Elf on a Shelf

Everyone knows about this craze, right?  A little stuffed elf hangs out in your home before Christmas and he flies back to the North Pole nightly to report to The Big Guy in Red.  He's been around for a few years.  Actually, you can buy girl clothes if you have a female spy in your home.  Now, if you anything about me at all, you know I do not like to do things when everyone else is doing them.  Or at least, I don't like to do them the same way that everyone else is doing them.  So, when my best friend's mother gave us our elf years ago, I was very happy that he did not match the wicked popular Elf on a Shelf.  (I think I need to link you to something to do with this popular elf.  How can I have a whole post on something like this without at least one link!?)  Click here to see Santa's #1 Reporter.  Ooo - check out the accessories you can buy him or her by clicking here.

The story behind this elf is that he visits during the day and goes back to chime in on Naughty vs Nice at night.  Now, the rules are simple...  1. do NOT touch the elf or he will lose his magic!!!  and 2.  the elf cannot speak when people are awake.   Pretty convenient, eh?  

Well, this year, the kids saw the 30 minute TV show about the Elf on a Shelf and Gretchen was hooked!  I mean, in past years, I have used the elf a few times - moved, or forgot to move him, but no one really seemed to be too into him.  Until this year after watching a family name their elf Chippey and he is sent to a family to help restore the older child's belief in Santa.  Turns out, that boy touches the elf and he loses his magic, but then the boy believes and (phew) Chippey recovers!  The actual description from the blu-ray (yes, you can buy this on blu-ray, people.  This elf stuff is serious business.)  reads:  Through the power of love and forgiveness, both Taylor and Chippey learn that true belief cannot be taught.

We still did not get our elf out.  Gretchen was not so subtle in her longing for an elf to come to our house like her friends have at their homes.  So, I did pull out our elf eventually.  The kids went back and forth on names for him.  Gretchen wanted to name him Winter.  Carl wanted to name him Elvin (I think in part due to our slight obsession with The Cosby Show around here.  They actually compromised and he was named Elvin Winter!  This agreement between two 8 year olds was the first Christmas miracle in our home!!!!  

Carl likes that if you say it fast, it is like "elf in winter".  He is cool like that.  

Now, the pressure was on.  This elf needed to move daily.  I mean really needed a new vantage point each morning because the kids would wake up and race around looking for him.  Now, since our elf was different than the others, he doesn't bend.  This made it impossible for me to do some of the silly, and even naughty things that other people's elves have done.  I do not go on the website Pinterest, but I am fully aware of the phenomenon of elf ideas you can find there.  If you want to see some really creative ones - check out Britt's old blog posts.  Always helps if you are a professional photographer when photographing your cool elf buddy!!  One cool post is here.  or check out this one.  one more.    You get the point.  And, you are even thinking, "Oh!  How fun!!!"    Snap out of it.  

So, here are a few of Elvin Winter's antics in our home this season.

The first he he appeared, he borrowed a little chalkboard that my mom decorated for me years ago.  He just found himself a nice spot to watch the room.

So, I know you are assessing my tree.  Look at all the needles on the floor!  This artificial tree sheds like a real one!

OK, the star on top is the star that was always on our tree growing up.  It would light up.  That is, until it melted.  You can't see it, but the back is misshapen.

So, see that other star?  I don't know where that came from.  Well, I do know where... it came from Sears.  It cost $4.99.  Sadly, the box had no year on it or any way to date it.  Even the one I found on ebay doesn't give any indication of it's age.  We think it was either Grammie's or Auntie Charlotte's or maybe even from a box of Uncle John's.  So, it is something we really have no history with, but it is nice and sparkly and who doesn't love that?  Plus, it lights up!  Oooo!!  and I needed that because the lights on the tree don't work anymore.  We didn't learn that until after the kids fully decorated the tree.  By then, I was not going to undecorate it to put lights on it.  So, the new star was the only lights this year.  The kids did a wonderful job decorating this tree and the small one they have in their bedroom.  They chose all their favorites in the boxes.  Too bad they weren't willing to help me in January when it was time to take the decorations off and put them away.

Back to Elvin Winter.  One night, he brought some ornaments back from the North Pole with him.  The kids found him on the tree in the morning.

Oops!  The next morning - he had not moved!!  They panicked about who might have touched him and if he did, in fact, lose his magic.  Luckily, he was just waiting for them to leave.  He had quite an adventure the night before....

"The line was too long to see Santa last night.  I had to wait until you went to school to go back.  Now I am very tired.  Love, E.W."
It took them almost all day to find him!  He was napping!!!  He said he was tired.   So, he found the cradle that my grandfather made me and the quilt my mother made me - as well as a couple Cabbage Patch dolls and a couple gingerbread to snuggle up with.

The day we were leaving for NY, we found this message very very early in the morning.   He was hanging out with Gretchen's Lego Advent calendar.

 "Have fun in NY.  I know you will be very good.  I loved being your elf this year and I can't wait for next year.  I love you both.  Merry Christmas!  Love, Elvin Winter."

