An Elf Tradition



Courtesy of http://www.amazon.com/

 I heard of the Elf on the Shelf a few years ago and thought it was a cute idea.  Now that my daughter is a little older I decided this would be a great year to introduce this tradition to our family.  If you are unfamiliar with The Elf on the Shelf you can check out the website. 

The idea is that your family adopts an Elf, which you name, then your Elf watches over your household during the day and at nighttime comes to life and reports back to Santa.  Here is where you can get creative and hide your Elf in new places every night so when the kiddos wake up in the morning they have to hunt for the Elf.  I love the idea of having the Elf do different things to keep the kids excited and interested.  I researched the Internet for some ideas and Allie and I came up with a few on our own as well.

Since the holidays tend to be extra busy I decided it would be great to share some of our Elf ideas with each other so we can have a game plan in place.  Here are a few suggestions!

Elf on the Shelf Ideas:

•  Elf makes breakfast and the kids wake up to Snow Covered Donuts (powdered donuts)
•  Elf makes snow angels on your kitchen table using flour or sugar
• Elf is found in the bathtub with new peppermint soap or bubbles
• Elf bakes cookies
• Elf wrapped presents and is found under the tree
• Elf is found on the dashboard of the car and when the car starts Christmas music is playing
• Elf is found in the freezer because he misses the North Pole
• Elf is found on the back of the toilet, when they lift the lid there are snowflake sprinkles in the water
• Elf is found in the refrigerator and the milk is green (food coloring)
• Elf brings new Christmas pajamas
• Elf is found playing a board game with a few other favorite fuzzy friends in the play room
• Elf is found coloring on a new Christmas coloring book he brought back from the North Pole
• Elf is found in the shoes and filled the shoes with Hershey Kisses
• Elf is found in the Christmas Tree with a new ornament
• Elf is found having a tea party with a few friends
• Elf is found in kitchen where he hung candy canes from all the cabinet hardware
• Elf is found with a few pictures of him playing out in the snow during the night
• Elf is found watching a Christmas movie on the portable DVD player (if you can time it right)

We would love to hear any other ideas or suggestions you have and happy "Elfing"!!!

I have had a few people ask where I bought my Elf on the Shelf, I purchased ours at Delaney's.  Oh and we named him Kringle, after Kristopher Kringle!  Don't forget to go to the official Elf on the Shelf website and register your elf and print out your adoption certificate and letter from Santa.

~SCS~

Fall and Acorns

I love fall, it's my favorite season of the year.  I love the crisp cool air, the smell of the leaves, anything pumpkin and I love fall decorations! 

As I was decorating my house for fall I realized I needed something for my coffee table and nothing felt quite right.  As I was playing outside with my kiddo last week it hit me, LITERALLY!  Acorns, falling from the sky…or the giant Oak tree in our front yard.  

 So with a little help from my two year old we collected a bag of them and I was set to create a fun piece for our coffee table.

My first step was to boil all of the acorns in a pot on the stove, this was to kill any critters that may be hiding away in there and it helped bring out the color. 



Before we boiled them



Unfortunately, the tops of the acorns tend to pop off when they fall from the tree, so once they were dry I broke out the glue gun and started putting the little beauties back together again.



Making them whole again!



I had two glass pieces that I knew would be perfect for this project, the first was a larger square vase and the second was a candle holder.  I thought the idea of a little candle light peeking through the acorns would be pretty, elegant and very fallish!

Candle holder inside the larger square vase

I LOVE the way it turned out and my favorite part is that it was FREE!!



Finished!



Happy fall, y’all!!

The Sky Is Falling

Or, maybe it's just all the acorns falling from the Oak tree in my yard.   Either way I have a fun fall centerpiece on the way using these babies.  Stay Tuned!!!


Yes, I actually collected Acorns from my own yard!

 Here's To Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After!!
~SCS~