elf on the shelf, week 1.

I started doing Elf on the Shelf with my son last year and had SO much fun. In all honesty, I think that there's a good chance that I had more fun than he did because I got to scheme about the daily reveal and then watch his reaction. I bought our elf last year two weeks before Christmas and it looks like only one week made it on the blog, so I'll be more diligent this year.

Day 1: 
I probably didn't go by proper elf on the shelf protocol, but we didn't re-read the book this year. I asked Nate if he remembered Santa's elf that came to visit and sometimes got into silly situations and he remembered! He even remembered the elf's name (Rhino) and opted not to change it.

I wanted to do a few more mischievous scenarios this year, so we started with a classic. What says mischief more than some drawn on facial hair?!

Daily Cost: Free if you already have some framed pictures (what parent doesn't?!) and a dry erase marked handy.  

Day 2:
I'll admit that I am trying to not reinvent the wheel this year. While I don't want to necessarily recreate any of the same scenes that we did last year, I've relied on my fair share of Pinterest pins and Instagram posts to fuel my ideas. One of which was to have Rhino make a "snow angel". Somehow our elf's hat came off, so I've used it as a little prop

Daily Cost: Free as long as you have some salt on hand. I opted for salt rather than sugar because I wanted to avoid the sticky factor. I also did this on top of a silicon baking sheet for really easy clean up!

Day 3:
We've really stressed the importance of responsibility with Nathan this year and, as part of that "training", you may remember that we started to use a chore chart. I love how this little chart has helped Nathan initiate cleaning up after himself and helping other people in our family! Naturally, this was a perfect outlet for our elf to work some of his magic. Instead of Nate's normal chores, Rhino filled the chart with some funny (and gross) "chores". Nathan thought that it was hysterical but also was very concerned that "all my money is gone" where the total amount earned had been erased :)

Day 4: 
After a few days of fun and games, it was time to reintegrate some sweetness back into our daily elf visits. Nate loves this Santa decoration and spends time alternating between dragging him around the house and wearing him on his head. The back story to this scene was that Rhino saw this Santa and it made him miss Santa in the North Pole so much that he just had to give this little guy a huge hug. A little contrived, but Nate thought it was sweet.

 Daily Cost: Free!

Day 5: 
Another warm and fuzzy day! Nathan found Rhino all cuddled up with Rudolph and the Abominable Snow Monster! Also, my favorite Nathan with Santa photo ever is in the background - what child doesn't have that freak out, stranger danger moment?

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 6: 
We have these decorative Christmas blocks that we bought a few years ago that are made to spell out things like believe, noel. and joy. You know, Christmas words. Well, while this was on the right wintery page, Rhino rearranged our letters which had said "believe" into "I Love Snow".

Daily Cost: Free! Notice a theme this year? Trying to keep our expenses to an absolute minimum and make use of all of our decorations and things around the house!

Day 7:
Let me put it out there that I didn't see this anywhere, though I'm sure it's not an original idea. However, I did share it with some friends and put it out on my Instagram. I was thinking about how accustomed Nathan is to flipping through my phone, especially my pictures. How perfect is an elf selfie?! So, so easy to set up and Nathan was more than excited to find this in my phone!

 
Daily Cost: Free!


Well, that wraps up our first week! This has been another fun way to focus on the upcoming holiday and enjoy all of the moments leading up to it! When schedules are chocked full of work and school, this has been a nice thing to know we'll do every day together :)