merry christmas.

Our marathon Christmas has drawn to a close and it was so great. I'm so blessed to have such a loving family to spend the holiday with. We generally have three Christmas celebrations in one day, but this year, we stretched it to four!

After celebrating my brother's birthday on Christmas Eve, we came home to set out cookies and milk for Santa. Unfortunately, we didn't make cookies ahead of time so I grabbed some cookies at a convenience store. For the record, never buy ten cookies for $1. It's not a good deal because they will taste like dirt.

N was so excited about Santa coming that he couldn't sleep. I don't think he went to bed until after 1:00 a.m.! I was so looking forward to reading him The Polar Express, a new addition to his ever-growing library, but that was what did the trick to put him to sleep. Once he did go to bed, I got to play Santa! I have a somewhat OCD of buying wrapping paper that balances colors, I keep track of how many presents are in what paper, and then I alternate them around the tree. At least it makes for a pretty picture!

In the morning, Nate went rushing down and started screaming that Santa came. He was just SO excited to get started, but first we did our annual Christmas morning pictures (thank goodness for timers and tripods!). This year's twist was family Christmas pajamas that I think are absolutely adorable!

Oh, and did I mention that Chris's mom is here for Christmas? She got into the jammie fun time in the morning, too! :) 

We started with N's present from Santa, wrapped up in the ribbon that he got from our visit to Santa this year (maybe one day I'll learn to make a proper bow). Isn't Nate's face just priceless? "He remembered!" 

I've never seen my child go through presents so quickly! I think he was done unwrapping everything (and helped us with ours, too) in about twenty minutes and then we started the process of opening everything and putting a few things together. Here are a few from our present opening time:

After our two combined Christmases, we headed over to Chris's uncle's house to celebrate with them by having a delicious Christmas lunch together. The kids played and the food was just amazing.

After our lunch, we came back home and Chris started making our amazing dinner. Some sort of tenderloin roast with lots of yummy roasted vegetables, macaroni and cheese from scratch, Red Lobster biscuits (hooray for Costco selling the mix!), and my great-aunt's broccoli and cheese casserole. Seriously, I'm so blessed that my husband is such a wonderful cook!

Once we were properly stuffed full of deliciousness, we continued the celebration with my family by doing our annual white elephant exchange, dollar store style. If you're looking for something really funny to do with your family on Christmas, I highly suggest it. We are one goofy bunch!

I'm not sure where my head was when we were opening presents, because I didn't really take any pictures. We did manage to get our family picture with the tripod, though! 

 Did you see there is a new addition to the family this year? My youngest nephew, Baby K, had his first Christmas! Oh how cute this little chunk is!

N is obsessed with babies and ever so patient and loving. It's good to know in case we ever have another little one! All K wants to do is grab fistfuls of Nate's hair, and all N wants to do is hold him. I wish I could freeze these sweet little moments because they're so fleeting. You blink and they'll be graduating from high school!  My parents are more than a little taken with them ... :)

Lots of family, terrific food, thoughtful gifts, and an abundance of gratitude: that was my crazy, marathon, four takes Christmas. Over the last few years, as we've seen our tiny baby grow into a little boy, we've come to treasure the time that we spend with him and the rest of our family over anything material items that come our way. But, handmade gifts from our kiddo take a close second place: this year's gift is an ornament for the tree with his handprint turned into little snowmen and a photo of him inside.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

white elephant exchange, dollar store style.

I started a new Christmas tradition with my family a few years ago, one that is slowly evolving, but ends up with lots of laughs and memorable moments. Each year we do a white elephant swap, but with a few twists:

• I buy all of the gifts instead of everyone bringing one - I have so much fun doing this that I coordinate everything so that the family just enjoys the hilarity that ensues 
• All of the gifts are purchased at the dollar store and I pick items that will be a.) good for pictures, b.) misleading when trying to figure out what they are while wrapped, and c.) have a funny factor 
• We draw names out of a hat (or this year a Santa mug) for who goes first (which is the worst position to be in) 
• Every person, except the person who goes first, has the ability to 'steal' a gift that has already been opened once they open their gift; however, they have to pose with the original gift for a photo

Over the last few years, this has been a hysterical start to our family time together and we have done this before opening presents.  Since I buy and wrap everything, I wanted to make some tweaks this year to revolutionize this little exchange.  For all of the items and wrapping paper/boxes, I spent less than $20!

