Daizy Goodelf's Elfish Adventures

The last few Christmases I had seen these little elves getting into mischief and
pulling random shenanigans throughout the holiday season. I looked at getting my girls their own elf last Christmas (2011) but was shocked into a money coma when I saw how much "Santa" charged for one of his elves to visit. $30ish was just a little more than I cared to spend on a felt elf and a book. So we had no visiting elf then.

Then the 2012 Christmas season rolled around and those little elves started their craziness all over again. My oldest, S, started asking why Santa hadn't sent an elf to our house....all her friends had an elf, so why didn't we? And of course Elf ideas were popping up left and right on my pinterest feed... So I started looking at adopting an elf again. The price was still the same, but I had received some Amazon money from a friend for my birthday so I decided to splurge that gift money on my babies. I was slightly worried though because I didn't "send the adoption papers in" until the first week of December! I had missed a lot of mischief days...but then she arrived! On December 13, our very own Daizy Goodelf arrived. Middle girl, I, was so excited and insisted that we must take her with us to pick up S from school. My middle daughter, I, came up with her name and surprisingly was met with zero argument from S. We read the story and the girls were anxious to see where she would be found the next morning.

 Even though we had a shorter time with Daizy than other families may have had with their elves this year, we still had tons of fun finding her and witnessing the silly little pranks she pulled. I think that I may have had just as much fun plotting and planning said pranks as the girls did finding her each morning. She even showed up in our hotel room during our weekend trip to see my grandmother! The girls were super surprised to find her hanging from the shower curtain in the bathroom of our hotel room.

Here is a list of places Daizy was found and tricks she pulled.

1. Hanging from S's school carpool pick up number 
2. Reading stuffed animals and toys a Christmas book around the Christmas tree
3. She replaced our stockings with our underwear and hid the stockings around the house (She even hung a *clean* diaper in place of baby A's stocking!!)
4.  She asked for some privacy in the shower at the hotel
5. Playing guitar and using the General's amp!
6. Making snow angels in the flour we had used when we made sugar cookies....and she even nibbled a cookie!!
7. SHe drew faces on the girls pictures with a dry erase marker
8. Sipping syrup through a crazy straw!
9. She was found playing with the Lite Brite
10. Ooops! Stuck in the garland on the banister
11. Tea party with Barbie!!
12. Her last night before Santa took her back to the North Pole, Daizy got into the presents under the tree and brought an extra gift for I and A (S was at her dad's house for Christmas at this time). Girl I ripped into the gift to discover it was the book, "The Night Before Christmas" !! We read it multiple times that day in preparation of Santa's arrival.

 

 We definitely had fun with Daizy and we were all sad to say Goodbye. But at least we know she'll be back next Christmas season and we'll have longer to play next year now that she's figured out where we live. The moral of my story??? If you aren't adopting an elf because of the cost, then get over it. Daizy more than paid for herself in just the short time she was here. I have priceless memories of my precious girls waking up to the wonder and magic of a Christmas elf that I will treasure forever. The Elf on the Shelf is definitely worth it....so go buy one if you don't already have one...maybe you can catch an "adoption" sale!

 If you aren't already, be sure to follow me on Pinterest and also be sure to check out my Facebook page as well.... You can find me at The Pinspired Mom.... Until next time!!

Naughty or Nice?

Yesterday I posted about our activity advent calendar that we have been doing. Its great! We have done some fun things this past week including make paper snowflakes, paper chains, watched Christmas movies, cleaned out old toys, and written letters to Santa. Today we are going to head out to pick out a toy for a needy child in our area. Fun stuff right? Well my girls think so, which is why I have discovered that this advent calendar has a dual purpose! DISCIPLINE!!

Let me tell you, my girls are great. I love them to pieces. But they hold onto the stereotype that siblings have to fight with each other. Especially as of late. Its been driving me nuts! The screaming at one another was getting unbearable and I could feel the grey hair infiltrating my 26 year old scalp. So, I told them that they would get one warning when they started fighting and if it continued after that, they would lose an advent activity. I don't care who started it or what the fight was about. The fighting needs to stop. So far, I have taken 2 activities from them. I chose at random which activities would go. I didn't even realize which ones I was taking out, until I unrolled them and read them. The girls still don't know which activities they will be missing out on. (Maybe I should tell them to make the punishment really stick? I don't know....) They have the chance to earn them back, assuming they can show me that they have learned how to get along with each other. The fights have definitely slowed down in frequency so this method seems to be working. I have also mentioned to them that Santa is not pleased to see them losing activities and that he told me that if they lose 5 activities before Christmas that he may have to reconsider their place on the nice list. This really got their attention. I'm hoping it works.

What about after Christmas, you ask? Well, if they start back up with the fighting then I'll just have to look at my discipline/behavior board for some more Pinspiration :)