

We also passed an Elf on the Shelf display. I opened the cover of a girl elf to show the kids what she looked like. There's a little hole about the size of a quarter in the inner plastic cover so you can pull it open to get your elf out. My 6 year old son stuck his finger in and touched her. I said, "Oh, no! If you touch them, they lose their magic!" He looked a little concerned, but not too bad. We closed her box and put it back on the display and moved on. Two days later, on Sunday, the kids were chatting and my son brought up the elf incident. He had been thinking about it and was worried that some family was going to pick out this cute, little girl elf and she would be a dud with no magic!

We'd never had an elf-touching incident at our house, so the kids didn't know what happened then. But I know that many of you have had an elf-touching incident, (or two), in your homes. And I've seen a couple good solutions for this via Pinterest. Kendra at Southern Disposition has a great one! Her story is funny and adorable! Basically, you e-mail Santa and he snail mails you a letter and some Magic Elf Dust to sprinkle on your elf so he/she can get their magic back and return to the North Pole. He/she does have to stay in place until the Magic Elf Dust appears in the mail, but apparently, Santa's mail service is very quick and even works on Sundays! ;) So, I reassured my kids that there are things you can do to bring back an elf's magic. I hope their worries are over. :)

Pam at Over the Big Moon has a whole Elf Magical Recovery Kit including printables! A certificate of health from the North Pole should hopefully calm your child's worries and bring the magic back to your house!

I know accidents can happen, but there are some things you can do so they are less likely to happen.  If you think it might be too much of  a temptation for your child to not touch your elf, then consider having your elf only appear in places out of reach. Some of the fun, cute ideas of where to put your elf make it difficult to go about your day. How are the kids going to brush their teeth if your elf is using the bathroom sink to take a marshmallow bath?! So, I try to avoid those. Especially since our house in Oregon only had one bathroom! Now, you are prepared if one of those accidents happen!

KEEP THE MAGIC ALIVE!!!!