So, first I went to one of our local dollar per item stores and bought some very random, funny things.This year's selections included plastic grapes, a ninja mask, participation mini-trophies, and a pretty princess ribbon. In years past we've had other 'unique' items like pink bedroom slippers, hemorrhoid cream, and fake hair.

Next, I put all of the items into the same size white clothing boxes (also available at the local dollar per item store with 3 boxes per pack!) 

After that, all of the boxes got wrapped in the exact same wrapping paper. While I may remember (or not!) what I originally bought, by the time that we got to our exchange, I had no idea which box was which. 

And then we got started and some funniness ensued. Here is this year's line up of reactions and poses:

I hope that everyone had as much fun as I did with this little exchange! It's always fun to pack in a few extra giggles for Christmas! 

elf on the shelf, week 4.

Christmas has come and gone and our elf scout, Rhino, has headed back to the North Pole until next December. As a family, Elf on a Shelf has been really fun for all of us this year! I've had so much fun scheming for daily appearances, N has had a blast finding Rhino every day, and I think my husband has been amused with both of us. I hope to keep this tradition going for as long as possible. 

Want to see some of our other elf adventures? Check these out: 

• Last year 
• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3 

Day 22: 

Some little elf got into our Costco-sized stash of k-cups and built himself a coffee fort and then settled into an oversized Santa mug this morning! 

Daily Cost: Free! 

Day 23: 

One morning after breakfast, N got a not so subtle reminder to brush his teeth from Rhino. I'm not sure what's worse - the fact that my kiddo ate the toothpaste off of the elf, or the fact that I let him. Either way, this was a cute and very easy set up!

Daily Cost: Free! 

Day 24: 

I managed to wrap all of our Christmas gifts in advance, but still needed to wrap some items that we had for our family white elephant exchange. After I finished, I had N help me to clean up the wrapping paper scraps and we found this helpful little elf waiting for us at the trash can. 

Daily Cost: $1. I found this cute little trashcan at the dollar store and picked it up for this elf scene - it's the perfect size! I sometimes envy parents who have little girls with dollhouse toys - oh the opportunities you could have for these daily adventures! :) 

Day 25: 

Ahh, Christmas morning! I will never, ever change the fact that Rhino will be in the Christmas tree when N comes bounding down the stairs to see if Santa came. I did add to the tradition this year by adding some snowflakes to the tree, along with a little note from our elf. I felt that I needed to provide a bit of closure for Rhino just disappearing, so hopefully the note did that justice. Also, I cannot remember the last time that I wrote anything fully in cursive.

Daily Cost: Free! 

Until next year, little elf! 

elf on the shelf, week 3.

If you're looking for some Elf on the Shelf ideas, be sure to check out:

• week 1 
• week 2
• last year

Here's our most recent week of adventures with our scout elf, Rhino:

Day 15: 
In the spirit of keeping all of these daily elf reveals from breaking the bank and to keep decorating our house for Christmas, Rhino made this snowman for the door to N's bedroom. So easy to do and my kiddo was properly amazed. Now whenever we have someone over to the house, he shows them the snowman immediately.

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 16:
I bought this adorable little gingerbread bank for absolutely no good reason a few years ago. I've used it to decorate in our living room, but it didn't "fit" with everything else. Last year we kept it in storage because I was afraid it would get broken. This year, N is finally old enough to have something that is cheap but breakable in his room.  Rhino brought him some "coins", as N calls them, that spelled out a greeting for my little guy. N was excited for the money to go into his gingerbread bank and also that his elf is just so sweet.

Daily Cost: Just the change that was rolling around in the bottom of my purse :)

Day 17:
Chris's mom is here for Christmas so I thought it would be fun to both welcome her and fit in our daily elf siting. When we got back from the airport, we found Rhino sitting on the nightstand in our guest room with a little welcome sign. Naturally, this encouraged N to talk about all of the things that Rhino has been up to lately.

