7 ELF SHENANIGAN IDEAS

While it can be hard to remember to move the little dude, the look on my kids' faces when they find the little fella each morning makes it 100% worth it!  I have actually planned out ideas and put them in my calendar for each night.  That may seem way Type A and over the top, but it has allowed me to get anything that I need bought so that I have it on hand.

Each night after I am sure that my kids are asleep, I just open up my calendar on my phone, the top cabinets in my kitchen (where I hide everything), and quickly move "Christmas."  Don't make a rookie mistake like me and do it right after you put them to bed.  Treyton may or may not have found Christmas in his new hiding spot before he even fell asleep one night.  #oops. He was fairly unphased by it, but I now wait a little bit longer.

If you have followed along for the last couple of weeks, you saw Christmas, our elf, always bring a North Pole breakfast.  It has always consisted of Snow Donuts (powdered donuts) and holiday decor.  The decor relies heavily on what the Walmart holiday aisle has to offer.  We did have a slight catastrophe the first day as I found Trynlee trying pull the elf out of the jar. 

Day 2 was a big hit by everyone!  They were a bit bummed that they couldn't actually go out and make a snowman but laughed quite a bit at this throughout the day.  Apparently Christmas doesn't know it is 2020 and we have a toilet paper shortage.  Taylor really struggled the first couple of days figuring out what the elf was all about and just couldn't wrap her mind around what he was doing in our house.

Christmas has done this every year that he has been visiting our house.  Treyton thoroughly enjoys this particular day for some reason.  I feel like it's a boy thing because the girls didn't find it near as funny.  In fact,  Taylor still couldn't quite figure out what the little fella was doing and took all of her undies down immediately.  I also was reminded that I needed to do laundry because Treyton had to snag a pair of clean undies from the tree in order to get dressed.

This one was super quick and easy to complete.  I planned it this day specifically because I knew I had enough bananas for everyone and they weren't going bad.  My kids were a bit shocked that Christmas got to use a "Daddy marker"--one that they know is strictly off limits to them.  Have I ever mentioned that Taylor has drawn all over our couch with marker-----TWICE!!  Once with pink and last week with a brown one.  Thank goodness they were both washable. 

Christmas knew we were heading deer hunting this particular morning and made sure he had on his blaze orange.  He was also kind enough to snag some hand warmers for all of us.  This could be used any day you know you will be heading outside!  You could easily give him a scarf and hat!  When Treyton found him at 5:00 am, he was so excited that Christmas was dressed up as a carrot. Ha!  

To be totally honest, the ole' elf on the shelf forgot to move the night before and found this sneaky hiding spot after several kids made it to our bed that morning.  I quickly snuck out to grab a drink of water and swiftly found him a new spot.  This gave us a good chance to talk about everyone in our Nativity scene and talk about the real reason for the season.

Apparently Christmas knew what I had planned for supper and wanted in on the action!  Tacos are our girls' favorite supper so they found this pretty clever.  This one was SUPER fast too which was nice the night before.  I did have to keep him safe from our dogs through out the day though.  Just something to keep in mind if you have large dogs that can't be trusted with food on the counter.   Hopefully some of these ideas will help you get through the next week with your elf!  I'd love if you tagged me (@gavinandkylieplus4) if you have any great ideas or use any of these!