The story of Nick, our Elf...

Back in the fall sometime, I don't remember exactly when, a friend mentioned this Elf thing. I didn't take too much notice to it...looked it up, thought it was cute but it just wasn't in our plans.

Until....

...we walked into Target one day and saw the endcap with the all of the Elves.
Our son asked what it was all about and so I told him what I knew and he thought it was a great idea...
and so we adopted our Elf on the Shelf.....

We read the book with our Elf and found out that he didn't have a name (or get his magic) until our child/family gave him his name......and our son thought the name, Nick, would be perfect.

What happened the next few weeks became a fun daily game of hide and seek with Nick...you see, the whole idea is that the Elves go back every night to the North Pole to report on their children directly to the big man, the head Elf himself, The Boss.....Santa Claus. They report on the good, the bad, even the ugly if necessary and hopefully there will be more good so that those children don't get coal instead of presents. When they come back - the little buggers hide - somewhere different most of the time, even though once in awhile they get to liking a certain spot. Some of them even get into Elf mischief and do things in homes...making messes being the big one...not all do, but there are some spirited ones that get into things.

There are a few rules that must be followed:
1) The biggest rule of them all - the kids cannot touch their Elf.
2) The Elf cannot talk to their child or children.

The kids are allowed to talk to their Elf, send messages to Santa, secrets, add things to their lists. They just aren't allowed to touch.
There was an adorable TV special and a video to buy and even a plush Elf for the kids to hold and love, but its the traveling Elf that is the most important. There was a Facebook page for posting pictures and for sharing the fun and my did those Elves get into mischief...flour fights, snow angels, teepee-ing trees and rooms, there were even reports of toilets being wrapped in christmas paper and ribbons (in one case - ALL of the toilets in the home) and in the case of that same home on Christmas morning, not only were all of the toilets wrapped up but ALL of the kids presents were taken from under the tree and hidden around the house!

Our Nick was not too naughty thankfully....and he left special presents for The Red Ranger on Christmas morning - an Elf ornament, polar bear christmas pj's bottoms and a grey pj top and black slippers for our son to remember him.

The other rule (which is bent quite a bit, including here) is that the Elves return with Santa on Christmas Eve. Our Nick has stayed with us past Christmas but tonight...
...on New Year's Day Night,
Nick,
will return to Santa and his family and friends.
Nick, has already informed me that he will return soon, our son's birthday is at the end of February, and then he will go back again...maybe to return again during the summer for the shore.....

We have really enjoyed having Nick in our home, we are going to miss looking for him each day. He's added to the magic of the season, kept it alive for another year (our son is 8), who knows how long he will be with us. As long as our son believes.....

Enjoy some of our pictures, I'll be adding a permanent page soon of Nick's days with us but for now...we just had to share the story of .......Nick, our Elf on the Shelf.......

...as we say goodbye....we'll miss you Nick!!


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It wasn't perfect......

Well, it wasn't the perfect christmas...far from it in fact...but we got through it.......

All three of us were sick, we never finished decorating the tree, but it was here.

Never got the baking done, but I can do it when I'm better....which will be soon - I hope.

We never had christmas dinner, we just barely got through christmas. I don't even have all of the photos downloaded to the computer but I'll add a few of what I do have.

The Red Ranger got up at 7:30am christmas morning and couldn't finish unwrapping the last 8 or so gifts under the tree before he had to go back to bed. We didn't mind though because at 9am we all went back to bed for naps. Daddy then went and picked up the rest of The Red Ranger's presents at grandmom's and great aunt's and at 4pm he started unwrapping again, we had to cancel christmas dinner but as I said to my husband, we are together, there are presents under the tree and we will get better....eventually....I think.....course its Jan. 2nd and I have no voice but I'm feeling better each day!

No, it wasn't perfect but we were able to have it and be together........
Course it has made me rethink a few things, we do so much from October thru Dec. maybe I have to adjust our schedule. Mostly that has to do with homeschooling so that will be on the homeschooling tab, its just that after at least three years of everything falling apart in Oct/Nov perhaps I finally GOT the message......