 He was playing Legos.  Well, Carl touched him and caused him to drop the Lego figures.  They were so scared!  There was panic about whether or not he lost all his magic and even if he now could make it safely back to the North Pole.  We all loaded into the car and I ran back inside to do a couple quick things. Then - Gretchen showed up!  Well, Elvin was gone!  She and I decided that even though Carl did touch him, he must have gotten back to the North Pole.  And, we headed back to the car to begin the long drive north.

The next day, at Grammie's house, the kids got a note from Elvin!  He explained that he did in fact make it safely home and it was OK that Carl touched him since he had already done a great job of keeping an eye on the family.  His work in NC was done.  He went on to explain that since we left our home before Christmas Eve, he didn't have to stay and watch us.  This freed him up to actually get a chance to help the other elves wrap Carl & Gretchen's presents and load them onto the sleigh.  Apparently, this was quite a treat for him!  He reminded them to go to bed early on Christmas Eve and wished them Merry Christmas.

Then, on Christmas Eve, they found another note!  It read:  You left your Christmas stockings in North Carolina, but don't worry because Santa found a way to fix the problem.  I hope you have a wonderful time on Christmas!  Love, Elvin Winter   Turns out, Santa had bags with the Minions from Despicable Me on them and he used those as stockings.  Pretty clever old Elf, he is.  He may just have been planning that all along.  Gretchen's letter to Santa had questions in it about how the elves get to people's houses and again, she apologized for Carl touching Elvin.  Santa told her the elves fly there by themselves.  He also told her that Elvin keeps thanking him over and over and over again for for assigning him to our family and assured her that Elvin would be back in 2014 to watch over us.  She was more than thrilled!  Carl's letter to Santa started with the sentence:  I have been good and bad this year.  He was very sweet in his request for TV ratings rubber stamps and other TV related objects.  He asked if Santa listens to certain all-Christmas music radio stations on the sleigh and then, he asked Santa about which cookies were his favorites.  He hoped Santa would like the Golden Oreos that Carl chose to leave for him.  Carl doesn't like chocolate.  I'm sure you remember that.  He doesn't let anyone forget it!  We also leave Santa cider instead of milk and he thanks us annually for this nice break form milk at every home.  In response to Carl's letter, Santa thanked him for being honest about his behavior.  He assured him that he was indeed a good little boy! Turns out, the sleigh picks up Christmas carols from whichever country Santa is currently delivering to.  Cool radio system for sure!

Since we have gotten onto the topic of Christmas Eve, I'll close with some photos from that evening.  We tired to take some nice twinkling light pictures, but that crazy minion photobombed us!

See, Santa made good use of the minion bags as stockings!  The CN bag (Cartoon Network) held Carl's gifts - all of the TV related items he asked Santa for!  Gretchen got a 2013 Holiday Barbie doll like she asked for.  But, then there was some jealousy because she had 1 present and Carl had a 100 teeny ones.  (The rectangular presents are books. They were not included in the "he got more things than I did" issue.  Not being in your own home and bed, having your schedule thrown off and later than usual bedtimes can make for some grumpy stressed out kids.  We all feel that during the holidays, don't we? )

That is Gretchen's new Charlie Brown tree.  You can see, Santa ate the Golden Oreos and the reindeer left only carrot shavings in the bowl.

 Grammie's beautiful Christmas tree!!

Merry Christmas Eve 2013   

snow in NC!

I have other posts to get to.  I just don't have the time to finish them.   But, it snowed here last night so I figure I better put up some photos.  This storm - Leon is what The Weather Channel has named it - started yesterday.  We had no school due to the icy predictions.  That was definitely the right call.  We also knew at that point there would be no school today.  This afternoon, we got the call that there is no school tomorrow either.  See, we got a lot of ice and the temp never rose above freezing today.  Tonight, it is going down to the teens, so that ice is all going to be in place tomorrow morning as well.

So, Tuesday was supposed to get bad in the late morning.  So, we got a couple errands in before it started.  Carl got new lenses for his glasses.  Wow - his prescription changed a lot!  Then, we headed downtown to the warehouse where I pick up Girl Scout cookies.  I had an order of 56 cases waiting to be picked up.  I was 5th in line, but we ended up standing outside for about 10 minutes before they opened the warehouse.  It was 30*.  These other women had no hats or gloves.  Once they started filling orders, the 4 ladies in front of me and myself helped each other load our orders.  By then, it was filling up quickly and actually, some women were starting to fight over who was there first and who parked their cars in the wrong spot and too bad for you and I was here longer....  The original 5 of us thanked each other and headed out.  At that point, it started to rain.  So, the icy roads were coming pretty much on time.  Actually, Lew had gone to work on time, but at his end of town, things were rainy and icy much earlier.  He left at 12:30 and even took the whole day off today!  I ran out to the post office about 3:30 and the roads were wet, but not icy.

We expected to wake this morning to a few inches of snow.  The Weather Channel's graph showed 8-12" for us.  That was too much to hope for.  Our local report was for maybe 3-4".  But, we didn't even get that much.  We did however, get a little snow covered in a sheet of ice.  The road was an ice rink.

