2012 Elf on the Shelf Game Plan
11/26/2012 07:57:00 AM Posted by mommy2twincesses
Despite what the Elf on the Shelf book says, I’ve decided
that our elf, Herbie, will not make his big debut at our house from this year
forward, until December 1st. According to the book, he’s supposed to
come the day after Thanksgiving, but you know what? I’m not ready then! And I’m
not going to feel guilty about it.
The days after Thanksgiving in our home are spent putting
up the Christmas tree and resting up from all the hoop-la of the holiday. We
deserve a few down days! I need those days to plan the chaos that Herbie is
sure to bring, and 24 days of elf-capades is PLENTY! I finalized our plans last
night and am sharing them with you now.
The last night of November we’ll throw up a few little
decorations, including the “Welcome Back Herbie” banner I made as my very first
Cricut project.
December 1st-crepe paper will barricade their
door as we’ll “accidentally” leave it out from decorating for Herbie’s “Welcome
Back”.
December 2nd-Herbie will be hanging from mistletoe
and there will be Hershey’s Kisses scattered about on the floor with a little
note saying how much the elf missed them.
December 3rd-We’ll find our elf “rocking baby
Jesus” in our Little People Nativity set with a note reminding us that “Jesus
is the Reason for the Season”.
December 4th-There will be a silly face drawn
on their bathroom mirror. Probably an elf, reindeer, or Santa face that they’ll
be able to stick their faces in to get some giggles-this will depend on which I
manage to draw best ;)
December 5th- A messy message will be left for
the girls in the kitchen with “spilled” cheerios, crackers, or M&M’s
(depends on what we have on hand that morning! LOL) The message will be a
simple “Be Good”, “I Love You”, “Santa’s Watching”, “Elves R Cool”, something
like that!
December 6th-Herbie will be enjoying “elf
donuts” (aka Cheerios) for breakfast with syrup to drink, probably sitting on
daddy’s coffee pot or somewhere close to it.
December 7th-Our elf will be a master gardener
as he leaves “magic seeds” to plant while we’re gone to Shu Shu’s house. (We’re
going to visit the girls’ grandmother, so this buys me a few lazy days ;)
December 10th-We’ll come home to find that the
“magic seeds” have grown into suckers!
December 11th-We all put our shoes beside the
back door and Herbie will be hanging there with a sign reading “I didn’t do it!”.
He’ll have put jingle bells on the girls’ laces!
December 12th-This is the day before the “12
Days of Christmas” begins in their stockings and Herbie won’t be able to
contain his excitement so he’ll wrap the toilet as a present!
December 13th-Personalized books will be in
their stockings and Herbie will be found reading too.
December 14th-An empty package of glow in the
dark stars will be in their stocking. Herbie will be bowling and have a note
that says, “You’ll be bowled over by the stars tonight!” While they’re in the
bath I’ll scatter the stars around their ceiling :o)
December 15th-Herbie will be found taking a
bath and there will be “magic towels” and bath crayons in their stockings.
December 16th- Hot cocoa will be in their
stocking and the elf will have instigated a marshmallow fight with other toys.
December 17th-Punch balloons will be the
stocking surprise and Herbie will be “floating” from one.
December 18th-Today begins the official week
countdown to Christmas and elves tend to get a little extra boost of crazy as
anticipation builds for the big day! He’ll leave recorders in their stockings
and have Christmas music BLARING from our speakers when we turn the radio on to
play/sing along :o)
December 19th-All of the stockings will be
replaced with underwear and inside will be bags of “reindeer poop”. And
sticking with the “poop/undies” theme, Herbie will “TP” the tree!
December 20th-My girls have a strange love for
flashlights, so Herbie will leave new little flashlights in their stockings and
tape down all the light switches to encourage maximum flashlight usage.
December 21st-The first surprise of the morning
will be waking up to mom and dad’s noses painted red like Rudolph! (I’ve seen
it done with the kids’ noses, but I don’t think mine would sleep through it!) Herbie
will be perched near our bed somewhere and the face paints will be in their
stockings.
December 22nd-In light of the Chipmunk movies
being their stocking surprise, Herbie will pose as Alvin in the singing
chipmunk trio.
December 23rd-Ingredients to make reindeer
food will fill the stockings as Herbie rides one nearby.
December 24th-A good bye note will be the last
thing from Herbie in their stockings and he will empty the tree in the
breakfast nook to make way for the Disney themed ornaments we’ll be making in
the coming days!
There it is! This is our Elf Plan 2012. Of course, if
something comes up it won’t be a big deal to switch days or adjust accordingly
to their behavior. I can’t wait to post pics of our wacky elf mischief!
