Elf on the Shelf

Well since I was late in posting my Christmas decor ideas I figured it wasn't too late to post about our Elf on the Shelf.  This is the first year we've had an elf.  I've heard about it from my kids for a couple years now.  My son had one in his classroom two years ago and now my daughter has the same teacher.  She is our last one & a little more persuasive than her older brothers.  She would come home from school everyday telling us all about her elf in her classroom.  Our neighbors all had an elf too and the kids would share their stories of their mischievous elf's on the bus ride home from school.

Honestly, I was not looking to add another tradition to our holiday season.  We've done an advent calendar with our kids for years.  I put a note in each box with a little treat such as hershey kisses.  When the kids were little they would say things like a kiss from Daddy, or an extra bedtime story, or watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer after dinner.  But as the kids got older I decided to change up the notes to include family game nights or one of them reads a story to the family and things like that.  So, I felt I was ahead of the game with a great family tradition.  Then the peer pressure of these Elf on the Shelves came about.  Seriously???  Wasn't our advent calendar good enough?

But when my daughter came home with instructions from her friend on exactly how we can "catch" an elf for our family I caved.  I looked at my husband and decided that our children are only little once; they only believe in the magic for such a short time.  The very next day when the kids woke up they found an Elf on the Shelf on our fireplace mantel.  They named him Buddy after their favorite Christmas movie.

And so Buddy became a part of our family.  My two little ones had such fun searching for him each morning to see where he would be or what he may have been up to overnight.  Our 14 year old even got into the fun helping us on a few occasions that we may have forgotten about Buddy.  No one is perfect, right???

I found lots of ideas on pinterest.  Here are some of the places we found Buddy during the holiday season...
 


We all really enjoyed having Buddy around this holiday season and are looking foward to his return next year.

The After...After Christmas Party

I know...I know I said I'd dedicate more time to this blog but life happens.  So...my new goal is to blog for fun...this is suppose to be fun...right!?  I decided I spend soooo much time reading other people's blogs that I should put some more effort into my own.  The longer it had been since I promised to blog more the more I procrastinated.  So...I've decided I will consider myself a success when my sister starts to follow my blog.  Hint...hint!

I missed all the link parties for Christmas decorating so although it's a little late I'm sharing some of our Christmas decor.  Beware...there are lots & lots of pictures.  Have I mentioned I  L.O.V.E taking pictures?


Here we go.....

We buy the kids a new ornament every year to add to our collection.  Some years we make an ornament and other years we buy one that relates to the a hobby each child has. This year we found ceramic snowmen in Steinmart for only $2 each.  If the ornament isn't personalized I add their name & the year to the bottom.  Although I love to oh & ah over the gorgeous trees in the Pottery Barn catalogs...our tree is very much our family tree!

Here is the shelf in our kitchen.  I found that sign at TJ Maxx this year for $9.99.  I think that may have been the only new decoration I bought this year.  Believe in the Magic...love it!

Our shelf in the downstairs powder room.

The front stairs leading to the foyer.  We got those ceramic stocking from my stepgrandmother several years ago.  Since we rarely use these stairs they are safe there!

The table in our foyer.  That's a picture of the kids on Santa's lap from last year.  I was so sad this year when they didn't want to see him at the mall.  Well...my 7 year old did but my 14 year old didn't so the 10 year old was following his big brother and then my daughter decided the line was too long & didn't want to wait to see him all by herself...so sad! :(

Our fireplace mantel.  I realized I forgot to add the lights to the garland on the mantel this year when I looked at these pictures.  Oooops...oh well...life happens, right?   The star is from Pier 1 and it is new but I used a gift card I had from my birthday (yes...my birthday was in June but thanks for the gift card sis) so technically I didn't spend any money on it.

Oh but I did buy a few Nutcrackers...ooops sorry maybe I did buy a couple of decorations.  We had a few but I bought one for each of my kids and one with that Pier One gift card.  So... I spent $30 on Nutcrackers.  Not bad for a new collection....especially considering I'd love to start collecting Dept. 56.  I think Nutcrackers are much more "Cents-able".

These are our back stairs that we use all the time.  This year I added some of our snowmen decorations to the stairs.  I saw an idea with beautiful ornaments sitting on the edge of the stairs that looked amazing.  But that wouldn't have worked in our house.  3 kids & 1 dog that would have been an accident waiting to happen.

We hung our cards from ribbon on this pillar in our kitchen.  Thanks to my stepmom for that idea.

My 10 year old made this snowflake in school....I love it!!!  It's still hanging on our kitchen door although I put all the Christmas decorations away last weekend.  I just have to figure out how to store it so I can put it out again year after year.  It's soooo cool!

And here is the outside of our house.  Ooops another lie...we did buy the star over the porch at a craft festival for $25.  So, the grand total for new decorations for our home this year is $65 (not bad...let's just not discuss how much we spent on gifts).  Oh and the kids ornaments for $6...okay...okay $71...still pretty good.  :)

I reclaimed the sled from my Dad's house a few years ago...it was mine as a kid.  The skates were also mine but they are too small.  After 3 kids my feet grew from a size 9 to a 10...uggghhh!  Anyway enough about my boats I mean feet.   I actually had the skates in the pile for our garage sale this past summer & then realized I could use them for the front porch during the holidays...duh!!!  So, glad I  thought of that before they were sold for $2.

So, there it is our home decorated for Christmas.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season filled with love & laughter.