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!

christmas card display.

I love Christmas cards. I have always sent them out, even when I had to hand write a note on each and everyone. I've traded hand cramps for photo session planning as we've transitioned to photo cards over the last few years. I love sending them to all of our family and friends and I love getting them even more. A few years ago I struggled with the "perfect" way to display all of the cards that we got - especially because more and more families have started sending photo cards. Rather than buying a ready made card holder, I decided to make one myself so that I could show the cards all around my kitchen. It was such an easy and inexpensive project - definitely a unique way to decorate for Christmas!

Materials:

• Clothespins 
• Decorative item for the end of the clothes pin (I used buttons)
• Command strips
• Ribbon (at least 1.5 inches wide)
• Flat painted ornaments (found at craft stores)
• Glue gun 
• Scissors

Directions: 

• Measure the length of your cabinets or wherever you wish to display your cards 
• Cut the ribbon to the desired length 
• Use the glue gun to attach the flat painted ornaments at each end of the ribbon 
• Let the glue cool on the ribbon 
• Attach the ribbon to the cabinet or wherever you wish to display your cards with the Command strips (I've never had a problem with these stripping the finish off of my cabinets)

• Use the glue gun to attach the buttons to the end of each clothespin 
• Let the glue cool on the clothespins
• Display all of your Christmas cards by affixing them to the ribbon with your clothespins 

The end result will look a little something like this, a beautiful wall of all of your family and friends wishing you well through the holidays! 

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 :)

santa.

After the amazing Santa experiences that we've had over the last few years, I'm more than convinced that I will never take my child to a mall Santa again!

Last year, I wrote a pretty extensive post about our visit to see Santa at Merrifield Garden Center.  This year, we set out on a weeknight with the goal of avoiding some of the really big crowds to go see Santa. I really can't sing the praises for this place enough, but they implemented some really great changes this year. First of all, you don't have to stand in line anymore! Praise be! After arriving, you take a number and one of Santa's helpers will even grab your cell number and, get this, text you when it's your turn! What do you do while you wait? Well, in one room they had Frozen playing (genius), in another room they had the more traditional Christmas cartoons playing, and also had tables set up with coloring books and crayons.

Like last year, Santa spent a good deal of time to listen to ALL of the things on Nate's list list (N came prepared!), to ask him Nate if he was a good boy this year, and to answer questions about why his living room was set up like it was and where the reindeer were while Santa was talking to him. We also paid only $5 to have four digital images emailed to us! Such a bargain!

Another thing that this place does that I absolutely adore is that at the end of the visit, Santa asks your child to pick his or her favorite color from a basket of ribbons. After cutting off a piece, Santa tells your child to hang the ribbon on your tree on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning, it will be wrapped around one of the things that your child asked for. We did this last year with some of the stuffed animals that Nate asked for and he was absolutely awestruck that Santa remembered.  Such a great touch to really keep the magic alive!

Here are some moments from their visit:

 

 

 

decorating.

My house looks its best at Christmas. My favorite thing is to look at our tree at night when it is the only thing that lights up my (hopefully) silent house. Getting to that point was a challenge this year! In theory, the idea of prelit trees could not be more perfect for my detail oriented and often critical eye. Evenly spaced bulbs that show the depth of the tree, not just on the out branches? Yes, please!

Unfortunately, the top twelve or so inches of our tree went out this year and despite all of our bulb testing and replacement, could not be fixed. I settled for a string of lights made by the same brand as those that are on the tree, but in my heart of hearts I can see the difference without much more than a glance. No one else seems to think that it's that noticeable, but next year it looks like we'll be going with a tried and true artificial tree with a separate string of lights. You would think that we heft our decorations without a bit of care in the world, as our star didn't work this year either. Now we have a new and improved star that changes colors!

Christmas decorations are seriously the best ... 

And remember the autumn-inspired wreath that I made? It now has a Christmas cousin that turned out pretty well! I can wrap ribbon and burlap, but that is about the extent of my craftiness.

Nathan was a great little helper when we decorated the tree this year. Any parent's eye will notice that anything breakable is on the top third of the tree, while the bottom of the tree is heavy with shatterproof balls and ornaments that Nate has picked out over the last few years. Nate's daily routine has been: come home from school, take all of "his" ornaments off of the tree, play for a while, re-decorate.  A friend mentioned that she dates all of her ornaments and who they were from (if gifts). I definitely will be doing that before we put everything away this year!  Here is my little helper, hard at work!

And what would one of my posts be without a cheesy and posed photo of my little guy? Love this little smile!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!