Share
your favorite Elf on the Shelf ideas!
Organizing Christmas Cards from Years Past
11/25/2012 06:07:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
I like to tell myself that I’m not a pack rat, but there
are certain instances that it’s just not true. Pictures of family and friends
are some of the things that I can just NOT get rid of! But what to do with
them?!
For the past few years I’ve been displaying the cards we receive
in the mail for that season and then when I put away all the Christmas
decorations, I would stuff them the best I could manage in a photo album.
However, as with everything else on the planet, the “bigger is better” mentality
has begun to apply to Christmas cards and my ordinary photo album, with its
measly 4x6 openings, just wasn’t cutting it.
I tried trimming the gigantic ones down, but that just
hurt my heart because I was ruining the cards, sometimes even severing the
names and dates. Something had to give!
After mulling over possibilities, including just “round
filing” them, I finally settled on what I’ve deemed the perfect solution!
I separated the cards into piles for each family,
chronologically arranged them, punched holes in the upper corner, and then
thread them onto metal ring binders! I have a ring for my side of the family,
DH’s side, friends, and then simply our family cards.
I’m in love! I can easily flip through my cards now and watch
how families and children have grown and changed over the years! I’m just
tickled pink!
This little project was a tad time-consuming as I’ve been
saving cards for at least 6 years now, but the sacrifice of an hour or so seems
insignificant as the reward is well worth the time!
Do
you save photo Christmas cards? If so, what is your method of keeping them
organized?
Letters to Santa 2012
11/11/2012 03:44:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
I can’t believe it’s finally here! Time to write letters
to Santa! SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
Yes, those are MY thoughts, not those of my 3 year olds
:oP
We normally wouldn’t do them so early, but our local Post
Office is preparing their annual display and asked if we would participate, so
we did them. Tonight!
It actually works out perfectly because we’re going to
take pictures with Santa on Tuesday, so they’ll be able to take him a copy of
their letter! SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found several adorable Santa letter templates on
Pinterest, you can find them on my board HERE!
For those who may not know, we do Christmas a little
differently than most families. At our house, Santa only brings ONE gift for
each child. After all, he’s only got ONE sled and has to deliver gifts ALL over
the world to EVERY single boy and girl on the planet. That’s quite a tall order
and we’re not going to complicate things even more for him by asking for an
entire list of gifts. It defeats the whole purpose of Christmas, in my personal
opinion. (And keeps mom and dad out of the poor house, LOL)
Then, as parents, we give them 3 gifts each, from us. The
reasoning behind this being the Bible mentions that Jesus received 3 gifts
(gold, frankincense, and myrrh) the night of his birth, and if 3 gifts are
enough for the King of Kings, it’s enough for us! Again, this helps us keep our
focus on the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas-Christ’s birth-instead of
making it all about the presents.
We do the “12 Days of Christmas” with small, trinkets in
their stocking as a countdown to Christmas, and then on the morning of, we’ll
have a small birthday party for Jesus and enjoy opening gifts!
I wrote their letters, word for word, what they told me
they wanted them to say, and then they signed them all by themselves! *tear* I
bet by next year, they’ll be writing the whole thing, just needing help with
spelling.
M is asking Santa for “a baby doll with a spoon and
yogurt” and K wants “a Jasmine costume and shoes”. That’s easy enough! But what
they don’t know is what’s killing me! “Santa” will bring those things, but he’s
got an EXTRA SPECIAL gift for the entire family this year……….check
it out here!
Kid Friendly Thanksgiving Snacks-Turkey Lurkey
11/06/2012 02:33:00 PM Posted by mommy2twincesses
This past weekend at their grandmother’s house, my turkeys
enjoyed making turkey snacks all by themselves! They dubbed them “Turkey
Lurkeys”, and for lack of something better to call them-it stuck!
Gather up your kiddos and a few ingredients likely to already
be gracing your pantry and get ready to gobble ‘til you wobble!
You’ll need:
Round crackers
Chocolate frosting
Candy corns
Hershey’s Kisses
Caramel cubes
Start by giving each child one cracker, one Kiss, four candy
corns, and one caramel. Demonstrate for
them how to lightly dip each piece into the chocolate frosting and place on the
cracker to form a Turkey Lurkey!
That’s it! Simple, edible, Thanksgiving
inspired fun for all!
Here’s a finished Turkey Lurkey!
Just a word of warning……if your kids are like mine, beware
of eating Turkey Lurkeys they’ve made! My girls licked each and every piece,
sometimes multiple times, before settling for sticking it to the cracker to
make the turkey ;) Not exactly guest friendly, LOL!
