Ivy the Elf

Yes, for the third year a little elf came to visit our family after Thanksgiving.     For the second year in a row we did the North Pole breakfast which was festive and fun.    The elf arrived and brought donuts, Pez, candy canes, and their 'Christmas' pjs!    Yes, Ace's were Hulk pjs but well he's green... and red and green are traditional Christmas colors.  ;)   He was thrilled.   It was a fun morning (though mommy was quite unhappy with picture quality, fooey!)

The kids again enjoyed the game of hide and seek - they are allowed to touch our elf and play with her throughout the day once both kids have found the elf in the secret spot and as long as she wasn't up high.   If she was up high - mom or dad had to get her down first!   Ace was quite frustrated some mornings because his sister had little desire to find the elf.  It didn't concern her in the least but he desperately wanted to get her before he left for school.   It caused some tension sometimes, but again they loved the elf and the hide and seek game that we make of it in our family. 

As December waged on Ivy the Elf got herself into lots of festive places and at time antics!    There were a few parental favorites and one request from a friend for where/how to hide the elf.    There were a few "phoning it in nights" (Ivy under tree skirt, Ivy in bucket of blocks)  and one night that must have been so lack-luster I didn't take a picture and I can't remember where she hid one night.    Overall not too shabby! I *do* have to pat myself on the back that while there were many nights it was right as I was going to bed I remembered to hide the elf every night and only once had to get out of bed to do it and the elf did move every night!  ;)

There were a couple of nights when the creativity bug got a hold of me and we spent a decent amount of time being *THOSE* parents that other people blog angrily about regarding elf mayhem.   Sorry folks.  :)   To be fair we were only those parents 25% of this holiday elf-hiding season.

My first wave of creativity came when I wanted Ivy to sail the seas, then I thought a battle scene would be fun and so it just evolved after that.   It probably did take 20 minutes, but let's be honest a good part of that was cleaning enough so that I would be willing to capture that space of my house on camera. 

And well we couldn't just let Ivy get away with charging attempting to take over the Pea's land...couch?  and so I wanted to build a jail out of tinker toys... but Ace had dispersed them amid the house and my best efforts to collect them from his room (and Mae's) before they went to bed was not enough to construct something with them alone and thus the Zoobs had to be brought out and the husband called in for some serious construction assistance - but I have to say the jail is still intact and in Ace's room... pretty sure the minion is still in it.  ;)

On another night as I was ready to just go to bed I was hunting for a good spot for the elf to hide and I was struck with inspiration for drawing on the chalkboard and so I went to work drafting up a drawing for Ivy to have been posed to draw.   There was also another good 5 minutes of shoving stuff away from the easel and if you panned the picture out - to the right would be a pile of crap that normally lives under the easel.  True story. 

We recently have been undergoing construction.  New floors, new paint, new fireplace, new mantle.   Our fireplace and mantle before was this ugly shabby chic brick.   Not shabby chic pretty - like shabby crap.   Like there once was tile stuck to it and it was ripped off.  Not pretty!  HOORAY for family that is good at stuff like this and was willing to do the job of building us a new mantle and tiling up the fireplace nicely for us!  Love it!    So I wanted to unveil the mantle in an excellent display of photos of Ivy.   Alas my excitement and all of my toner spectacular photos were upstaged and barely noticed because it snowed the night before and there Ivy sat all day with barely a notice.  

Finally for you fine readers I present to you this delightful elf!  My friend sent me a picture of another elf in a Christmas tree sitting on an ornament, someone (the same person that posed it, or maybe not)  had posted the ever so infamous Miley song lyrics along with it... my friend begged me to please do it!   Since I'm mildly obsessed (in the way that you can't stop looking at a car wreck) with Miley's utter train wreck of the last year of her innocence I couldn't resist and thus this fabulous (and carefully posed) shot was taken! 

Merry Christmas, Ivy!  Now off you go until next year and a new personality will be born! 

The Adventures of Ellie

Yes our little Ellie the Elf had a grand ol' time - she even got to venture to another state!  What fun!    This was another great year and this year Mae had a lot more fun with trying to seek out the elf.  Ellie did make some repeat adventures to some of the same spots that Holly her predecessor had, but there was still plenty of new places to seek out and trouble for Ellie to get into!  