"There is snow on the road AND our driveway!"   - Carl

There were actually ice skating tracks on our street!  A neighbor said he saw 2 people skate up the street.  When we saw him - he was riding a bike and pulling his son behind him on a boogie board.  Surfers get creative in the snow!

We headed over to the pond to feed the Canada geese some cookies.  I know they thought they went far enough south to avoid this!  Or, at least there is one in the flock saying, "Dude!  I told you so!"

"Today is awesome!  This is the awesomest day of my life!"   - Carl

"This is going to be the best snow day ever!"  - Gretchen

"I can't believe it is snowing at our house today!"  - Carl

Back at home, we had a lot of fun peeling the ice leaves off the tops of the real leaves.  Some were close to 1/4" thick!

 Who can resist ice leaves?  Yum!

 Not even grown-ups!!

While Lew cleaned off the cars, we played out front for a while.

The street actually melted up just enough to not be able to slide the boxes on the ice.  Bummer.  They didn't care.

 On these 2, I smudged out our name, but it is carved into the ice and snow above the year.

 brrrr....

 and that is our snow fall of January 2014!

snowmen for Grampie

Saturday Evening Post

When I first edited the pictures from our Christmas at Mom's, I knew I had a shot that I wanted to call Couch Chaos.  It was my idea of a Norman Rockwell moment for our family.  But, it wasn't until I scrolled through the other pictures a little more closely that I realized, I had a much better (and less tongue in cheek) Rockwell equivalent.

First, I will share with you Freedom From Want, Norman Rockwell's 1943 oil painting.  It was third in his series of Four Freedoms, inspired by FDR's State of the Union address.

The description on that wikipedia page describes the items on the table.  The cranberry sauce is mentioned.  That silver dish is supposed to be one to hold potatoes.  The table cloth has creases in it, making it apparent that it is not an every day cloth.  This is a special occasion. The bright light outside shows this is a mid day meal.

Here is our 2013 version

We have 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, both homemade - not jelly, I may add.  We have a big silver container filled with potatoes.  We have mostly white dishes like they do, but clearly, our table cloth is well loved.  Look closely - those place mats are almost as old as I am.  They are Currier and Ives prints.  How is this for crazy?  You can buy these 1970s place mats on ebay now.

Our dishes and settings do not show the crisp whiteness of Rockwell's version.  The photo doesn't really convey a special occasion meal if you didn't know it.  But, it does show Corelle dishes that have withstood many meals.  The variety of silverware is everyday used and loved as well.  Perhaps, our settings show more of a feeling of "freedom from want" as they clearly have been used over the years to fill our bellies with simple goodness.  Meat and potatoes.  Look at that butter dish with the blue circle flowers.  Corelle Cornflower. You can find those on ebay, too.  They use the term "vintage".  The little kids are using jelly jars for cups with Tom & Jerry on them.  Yeah, ebay has those, too.  1990s - whoa, they might be the newest things on this table.

The lack of bright light shining in and the one little bulb showing through the window shows we ate in the evening.  Mom had a nightlight bulb sized candle in every front window on her house.  That is what you are seeing.  My photo has 1 person looking directly at the camera.  Rockwell has one person making eye contact as well.  In both, some people are looking at the food.  In ours, Joe and Annie are checking email or other social media things and Gretchen is watching them as in Rockwell's version, some of the people are looking to the other people.  Kenny is reading the card that Gretchen made for him.

I should probably try to crop mine tighter like his, but then you would lose the exterior room.  You'd lose the china closet, the silhouettes of Kenny and me - just things that capture a glimpse of the room as we know it.  Not all gussied up with the excess things removed so the photo wouldn't look cluttered.  I do that a lot.   Stash & Stuff.  Sometimes, I want to capture a memory, not what I want people to see.  Although, it was unintentional in this case.  Other times, it is perfectly acceptable to simplify the photo.  Remove the clutter and let the focus fall on the subject.

Sadly, Rockwell's family does not have mint pineapple jell-o.  or a fancy pitcher to keep their gravy warm throughout the entire meal.  Yup, sad.


Here's the other shot... Couch Chaos.  Looks like everyone has gotten gifts they love!  Gretchen's is a princess umbrella!  She has wanted an umbrella forever!!!   Joe's prized jar of Nutella is by the side of the couch there.  Katy is wearing new yellow jeans and has something in her hand she is happy to have.  Claire has just opened Ear Bags.  Mom loves those things!  You can probably find them on ebay, but I would draw the line on buying something used by another person on they ears.  I just checked Amazon for them.  (if you add "new" to your ebay search, you can find some without other people's DNA on them already.)  

One more 2013 Christmas day shot.  5 people on cell phones or electronic devices (Lew is on a tablet in a case - don't let the book-like appearance fool you).......  and, just moments before, Carl had just been sitting there playing on an ipod.

I have a couple more photos from Christmas Day, but I will put those in another post.  This one is just my little "Saturday Evening Post."