Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

Still looking for some inexpensive homemade gift ideas?  Check out this blog post I found with 25 ideas that cost less than $5 each!

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Elf on the Shelf....failure.

No, the actual "Elf on the Shelf" isn't a failure.  I am.  Sheesh.  After reading Lesley's post about "Elf on the Shelf" and talking to my neighbor, I decided it would be a fun tradition to start.  If you are new to the "Elf on the Shelf" stuff, it's basically a kit with a book and an elf that you buy and the Elf reports to Santa every night while the kids are sleeping.  They can talk to the elf and tell him (or her) what gifts they want him to tell Santa to bring.  He also watches them during the day to report on whether they were good or bad.  So, your job as the adult is to (1) read the book so they understand they have to be good, and (2) move the elf to a different spot every night after the kids go to bed so they can find him in the morning.  

Easy, right?  Well, for starters, I didn't make it to the store to pick it up to start on December 1st like you are supposed to.  But, my kids are only 4, 2 and 4 months, so they really have no idea what December 1 even means.  So I introduced it to them on December 5.  Yeah, well on the FIRST NIGHT of trying this, I forgot to move the elf.  In my defense, I fell asleep in the chair nursing Molly earlier than I usually go to sleep and then the kids got up in the morning before I did.  And the first thing they noticed?  "The Elf is in the same spot, Mommy!".

So, a couple minutes later, I asked them to look out the front door and see if it was snowing, raining or really hot outside (or some nonsense along those lines) and quickly moved the Elf to a new spot.  You see, the other rule is that you can't touch the elf or he might not come back to your house again.  So, they couldn't see me touch it.  Somehow he magically moved from the fireplace mantle to our bathroom light fixture.  They loved it and at one point during the day Tyler hit his brother and I told him to go in and tell the elf what he had done.  He went in and mumbled something about a toy he wanted for Christmas, but Ryan went in behind him and said, "Elf, bro-bro hit me" and then turned around and looked at Tyler and did an evil "ha, ha, ha" laugh.  :)

Anyway, here is a picture of our elf, "Thomas the Elf" in his spot for tomorrow.  You get to name your own elf, so Tyler picked Elf and Ryan picked Thomas (after his favorite train) and we combined it to make "Thomas the Elf".  Here's to mommy remembering to move it from now on...

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Christmas is Coming!

Christmas will be here before you know it!  I don't have my Christmas shopping finished, and I don't usually participate in Black Friday shopping because we are usually out of town.  This year, we stayed in the Cincinnati area, but I wasn't one of the crazy people who stayed up all night or got up really early.  I did go to a couple stores on Black Friday, but it wasn't until after lunch and I only hit a couple of stores that were not in major shopping areas.  I was pleasantly surprised that the things I went for were still in stock and that the stores weren't crazy-busy with people.  I think I timed it right!

Anyway, I just love the Target commercials this time of year.  Hallmark commercials make me cry.  New car commercials just irk me for some reason.  But the Target ones just crack me up.  Here's my favorite one for the year.  Probably because when we were kids, we liked to press all the buttons on the singing toys and then quickly exit the aisle.  I'm sure the workers hated us. :)

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Wish List for Santa

This year, it seems like everyone is skipping Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas.  I guess we are guilty of that on the blog as well because we've been doing Christmas posts already!  But, it seems like in years past that Thanksgiving weekend was the kick-off to Christmas...decorations in the store, starting the holiday shopping, Christmas music on the radio.  But this year, most of those holiday markers were already here on November 1st.

Like a lot of you, we got the Toys-R-Us catalog in the mail as well as the Target toy catalog.  I typically glance through the catalogs and then recycle them the same day.  This year was different, though.  The boys saw the catalogs and Tyler (the 4 year old) started flipping through the pages and pointing out things he wanted for Christmas.  Which made Ryan (the 2 year old) start doing the same thing.  Tyler pretty much points to everything and he's not really specific.  He likes the expensive electronics but in reality knows nothing about them.  He's played on a couple of DS's, but not for more than just a couple minutes, as we haven't gotten any of those expensive things for him because the two boys are still so destructive at this point.  Ryan would be happy with anything, but he consistently points to the trains...he's in love with anything Thomas!

This past weekend, I had a lot of cake orders, so my husband got the kids out of the house for me so I could concentrate and knock them out without staying up all night.  So where does a man take his two boys for an evening of fun?  Bass Pro Shops, of course!  The one in Cincinnati is really cool and has a huge fish tank in the center of the store that the kids just love.  Anyway, they have a Christmas setup there.  I've never been, but Steve took them last year and they've had a blast both times.  I think he mentioned coloring, shooting, decorations, etc.  And of course, Santa!  They do one free photo with Santa (and you can order more photos there if you like or online later), so of course the boys had to have their photo done.  After standing in line for a while, this is Ryan on Santa's lap.

It's hard to tell in the scanned version, but he is less than thrilled.  Steve said he wasn't scared, but that his expression didn't change the entire time and he didn't ask Santa for anything.  Tyler also decided to be stubborn and didn't want to get his photo taken.  So, they went to look at a couple things that Steve wanted.  He just got a cross bow this year and needed a few things for it, so they went to the hunting section.

Well, in true Tyler fashion, after walking away from Santa, he suddenly wanted to go visit with Santa.  So after Steve picked out the stuff he needed, they headed back down and stood in line again.  This time, he marched right up to Santa and sat on his lap.

Can you see that grin on his face?  Priceless.  Anyway, after the photo, Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  Tyler's response?  "A gun with a bullet and a scope."  Santa laughed and said that he had come to the right store for that and he told Steve that it was the best request yet this year.  Gotta love my boys :)

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