Ace really enjoyed the hunt but Mae loved to hug on Ellie once she was found!  Can't wait to see what next year will hold for the little elf and my two!

The Little Elf Express

Last year with a nearly one year old M and an adorable three year old boy one evening while Loving Husband was out working late I took the kids out 'hunting' for Christmas lights.  We had a lot of fun and driving around aimlessly searching for GOOD Christmas lights.  :)     It was so much fun that  this year I wanted to punch up that theme a bit more so off to Photoshop I went to draft some tickets and turn our vehicle into a Christmas Train:  The Little Elf Express.

With tickets printed, an evening where the whole family could participate, and two kids believing they were headed to bed - I disappeared and decorated the car.  I had battery operated light strung through the garland above their heads.  Ellie the Elf was in the car hanging out in the back on a strand of the garland.  We had warm apple cider in all the cup holders and we had some red and green M&Ms to keep us munching.     I brought out to the car our Christmas themed blankets and then Loving Husband and I switched - he got the car going with warming it up and put on some Christmas music and I presented the kids with their Christmas hats and their tickets to ride the Christmas 'Train'  the Little Elf Express!

They were so excited to go!   They enjoyed all their treats and Ace even made the cute statement "Mom, I won't eat too much because candy makes me hyper."  :)    Mae was adorable and was on the hunt for every snowman that she could find after seeing a giant blow up one at the first house we drove by "NOMAN!!!!"  It was cute - she would just giggle so loud and full of joy it was so much fun to listen to!

At one point in the adventure we allowed Ace to give the directions - we give him options of "left, right, or straight"  (sometimes only a combination of those three)  and he chooses.    He chose really well once and he guided us to an amazing house that was covered in a million lights.   Bless them and their electric bill, yikes!    We pulled over and let the kids unbuckle and take it all in!   It was a good find and a good way to (almost) end the evening.

 

 

I say almost the end of the evening because you see Miss Mae here - this is at the giant display.  She had fallen in love with Mickey Mouse.   She did not want to get back into her seat.   So Mommy promised her a visit to a different Mickey (there was one we had previously driven by) so she complied in order to go say hi to that Mickey and we were on our way.   On our way to see that Mickey we drove past a super sized Mickey and turned to go see that one instead.   It was a lot of fun and they headed to bed as soon as we got home.  
An excellent beginning of a fun tradition with the whole family!  :)  

The husband grabbed this shot in which he claims this captures the theme of the evening... aka mom with her camera.  I have to say - I only brought the cell phone camera and I did not take many more pictures than the husband did.  ;-)

A North Pole Breakfast

Once upon a time there lived a little elf named Ellie who lived at the North Pole - she decided to come visit and enjoy a bit of frivolity around here for an extended game of hide and seek!  Oh boy what excitement - well she likes to arrive in style and in doing so she brought Ace and Mae breakfast.  :)   Last year, Ace had a great time with Holly the Elf so we can't wait to see the enjoyment that Ellie brings to our lives this year!

Welcome, Ellie!

Thanks to Pinterest in a few key links my inspiration for menu choices and decor were brought to life. Although I have to give a good shout out to Little Pumpkin Grace ... and Hudson too! as she was my main inspiration for this project.  :)  Ellie's helper (me) got to work to make a winter wonderland at the kitchen table.

The kids woke up and Ace came downstairs and lit up with excitement!  Ellie had brought marshmallows (which she had thrown everywhere!) donuts (which she had sampled) a few frosty friends from the North Pole to hang out, candy canes and hot cocoa.  

Ellie had also brought socks for the kids!  Ace was adorable asking - "Did Ellie really bring these or is it just pretend?"   He knows the reality of Santa and so he's always trying to figure out what is real and what is pretend.  It's sweet and I said it's pretend, but we can pretend that it's real!  That made him smile that Ellie had brought him socks from the North Pole!

