Final Holiday Post- Elf Mischief

 Using the holiday m&m's to express their excitement about that night's pajama party

 Fishing for some crackers

 Reading one of K's favorite books

 Putting up "MISSING" signs after Alex the Elf couldn't be found one night

(a good plan until K's elf went missing as well, and after an exhaustive search still couldn't be found.  Her solution- put up a sign since it worked to find Alex.  Luckily, her elf reappeared later that night so no sign necessary)

 A little Elf vandalism

 Marshmallow snowmen

 Enjoying some Christmas cookies

 "Elf-ing" themselves on the Office Max "Elf Yourself" website

They also wrote on the bathroom mirror with lipstick, toilet papered the Christmas tree, replaced the kids' stockings with their underwear, drove the toy cars through the playroom and used our copier to copy their rear ends.  However, the favorite stunt was this one....

I knew when the kids had woken up cause I heard them waking each other up to come "see what the elves did"  About a minute later I hear one say "That's not safe at all"

 

 

Happy St. Nicholas (and the Elves are Back)

Today was St, Nicholas Day.  Rather than put out shoes, st. Nick fills their stocking overnight and the kids awake to candy and small presents.  St NIck brings their new ornaments for their tree and a new pair of pajamas for our annual pajama party, along with the candy and other small things.  Here are the kids at o'dark thirty checking out what's in the stockings.  

(A got a stocking too, but he decided he wanted to wait until after school to open his which I think was his way of avoiding the pictures since I am still at work when he comes home)

St. Nick also brings the elves back with him (cause Thanksgiving is WAAAAYYYYY too early for elves in the house if you know what I mean)  So what the kids were most excited about was the return of Alex, Rainbow and Ralph.  In elf fashion, they started off by having a marshmallow fight by the stockings...

Pesky Little Elves

So our elves arrived for the first time late in the holiday season (a week before Christmas to be exact) since it took a while for Santa to find elves that "matched" my kids.   However, on the morning of Dec 18 X, D and K awoke to find an elf in their room amid a ton of Santa's magic snow (it's apparently magic because no matter how long you spend vacuuming it you can still find more the next day)  We told A that since he was over 10 he had to ask Santa for an elf if he wanted one.  He declined and halfway through the week informed me that the "elves were doing boring things"

We are not strictly following the "elf rules"  Our elves did not report back to Santa (although based on the behavior this year- they might be reporting back next year) and they could be touched (which meant we had to make sure not to leave them on any of our outings since the kids insisted that they come along)  

X named his elf Alex, D named her elf Rainbow and K named her elf Ralph (although in the interest of fair disclosure I think she originally misunderstood "elf" but by the time we figured it out Ralph was the name)

Our elves were, to use D's words "a little naughty".  Here are their week of escapades:

Using a box of candy canes to practice their spelling

Swiping some Christmas cookies (little did they know that overnight the dog will come swipe the cookies they swiped)

 Hitting the electronics  (X was mad that "that elf used up all my battery")

 Making rice angels (apparently when there isn't any snow you make due with what you can find....)

TP-ing the kids' Christmas Tree in their playroom

 

 And replacing their stockings with their underwear

Now some of you may have seen the video of the two kids distraught about saying good bye to their elf.  (which I might add is significantly funnier when it isn't your kid)  Let me tell you- despite knowing all week that Santa was taking the elves back AND they would return next year- K was inconsolable about saying good-bye to Ralph.  (which I am sure had nothing to do with the fact she was overtired)  She does still mention missing her elf.

However- some of her sadness was alleviated by the "thank you for watching my elves" gift that Santa left Christmas morning where the elves had been