He’s Dynamite!

Wow, Thursday already!?!  YES!!!  Finally, this week is flying by!  Which means week 27 of my pregnancy is flying by! 

I’ve never really advertised that I’m on Twitter, but I am in fact on there. I don’t do too much with it, which is why I’ve not shared my username, but I’m hoping to ‘tweet’ more so look me up at ‘Homemadehappen’.  I’d love to follow you, too, so leave me a comment with your username!

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For those of you who were reading my blog last December you might remember our little elf friend, Dynamite.  I decided to make a calendar this year of what Dynamite would be up to every night so at 9:37 p.m. I wouldn’t have to try to hurry up and come up with some fun/funny/fantastic idea.  I thought I’d share it with you in case any of you with elf friends needs an idea or two.  These were mostly found on Pinterest so I cannot take credit for most of these ideas. And I couldn’t get the actual calendar to load onto here clearly so this is what I could do.  If you want the word doc. of this leave me your email in the comments and I’ll send it to you.

December 2013 Elf Ideas

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Elf Arrives! Hanging from hook outside window

Elf hides in Christmas tree.

Elf is thirsty, gets out supplies to make hot chocolate

Elf shows up in knife section of silverware drawer

Elf is in Nativity holding baby Jesus

Elf makes snowflake out of Q-tips

Elf draws faces on pictures in frames with dry erase marker

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Elf hangs boys’ underwear from stocking holders

Elf t-p’s the boys’ rooms

Elf plays Wii with stuffed animals

Elf turns the milk in the fridge green

Elf wraps the toilet in wrapping paper

Elf gets stuck hanging from the chandelier

Elf gets caught snacking on Christmas cookies in container

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Elf reads a Christmas book to some ‘friends’

Elf makes a snow angel in flour and glitter on counter

Elf gets into the game cabinet and makes a mess setting one up

Elf switches the cars around in the garage

Elf leaves a ‘countdown’ note on toilet paper

Elf rolls down the stairs inside a tp roll leaving tp behind him

Elf gets all the Christmas movies out

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Elf has a snowball fight (cotton balls) with the toys

Elf snuggles up under a blanket with boy’s stuffed animal

Elf leaves a goodbye note and special treats for boys

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

As for the logistics of The Elf On A Shelf, some first-timers have asked me a few q’s about how it works.  Well, if you buy what I call the ‘real’ EOAS it comes with a story book to read with your kids so they understand the why’s and what-for’s.  It’s a great tool for you as the parent, too, so I recommend you read it first!  But the general gist is that the Elf shows up, with the box and book,  and you CANNOT touch the Elf or it loses it’s magic powers.  Now, if this does happen, go to Pinterest and look up the ‘magic remedy’ so your poor Elf doesn’t die and your kids don’t get super upset. 

The family of the elf is who names it, so after reading the book talk with your kids about what they think it should be named.  Aiden, who I believe is brilliant, came up with Dynamite’s name.  He said he’s red and has to fly to the North Pole really fast like dynamite so Dynamite should be his name.  GENIOUS!!  We loved it right away so went with it.  Try to be creative!  Or use a ‘regular’ name like George.  Just have fun with it. Once your elf is named you’re set for the fun to begin.

Every night you MUST move the elf.  Don’t feel like you need to come up with some crazy idea and activity for him to be doing every night.  Just moving him from the shelf to the tree to the light fixture is enough, especially with little kids.  As they get older challenge them (and yourself) by hiding it somewhere a little tougher.  We have hit that stage this year so Dynamite will not just be out in the open every morning. 

Our tradition is that Dynamite leaves a note for the boys a few nights before he starts arriving.  The note is usually just a ‘Hello, I’ve missed you and can’t wait to see you’ thing, but this year we’re adding something that Santa wants them to work on for the month of December. This is our sneaky way of getting them to stop with a certain bad behavior.  Then our elf starts to show up AFTER our Christmas decorations are up, which is always the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I have him scheduled to show up Sunday morning, December 1st this year. 

On Christmas Eve Dynamite always leaves the boys a note saying goodbye, telling them how good they were and that he’ll miss them until next year.  We are adding a small treat with the note if the boys can take care of their ‘bad behavior clean up’.  If need be we’ll have D bring a note with a reminder mid-month.

As for the notes, we have my dad write them out for us.  I send him an email with what it needs to say, he adds his little ‘elf’ talk to it (hee hee, etc) and writes it out on fun/fancy Christmas printer paper.  My dad has really unique handwriting which screams ‘ELF’ to me!  I’ll show you next week, our first letter should show up in the fireplace either Sunday or Monday morning.  I always ‘North Pole’ it up, which means adding some glitter or shiny ribbon to tie it up.  Last year the first letter arrived folded up like a paper airplane. The boys thought it was the coolest thing EVER! 

Basically, just have fun with this and be creative.  Think like an elf!  And for gosh-sake, don’t forget to move that little guy!!!  If you don’t think you can remember for an entire month just bring him out the week or 2 before Xmas, make it easy on yourself (also a good tip for really little ones, they won’t get bored with it as easily if it’s for a shorter period of time)!  Or set a timer on your phone for 30 minutes after the kiddos are in bed.  Whatever it takes!  And if you have girls at home there are female EOAS, fyi.

Hope this helps!  Let me know of any q’s or if I didn’t explain something clearly.  And then get on Pinterest and pin pin pin those ideas!

Happy Elfing!

Erin