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 18: 
Hiding our elf during the day has become almost as much of a challenge as deciding how stage the daily visit. We had an accidental elf reveal when Nathan found his during the day hiding spot. Oops! Luckily, N thought that the elf was helping him get a straw - so that works in my book!

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 19: 
Breakfast is a big deal to my kid - big deal in the sense that he would eat cereal for every meal if we would let him. Imagine his delight when we found our elf in the cereal container? Germophobes, this one may not be for you.

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 20: 

Pinterest has these adorable elf on the shelf set-ups where it looks like the elf is pooping out the Hershey kiss on the top of a blossom cookie. Well, I skimped on the baking and went straight for the chocolate by using some kisses and chocolate chip baking morels. Now my child thinks that elves poop chocolate. So glad he was too excited to notice the ridiculous amount of tape on our elf. How do people keep their elves propped up?!

 

Daily Cost: If you don't already have kisses in your house, you can get a small pack at the Dollar Store!

Day 21: 
I'm not sure that my son knows what a sack race is, but I thought that the pictures that I found online were too cute to pass up. In this race we have Rhino in the lead, followed by some Christmas characters, Captain Hook, Woody, and my husband's childhood favorite monkey rounds up the group. I used some of Nate's blocks to make a quick finish line and tried to pose Rhino the Elf with his hands up as he wins the race. Too cute!

Daily Cost: If you don't already have brown sandwich bags at home, you can find these at the dollar store!

We're in the home stretch for our Elf! Only a few more days before he goes back to Santa :)

elf on the shelf, week 2.

If you're looking for some Elf on the Shelf inspiration, be sure to check out what we did last week and last year! Rhino continues to bring a (hopefully) balanced mix of shenanigans and sweetness to our house as we count down to Christmas!

Day 8: 
If "he sees you when you're sleeping" and "he knows when you're awake", then the logical step is to have an elf scout check in on your child during both his waking and blissfully sleeping hours, right? I waited until Nate was asleep and got a cute shot of his elf taking a little snooze with him.

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 9:
I picked up some Elf on the Shelf jammies when they were on sale at Target (50% off!) about a month ago. After Nate finished with his shower last night, he came in and found Rhino with the PJs on his bed. Normally my child detests anything with buttons that touch his skin, but because these were from Rhino they were no problem at all!

Daily Cost: $7.50, but let's be honest - I was going to buy Christmas pajamas anyway!

Day 10: 
What's a better way to start the day than with an elf who helps make your breakfast? Because Nate is the pickiest eater I've met in my life, his doctor has encouraged us to have him drink a nutritional supplement each day. When Nate went to get his Pediasure out of the fridge, there was Rhino lending a helping hand!

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 11: 
I think that for the next few days I'll be incorporating our elf into Nate's toys. It's a fun (and free!) way to stage some cuteness. Plus, today's elf sighting received a huge shriek of excitement! I think the combination of the t-rex "chomping" on rhino and the elf hat on the other guy.

 
Daily Cost: Free!

Day 12:
Sometimes we find our elf just hanging out. Why not hang out in our (fake) orchid?

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 13: 
My parents took N to the Festival of Lights over the weekend and Rhino was waiting patiently for Nathan when they got back. Quick brag on my kid: he played the carnival where you throw a dart at a balloon and won! I'm pretty sure that I would be able to do that!

Daily Cost: Free! (check out the quick tutorial on how to make a wreath like this)

Day 14: 
What child doesn't like helping to make and then eat cookies? I found this really cute Claus Couture Collection Chef Apron Set at Target (naturally) that was on sale, so I splurged and picked it up. Nathan was so excited that he and his elf matched - notice, we've given up on not touching the elf because N mostly wants to hug him. Here's how he found Rhino, as well as a shot of them together. LOVE that the elf's apron says "I love my family" and N's apron says "I love my elf"

 

Daily Cost: $21 (yeah, totally a splurge day...)


Week two of Elf on the Shelf, complete! Christmas is just around the corner!