We did do tons of stuff for the holidays before the holidays.
The Red Ranger got to see his friend, Santa, at pottery again this year and he got to try his hand at making wood projects at Lowe's with a friend, they hold free workshops for kids and he got to make a snowman, and a three car train set for christmas. It was all so cute!
The weekend before christmas all three of us saw the play Rudolph at our local theater that we love and then we went and got our tree, Saturday marked the last car of the train at Lowe's (the engine) and he got to play with his friend while I ran errands and on Sunday the three of us were on the Santa Express having a ball with Santa, Mrs. Claus, a pretty elf and the conductor who made a Polar Express ticket for The Red Ranger......
We wanted to make sure that we did the extra special stuff with Santa this year, The Red Ranger turns 8 in February....how much longer will Santa be involved we wonder. I have the books to explain it all to him but I so don't want it to happen.

This year I didn't stress at all, not after our homeschooling friend lost her son to in home accident. Nothing was that bad in our lives, we will get better.......I continue to pray and think of her and her family as the daily hurts for them occur. How do you go on when a child is missing in your daily life? I just can't imagine....my heart breaks for them all.
No stress for us this year, we counted our blessings instead.....
maybe it was perfect after all.......


Well...okay it won't let me upload ANY pictures right now but that's okay......this is a no stress zone......:-)
UPDATE:
After I wrote this and then updated my homeschool tab I checked and saw a comment. Lovely comment and very much appreciated. I've joined up with an everyday blog hop as you can see from the Blog ID at the top of the post now. Its just what we all need as the new year begins........

A surprise package today....

Well we got a big surprise today, presents from a very bad friend of mine in the Boston area.

Yes, I sure did say bad...because she really shouldn't have!!!!
The Red Ranger got the coolest set for him and Daddy to build......

He can't wait to put it together!

DH got a snuggly pair of slippers that massage his feet, perfect after being on his feet for so many hours. As for me.......she's so bad, she really is.........feeding one of my biggest obsessions....

My Boyz, a 2009 calendar and the two new singles and the concert video. Like I said SHE'S BAD!! Although The Red Ranger says she's good because she sent presents........hmmmmmm. So, the first picture with The Red Ranger sitting next to the presents will be for Project 365.

On another note I decided to take pictures tonight while making one of DH's favorite meals.

The sauce is homemade. I make a huge pot of meatballs and then use the rest of the sauce for my homemade pizza's and for making chicken parm. The rest gets frozen for future dinners. It ends up being very economical.

Finally feeling better!

I'm finally starting to feel better, woke up today and I can certainly breathe better and the coughing isn't that horrible muscle-wrenching cough that I've had for days. I even feel like I slept well for the first time in a week. Now of course I have to make sure I don't do everything that I want to do and then end up overdueing (sp?) things to the point where I end up being worse.

Christmas went well considering the little guy and I were both sick, we simply concentrated on things for him and not everyone else. We ended up cancelling Christmas dinner, and I'm so glad I did, because I couldn't see knocking myself out and feeling worse and The Red Ranger not having a pleasant mom and dad to enjoy Christmas with. He has also pronounced this
"the best Christmas Ever" and still thinks that today, so we did something right.
The economy sure figured into our Christmas this year, we cancelled the trip to Disney World at the beginning of December because we didn't see how we could do both, Christmas and Disney. Simply put, there is no way that a 5 almost 6 year old child would ever understand that we went to Disney 'instead' of having a big Christmas. Also, the simple fact that he is totally 'into' the Christmas thing this year. Probably because of school and the other kids being so excited and he's just older now and he's really paying attention to all the details.

