Third Week Of Elf Fun

Hubby has been having lots of fun helping, he does the more fun things like Alfie playing PS3 or board games or colouring in.

 December 15th Alfie, Yoda, Darth and Batman all decided to have some fun colouring in one of the boy's Christmas colouring books.

 December 16th Alfie and friends decided to play Monopoly Millionaire.

 We had planned on putting up our tree during the Feast of St Nick but certain events prevented this.
December 17th Alfie prompted us to finally put up our tree.














December 18th Alfie had fun hiding in the tree, unfortunately I accidentally deleted the photo before saving it to the computer so I will have to repose him for my album.
I am hoping next year I will be more used to this and not forget to take photos or accidentally delete them.

 December 19th Alfie brought a Zentangle book and a pen for each boy so they could learn to Zentangle.
Mum joined in the fun and her wobbly hand made for some very wobbly squares.

 The boys creating.

 At 224am on December 20th I realised Alfie hadn't moved, half asleep I couldn't think of what Alfie was meant to be doing so he sat in my Scrapbooking Workshop Cart.

December 21st I did it again 517am I realised Alfie had not moved, note my boys are usually up by 5am at the latest during Summer but big sister kept them up watching Disney movies so they slept in until after 7am.
Alfie brought a note prompting we go look at Christmas Lights.
The boys seem to of forgotten we look at people's Christmas Lights each year and thought he meant they should plug our tree lights in and turn them on all day.

Second Week Of Elf Fun - Yay Alfie Arrived

Our second week of Elf Fun

December 8th Alfie left the boys a Simply Said Dear Santa book each.

Also on December 8th the Postie delivered our elf while I was at a appointment with my 17yr.  YAY

December 9th Alfie makes his first appearance.  I went with just him sitting on the edging of the bunk.
Mr 8 says that as he has no hands or feet he can't be Santa's Elf and they have both commented on the fact he looks like a toy with a face painted on.
I explained that most families who have a elf visit have ones that look like this, some families have more than one elf, some families have elves that are made of felt or wool, some have a elf like this and a elf made of felt, etc.
Think I may have to try putting together the felt elf kit I got in case he didn't arrive so there are 2 kinds of elves visiting us.






December 10th I had a huge day, we had Specialist appointments 120ks from home and I was only back in our town for 20mins (just enough time to organise dinner) before having to hit the road to take Miss 19 to a gig in the next town over.  I fell asleep soon after getting home, so when I realised Alfie hadn't moved I just popped him on a shelf in the lounge but forgot to take a photo.
I think I will repose him for this and hugging Batman (see December 12th) when the boys are off visiting their big sister or Grandparents so I can include the pics in my December Project.

December 11th a cheeky Alfie hopped into Mr 8's bed and had a notecard suggesting they visit Santa and have a photo with him.

December 12th Alfie set himself up on the Kitchen Whiteboard and suggested they sing a carol.
Holly and message by my 17yr.
I forgot to take a pic but later in the morning Alfie moved back the the bunk and was giving Batman a hug.

December 13th Alfie is playing Go Fish with Yoda and Darth lego clocks on the boys desk.  Batman is there to supervise.







December 14th I forgot to take a photo but he was playing PS3 with Darth, Yoda and Batman.

After spending a week trying to find the time to repose the photos I missed I have decided this post has waited long enough to be published.
Hopefully I can repose them soon so they can go in the album.

First Week Of Elf Fun - without our Elf

Unfortunately our Elf has not arrived so I had to change the wording of the letter from Santa.
First I tried to make my own elf but with my hand issues I was unable to.

Oh just a note regarding my post for Preparing for Elf Fun At Our Home the Zentangle book I ordered the shop informed me was on back order from the US so would be unlikely to get here before Christmas, so instead I have ordered Zentangle for Kids from Book Despository, I have had to tweak my Elf Calendar a bit to accommodate delays in the Zentangle book and the fact our elf isn't here yet as I need to do things that don't require the elf until AusPost delivers him.
 

So on Friday November 28th instead of the door arriving and a letter in the mailbox from Santa saying he had put a Magic Elf Door in the house and one of his elves (Alfie) would be coming to stay with us on December 1st I didn't put the door up until December 1st and implied in the letter from Santa that the date Alfie would arrive to stay with us would be random but in the lead up he might leave things for us or leave notes with ideas.

December 1st the door arrived as did the repaired (though I didn't notice a gold ball was missing off his crown and Mr 9.5 did) Nutcracker Advent Calendar my son fell in love with at the op-shop with a notecard from Santa. 
My printer decided to play up so I had to hand write the card and Mr 9.5 being the little scientist that he is knew it was my writing despite my best efforts to disguise it.  As he was trying to figure it all out, whispering to me as he didn't want his little brother to hear I kept saying just enjoy the magic mate and he decided I suspect for my benefit to enjoy the magic and not pick it apart.

