Elf on the Shelf 2013

Well, Chubby Cheeks and Zeke are back and up to more mischief.  They must swap stories with all the other elves at the north pole, because according to Pinterest, a lot of them are up to the same tricks.  ;-)

They got into the Halloween candy again this year.  (Am I the only parent whose kids don't finish their Halloween candy?  It sits for months and months.  And look what happens.  The elves get into it.)

 

Pretty creative.  Making Christmas paper chain cutouts.

 

Counting down the days.

 

They came up with a GREAT after school activity.

 

Making copies.  There was a naughty one of elf butts too.

 

Thinking of changing their names to Snap! and Pop!

 

Riding the reindeer.  (Is this how they get back to the north pole every night?)

 

Super wrappers.  Sure hope they're going to help me tackle wrapping all the presents.

 

Checking out the tree we chopped down.

 

Decorating their felt tree.

 

Can't wait to see where they show up tomorrow!

 

(From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas)

Letters from Santa

"Santa Claus is Coming To Town" -- John Frederick Coots

 

W & B have just finished writing their letters to Santa.  Let me rephrase that.  They had "verbally" written their letters to Santa, maybe even jotted down a few notes here and there, but had not officially written THE letter.  As I've told them in years past, they had to write it down and get it mailed.  Because if they wait too long, Santa may have trouble finding the gifts they wanted.  (And once they've mailed it, they are committed to those gifts and can't keep changing their minds so that I can go and purchase said Santa gifts.)

So, they wrote the letters tonight.  Correction.  W printed the letters out on the computer.  (Kids and technology these days.  Seriously.  They're going to be e-mailing the lists soon.)  Surprisingly, nothing has changed in the past 3 weeks, which is a good thing as a couple of the items were already purchased and are hidden in the attic.  (I am so excited that we have an attic, if for no other reason than hiding Christmas gifts.)  Suddenly, W says "Do you think the elves will deliver the letters for us?" Huh.  Good question.  Then ever so smart he says, "It will save us money to not have to buy stamps for them."  A kid after my own heart.  So I said, "Why not.  If they don't take them, we can mail them tomorrow."  I'm not stupid.  Of course the elves are going to take them.

(I'm so happy he actually used the word please.)

Fast forward a couple of hours.  Hubby gets into bed and says, "You know you're going to have to write a reply from Santa."  Darn him!  I hate when he's right.  So here I was looking for ideas for letters from Santa.  Oh, I've paid to have letters sent in the past.  But I know they aren't going to want to wait for that.  So I found some online sites where you can personalize AND print free letters from Santa.  And I found this nice one from Noella Designs.  Noella Designs Santa Letters  Not only can you personalize the letter, you can also choose from different backgrounds.  And it had cute personalizations.  Like he heard from the teacher, or a relative told him something.  Pretty cool. 

 

W is 10, so I don't know how much longer he's going to believe, or even if he does anymore.  I feel like some of the magic will be gone once he stops believing, or I know he has stopped believing.  Maybe we're both pretending at this point.  But, I'm going to do whatever I  can to make it last a little bit longer.

 

 

From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"