More from the Elf

I love the snowflakes; I think this may be my favorite elf adventure to date.  I heard that this particular display took him quite some time.  He had to watch a few You Tube videos to perfect his snowflake design skills.  Aren't they beautiful?

The Grinch

Dinner with the Grinch at Ma Raffa's is a Christmas tradition for us.  He's a little creepy looking, but this man does a fantastic job.

All of the children gather around and listen to him tell his story.

The lighting in there is terrible for pictures.

On the way to the restaurant, Kate was crying; she had no desire at all to see the Grinch.  It didn't help that she was tired.  When she first saw him, she was nervous, but she did fine overall.  I told her she didn't have to take a picture with him or get too close.  She did enjoy listening to his story.  I think Reagan was three the first year we went to this dinner, and I remember her being very nervous too. Understandably so, the Grinch is scary!

Tyler and Collin were there, but they did not want their pictures taken.  Maybe next year.

I love the Grinch, so of course we did a few fun activities.

I gave the kids packs of "Grinch Pills".

Kate made a Grinch handprint.

I baked and decorated some Grinch inspired cookies.

And the girls made Grinch dust.  They scooped sugar into bags and added blue and yellow food coloring; then they mixed it all together.  On Christmas Eve, we will sprinkle it in the yard to keep the Grinch away.  

There were so many Grinch activities that I wanted to do, but we ran out of time.  That's okay though, I'm saving them for next year!

Gingerbread

We always have a lot of fun with the gingerbread theme at Christmas time.  

I decided to try something different this year and let each child decorate part of our gingerbread house before assembling it.  This worked out well; it was a lot easier for the kids.

 Kate enjoyed my homemade gingerbread scented play dough.

"Gingerbread" boy almond butter sandwich for lunch.

The girls baked gingerbread cookies.

Kate did a great job rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.  She is getting so independent.

  I love love love this picture of the girls working together.  It's just sweet to see them like this.

 Time to decorate the cookies!

 I was happy that Collin appeared to decorate a cookie!!  He was being silly during the "photo session".

 The cookies in the above photo were decorated by Reagan, and the cookies in the photo below this text were decorated by Katelyn.

Elf in Action

 Elf Silly String Fight

 Can you find Cherry hiding in the flowers?  It was so nice to wake up to this decorated door!

 Elf kissing booth

Elves have so much fun!!!

Christmas Fun Food

 Strawberry/Banana "candy canes",

 Santa Pancakes, and

Chocolate pretzel candy trees!

The Most Famous Reindeer of All

 One morning we found antlers and a shiny red nose drawn on the bathroom mirror by our silly elf.

 Reindeer sandwiches are a tradition for us!

 I made these reindeer doughnuts for an after school treat.  They made me laugh because the eyes all seem to give the "reindeer" different expressions.

Reindeer noses have become a tradition for Cherry.  He always brings eight unwrapped chocolate balls and one chocolate ball wrapped in shiny red foil.  Each of the four kids received a little bag of reindeer noses.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I took this little video of Kate singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town on December 4th.

She is just adorable; I love her little singing voice.