Mae enjoyed dressing up in the table decorations and putting all the marshmallows into her hot chalket.    She did not drink any of it.  :) Eventually the candy cane went in the drink as well. 

Ace had a great time and wanted to eat lunch at the North Pole table too. Sounds good to me, little man!    Happy Holidays!!

The Adventures of Holly

We had quite the merry and adventurous Christmas day in our household, but more on that in another post.  This post is about Holly and all her antics that she's been up to this fine month of December.  Who is Holly?  Well she's our elf of course!   We had a lot of fun finding new and different places for her to hide and I must give most of the credit for Holly's hiding spots to Loving Husband - who sometimes even got out of bed and grabbed the camera to go tuck Holly into a new nook... sometimes having to seek her out of Ace's daytime hideout for her -where ever that might have been. :)

Both kids enjoyed Holly being around.  Ace did great not touching Holly until we said it was ok - and he was especially amused the morning he woke up and Holly was above his head. Mae enjoyed Holly too - but mostly to chew on. She did love toting her around after Ace had discarded her.

There were a couple of days he was stumped as to where Holly was... specifically the one in the car and amusingly enough the one where Holly was hiding (and covering her eyes) amid the pile of stuffed animals.   One night we simply forgot - Holly laid on the kitchen floor all night where Ace had left her before.  No picture was taken... Ace found her pretty easily - we sorta passed it off as that's where she hid.  He didn't seem to care too much.   Another night we forgot before bed, so the next morning LH quickly hid her away so Ace would think he thought he was still looking - so after dinner I quickly hid her on the scanner and wala Ace found her when we suggested he go look.  :)

It was a lot of fun and a silly nightly game.  Last night Holly was perched on top of our Christmas tree to watch all the excitement of Christmas morning - and tonight I plucked her down for her to sit with us and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas with us for her final night of festive fun until next year.

Elf on the Shelf

As I've stated before Santa doesn't come to our house.  Ace of course knows who he is, he's seen him in the mall, he squeals when he sees giant inflatable ones on Christmas tree lots.  We just never informed him that Santa delivers him presents.  Ace knows that presents come from mom and dad.   So we haven't specifically spelled out to him that Santa is a fictional character, etc.. so really Santa still remains a part of Christmas and exists still about the same as Mickey Mouse.  With that said that also means that we do not participate in leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, or writing Santa letters, or other traditions that go along with him (which does make this mommy a tiny bit sad, because I have fond memories of those things.)   However, I still wanted him and Mae to have some festive fun and merriment that comes when one believes and that's where I thought of the elf on the shelf.   If you're unfamiliar here is a good synopsis.

I decided that I didn't want to lie to him and give the elf magical powers - saying that the elf moves in the night like the story says.  Since there is no reason for the elf to report back to Santa since Santa is not a factor in Ace's motivation to stay naught or nice. Ace has been taught Jesus is the reason we should stay nice and not be naughty and Jesus doesn't need a elf to help Him establish that fact or not.     So we just make it an exciting game of hide and seek each morning.   Every night when he goes to bed, I go and hid the elf in some new place.  In the morning when he wakes up he gets to go find the elf, but he's not allowed to touch it until mom or dad find it with him later.  Mostly because I didn't want him scaling great heights when I put the elf on the fridge or something.  He absolutely loves it - and very excitedly comes in each morning saying he's found the elf.  Or one morning, very disturbed being unable to locate the elf anywhere! (She was hanging from the shower curtain... that sounds more dark than the actual situation, see picture below.) 

Now of course Ace's imagination is a good one and so it's still fun to make it seem like the little elf has been busy playing, reading, or having fun while everyone sleeps.   We let Ace's imagination dictate what he observes, rather than us telling him. So while I don't see anything wrong with others telling the tales and creating the magic in Christmas, we simply go a different route. I do know Ace is approaching an age where we're going to have to explain to him that other kids believe something different and he won't be able to spoil it for them.   At this point he doesn't realize there is anything to spoil.   I suspect that conundrum will be coming next holiday season.   :)   For now - we are happily making memories of hiding a silly elf that we picked up at Target on November 30th and that we named Holly.  Here's a few places that she's been.