The Last 8 Days of Elf Ideas!

My kids are older (12, 13, and 16) but the youngest still gets a kick out of searching for The Elf every morning.  His humor is a little more sophisticated than a small child so I can get a little more imaginative. 

3+ years into this, sometimes I feel like I've done it all with that darn Elf!  I know there is a whole movement to stop The Elf because it's a pain and causes parents stress, blah, blah, blah...

Um, we're parents, stress is where we live, people! If I can do something that takes me 5 minutes per day to make my kids smile I'm going to keep on doing it.  Their happiness is my crack.  Not even a bit sorry about that one.

In the home stretch before Christmas, I needed a bit of inspiration and found it at my local craft store.  I bought a few things that will carry The Elf through the rest of the month.  So here you go for the final 8 days:

1.   In the cake decorating section, they have little sugar cake embellishments that look a lot like cookies. I picked some that resembled gingerbread men.  I cut out a tiny apron from felt (no sewing!) and will set The Elf up with a tiny cookie sheet (cardboard covered with foil) near the oven.

2.  I found a tiny 16"  burlap tree and tiny ornaments he will decorate over night.

3.   At my local Dollar Tree I found little ceramic houses that The Elf will set up as a little Christmas town one night while we're all asleep.

4.  There are tiny ball ornaments with kids' names at Michael's Craft store and tiny gift boxes in their dollar section that will appear under the tiny tree one night.

5.  Also in the Michael's dollar section, there are teeny tiny ceramic mugs.  I got a snowman one that I will fill with hot chocolate and set him up near the tea pot.  I added 3 snowman mugs for the boys with hot chocolate mix in them.

6.  I have a nutcracker display waaay up on a shelf so I lined The Elf with the nutcracker soldiers and will sit back and laugh at how long it takes him to find it!

7.  I trapped The Elf under a drinking glass with a sign reading "HELP!"

8.  I found a tiny fireplace and glued tiny stockings to it with my boys' names on them.

Need more ideas?  Check it out from past years:

Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Elf on the Shelf Linky Party

Good Luck and have fun with it!  You are creating memories and there are only a few days left - go out strong!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The Big Guy and I have braved the frozen tundra to cut down our Christmas tree ever since our first Christmas together 18 long years ago...sigh...memories...

We have continued that tradition every year and this year was no different. We headed out to Lake Forest Gardens for our annual tree hunt last weekend.

The day always begins with a chilly hay ride out to the fields. All aboard!



Then the hunt is on for the perfect tree. Coincidentally, the perfect tree is usually situated in the furthest point from the hay ride pick up spot...



There she is! Isn't she perfect? Let's get a picture, boys!



Time to cut...TIMBER!



Do you cut down a real tree for Christmas?

(Thrifty Decor Chick is having a Christmas Tree Linky Party if you can't get enough)

Click on over to see Tutorial Tuesday - it's still rockin'!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Sounds magical doesn't it? Pile into the car to the Christmas tree farm to cut you own tree, singing and happy...except that two kids are in the back seat fighting, one is crying because he can't stand Christmas songs ("It's the same three songs over and over with different people singing them!!!"), and soon everyone is crying (including me because I'm stuck in the car with these people!)

But, eventually, we get there and the excitement kicks in (well, that is how my warped mind is going to remember it). We climb aboard the wagon "sleigh" pulled by the tractor "horse" and ride out into the field.( You can see my neighbor who snuck into the picture behind the kids, I never noticed her until I just uploaded these photos! We were all a little punchy since we were recovering from the neighborhood Christmas party the night before.)


Things are going well at this point at we search for the perfect tree. I can hear my kids voices all around me in the trees "I found it!" "Where are you?" "Come over and see the tree I found!" "I can't find you!" "I'm cold, can we go in?" "Moooommmm, I have to pee!" (wait, that might have been my husband)


Finally, we find the perfect tree and everything is moving along nicely when one of the kids gets poked in the eye with a stick. Lots of crying and arguing, (I half expect to see his eye dangling out of the socket the way he is crying) some comforting and scolding then time to get the annual photo of the kids with the 2008 tree. "Smile!" "Never mind, just stand there."


Everyone gets a turn with the saw


and then the tree is down and we're dragging it to the waiting tractor. Load up and let's get out of here, it's cold! No one is smiling, except my husband and I. Ahhhh, family traditions...

Have you cut down you own tree before? For all you city folk, here is the drill. They take it to the "shaker" to shake all the dead leaves, sticks, squirrels out(ha, just kidding)

Then they stick it into the string tying thingie to bind it up

Then you fork over half your paycheck and walk off with a nice tight tree bundle