 December 2nd Alfie left Christmas Cards and a Christmas Card List, they took their lists to school and wrote down all their classmates names and their friends in other classes, they then started writing out cards after school, but their lists are quiet large so finished after school on December 3rd.

December 3rd various dramas meant that steps that needed to occur for Alfie to be able to leave the tree and decorations out did not get done so instead he left a book of Christmas stories I found on Monday while they were at school.

I created a pocket in my December Project for the notes and cards Alfie and Santa leave that is opposite the 12 pocket page that I will use for photos.  The Silver Ribbon used on the book has been used to decorate the cover of my project and the off-cut has been used to tie a bow on the top ring where the pocket it to act as a page marker and decorate a little.


 

 
December 4th Alfie left a new plain basic stocking for each boy with a notecard saying St Nick comes soon, I thought these would be handy to hang out for him Friday night.

December 5th Alfie left Pikelets for the boys breakfast on their last day of school.

 Also on December 5th the postie delivered the parcel that had the elves for the boys teacher gifts in at just before 10am so I quickly organised a USB for each teacher full of links to blogs, websites and photos of ideas for in the classroom, wrapped it and got to the school for the 12pm pick up.
Unfortunately the elf I ordered for us before ordering these has still not arrived.

December 6th as St Nick was leaving the boys nuts and Spekulatius Alfie left a note on top of the cornflakes in the pantry suggesting we get decorating, hubby has been sick so the tree and decorations have been delayed in coming out of the cupboard which is too high for me.

December 7th Mr 9.5 had a sleep over last night so Alfie just left a Aussie Christmas Colouring Book on his bed for each boy (Mr 8 had been playing with Bionicles before bed).






All notes have continued to go into my December Project, the boys are happily putting them in for me.

Preparations for Elf Fun At Our Home

I discovered Elf On The Shelf from Organised Housewife's post about it last year and was keen, I came across the Kindness Elf late September and then due to Uni stress I forgot all about it.
As I neared finishing my final assignment someone shared Elf On The Shelf in the Project Life Australia Facebook Group and I got excited and so ordered the doll. 
A day later Kindness Elf was back on my radar, so I have chosen to do all things Elfie in a way that suits our needs.
While searching Kindness Elf I found some blogs used language when talking about children that I find unfair so I found myself wanting to dismiss the idea but thought no the concept is great I just need to ignore those who talk about children this way and focus on kindness and fun.
I started a Pinterest board saving anything that looked like it would be of use.
Joined the facebook groups I could find for both and searched blogs, etc.
I am so excited I thought I would post this blog post now and do a update at the end of each week in December of our Elf Fun.

On November 12th I ducked into St Vinnies with the boys after school and Mr 9.5 fell in love with this Nutcracker Advent Calendar, I told him there was no way Mummy could replace his missing block so we should leave him for someone who could.  After school drop off the next day I raced back to pick him up, he is arriving with our elf on December 1st with a letter from Santa saying he noticed Connor loved this Nutcracker and so he got the elves to fix it for him.











I got this door on ebay (it is a 1:12 scale dolls house door), stickers are from Lincraft.

I have picked up a plain stocking for them each for the elf to bring the morning of December 5th for them to put up for St Nick that night.

I have ordered Zentagle 1 as our Elf is going to prompt the kids in week 2 of December to learn Zentangle with Mum so my next trip to Officeworks I will be getting the boys a pen each that Courtney recommended to me as a good starter Zentangle pen for the boys.

I remembered I had bought 2 Simply Said Dear Santa books for the boys years ago thinking I would get them to do them when they were both big enough to really enjoy it, well at 8 and 9.5 I think they are big enough now.
So the elf will leave these with a journalling pen each for them to create that day.

Other Elf prompts will include but not in this order donating toys they no longer play with, going to play with the dogs at the refuge so they aren't so lonely (we adopted a older dog in April who had been there for 6months, the dogs only get 1 hour a day out of the concrete pens and she has some big issues due to this), December 2nd he will prompt them to write cards after school to their friends, classmates and teachers, make presents for their Grandparents and Aunt & Uncle, help Mum prepare Christmas treats, do some scrapbooking with Mum, have a movie day at home, put up the tree, I am still working on my list, it is nearly done.

I printed out the Calendar page from a Christmas Planner from The Polka Dot Posie to keep in my Special Events section of my Filofax to plan out our Elf prompts.

It is now November 23rd and my Elf was shipped November 3rd so I am a little worried it won't arrive in time for me to put the letter in the mailbox to the boys and set the door up while they are at school on Friday, I am going to check for a Elf Plushie to have in reserve just in case.