We took the kids to the annual Christmas Parade downtown a few weeks ago. After the parade, Santa has a spot that he sits in one of the bank buildings downtown. This year, Mrs. Claus happened to come along with Santa!
When we got home from the parade, we had a little visitor. The Elf on the Shelf came to visit us this year. If you don't know anything about The Elf on the Shelf, he is a little magical elf that likes to play hide and seek with you. He watches you during the day and each night when you are asleep, he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa all the good things AND all the bad things you have done that day. Your family chooses a name for him. Our children decided to name him Jingle Bells. Then on Christmas Eve, he goes back to the North Pole with Santa. But you must know, there is one rule. You cannot touch him or he will lose his magical power and not return!
I took a picture each day of where we found Jingle Bells. The first morning, he was sitting on one of the lizards that we have hanging on our wall.
Jingle Bells then decided to sit on top of a sombrero we have hanging on our wall.
The day that Jingle Bells sat on the sombrero, I was making dinner and Finn said, "Where is Jingle Bells?" He had already found him that day and when he looked later, Jingle Bells wasn't up on the sombrero. I came to look and sure enough, he wasn't sitting on the sombrero. I kind of worried, but found that he fell. I had to think quickly, because, remember if we touch Jingle Bells, he would lose his magic and not come back and then he wouldn't be able to report to Santa each day. Being the clever mom and quick thinker that I am, I quickly thought about what you do when a baby bird falls out of its nest. If you touch it, its mother will smell you on it and abandon it, or so I've been told. So, I thought, "I know! I will get a towel and use that to pick Jingle Bells up and put him back on the sombrero." I did just that! As I touched him with the towel, and not my hand, I told the kids that they shouldn't ever do this. They agreed. Then I sat Jingle Bells back up on the sombrero as best I could using the towel. I just left the towel up there. I didn't want to risk touching him! When Jeremy came home, he wondered why a towel was up with Jingle Bells, so I explained that he fell. He said he would have used tongs. Oh well, maybe next time.
Jingle Bells got a container out of Piper's room and placed it in the fireplace. He didn't want to get the ashes on his nice outfit. It took the kids a little longer to find him this morning.
He sat on the light fixture...
The first Sunday in December, Piper dressed in this nice Christmas dress. I told her she looked like Jingle Bells.
That same Sunday, Jingle Bells rode to church with us...I had to tone down my driving a little...Wouldn't want Santa to put me on his naughty list ;)
Sitting on the water cooler....
And on the kid's shower curtain rod...
The next morning, Jingle Bells built a house out of the kid's blocks in the playroom. It took them a really long time to find him that day!
Hiding behind the Texas Star hanging on our wall...
Jingle Bells played Wii one morning before we woke up. He almost beat my high score!
Yes, I do realize we still have our Halloween buckets out and it was almost Christmas. We do have four children, which means we get ALOT of candy at Halloween. But if we didn't still have it out, where would Jingle Bells have hid that day?
Jingle Bells got brave one day, or maybe he was testing the kids. I'm not sure what made him decide to sit on the floor and hug the table leg. Before this, he had been up pretty high, to where they couldn't touch him. But sitting on the floor, was pretty risky!
And of course, being the curious kids they are, Rilian touched him! Finn and Piper were just so upset that RILIAN TOUCHED JINGLE BELLS! I'm not sure if Rilian quite understood the consequences of what he did, but he found out the next morning. Jingle Bells left this note...
It was tied around the same table leg that he was hugging the day before.
It took the kids awhile to find the note. But Piper was so upset when she found it, she cried. I felt really bad. I didn't think she would take it so hard. So, at school that day, she wrote this note to Jingle Bells.
And this was her journal entry that day at school. It's a pretty good picture, if you ask me.
Piper also wrote Jeremy and I this note. I guess she decided to write it on the same paper as some of her spelling words. I felt relieved knowing she didn't cry at school about Jingle Bells.
The kids were happy when Jingle Bells was well enough to come back the next day!
This was the note he had wrapped around a bag of candy.
Here is a close up of what the medicine/candy looked like.
Hanging upside down in the blinds...
Jingle Bells got one of Piper's Barbie's coats and hid in the fridge. It took the kids a long time to find him this morning. Seven thought that Jingle Bells made the coat. He didn't realize that it was one of Piper's Barbie's coats. Rilian was actually scared to get his cup out of the fridge because it was right beside Jingle Bells. He was afraid he would make Jingle Bells sick again if he touched him.
One of these things is not like the others...
Sitting in some coffee cups on the kitchen counter...
Jingle Bells removed the angel off the top of the tree and sat in her place...
Sitting in a stocking...
He made a swing in the kitchen...
Sitting by the printer....
Where's Waldo? aka Jingle Bells...
The morning of Christmas Eve was the last morning that Jingle Bells would be with us. He was a little ornery this morning. He took a pair of each of the kid's underwear and strung them on a string and hung upside down on it. The kids thought it was funny.
On Christmas morning, Jingle Bells left this note, by the fireplace, with a bag full of the candy that he left the morning he came back after being touched.
Did your family have an Elf this year?
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