Money-wise, I would say that we spent about a quarter of what we did last year. We knocked out some of the adult family presents only having The Red Ranger give them presents he bought himself.
There were no big ticket items like last year's digital camera or Nintendo Ds's, I would have to say the most expensive item my husband and I exchanged was the $50 gift card for the pottery place I like to paint at and since he got it at auction I don't think he paid full value for it.
The gifts in fact were more thoughtful and more needed than just because we wanted them or liked them. I did get a used Zutter Bind-it-all off of Ebay, since it was the blue one I got it a lot cheaper around $25 just need to get the coils now and down the road the tool kit. Can't wait to use it.
I'm so terribly glad that we did all of the stuff leading up to Christmas because we got so sick during it. The Santa Pottery (where you paint pottery with Santa), Frosty the Snowman play, Riding the Santa Express train, even the movies to see Madgascar 2 all led up to a magical Christmas for The Red Ranger and will give him memories to last him for a long time.
And plenty of things for his mommy to scrap into her scrapbooks!

I'll blog and add pictures and details to all the Christmas activities soon but this is all I can manage right now. Right now I'm off to find the dining room table, which had been buried under wrapping stuff since Christmas and assorted toys, and to throw some meatballs and my sauce into the crockpot for dinner tonight. For now that's all I'm going to say I'm going to tackle so that I don't overdue things.
I'm also saying a prayer for baby Stellan who I read about on my friend's Renee's blog.
You can read more about Stellan and his family here. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

I will say Merry Christmas.........

Hi,
I orginally posted this on Dec. 12th on my Myspace page. But this page looked pretty sad and since I'm not sure what to write at the moment and since I've been sick and still am...all of the Christmas pictures are still in the camera this will have to do.......
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and will also have a Very Safe New Year!



Friday, December 12, 2008

I will say Merry Christmas...I won’t be censored...this country was founded on certain issues!
Okay, this really gets to me!

Two things have come up in the past couple of days and they are bothering me and should bother others as well.

First, I was working at my son's school bazaar, the one where they shop for their parents without parents seeing what is being bought. The kids were so cute and the other moms and I were saying Merry Christmas to them after they were done.
Then one mom said "oops, I just said Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays".

Why one earth should we have to censor how we say Merry Christmas?
Isn't the very fact that the kids are shopping in the holiday store a given that its okay to say it? Why is it offensive to say what comes naturally in a happy way?
Why are we being made to feel bad or wrong for saying how we celebrate the holiday?

This country was built on the shoulders of people who fled countries that did not allow them to worship according to their practices, freedom of religion has always been a given. If I'm not sacrificing an animal or something while practicing my beliefs then why can't I say to others "MERRY CHRISTMAS"!! They can always say "i'm sorry, we don't celebrate christmas" or whatever but why do I have to censor myself, why do any of us have to?

Second, there's a mom somewhere in this country that doesn't agree with the children singing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Her child isn't christian so she feels that christianity is being shoved down her daughter's throat during school hours. I wouldn't say that Rudolph is the song to pick on first off. Its not "Silent Night" or "Come all Ye Faithful" for heaven's sake.....and yes I said heaven's sake! If her child doesn't celebrate christmas then pull her out of the rehearsals or whatever needs to be done so that our "religion" doesn't poison her or something.
Personally, I've always believed that understanding other religions was the best way of accepting others for who they are.
Sometimes though I'm more evolved than others so maybe I'm just too far ahead to understand this. I used to work for others in retail so that they could celebrate their holidays and they worked for me. It worked out great and there weren't any hard feelings. What happened to helping each other out? Understanding? Acceptance?

I think whoever invented the term 'politically correct' needs to be drawn and quartered. We had a much better understanding of each other before we began being careful of EVERYTHING we said and did! ENOUGH already!!

I will say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I don't think Rudolph is a 'religious' song!
Get a grip on things and explain to your child about what others believe in instead of bashing the school system and suing them, schools have it bad enough and you are making it even worse. Accept others and get along, just like we tell our kids!
Let others ENJOY "their holiday" instead of making them feel guilty about it!

SO MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!