Elf On The Shelf - Day 18

We have ourselves quite the adventurous elf. This morning the kids found him bull riding on our nativity bull. Our Filipino nativity is super precious to us and travelled a far way. We loved it because of the traditional Filipino clothing on the nativity characters and of course the Lechon (pig on a spit). I have to say, I think that Sammy steals the scene:

Yesterday our magic seeds left by Sammy brought candy canes filled with Skittles. Yesterday I forgot to take a picture but there were these HUGE candy canes which you can see were shattered to pieces in the oats to sprout the new treats for today. I'm thinking that was the finale but we decided to wait and see until tomorrow before we pulled them out. Yum, I hope the kids share.

Elf On The Shelf - Day 17

It looks like Sammy was back at his extreme sports again last night, this time doing some zip lining across our family room. I hope he can hang on all day long!

Elf On The Shelf - Day 16

As I learned from Sammy's stunt with the toilet paper, he does not clean up his messes. Knowing this I was not too impressed with the snow angels he was making last night in flour on our dining room table! Since one of the deals with Sammy is that he cannot be touched we might be having a picnic on the floor for dinner tonight. On a brighter note, the kids good behaviour yesterday earned them some sprouts in their bowl this morning. I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring:

Elf On The Shelf - Day 15

Thankfully Sammy was back today but not without a little incentive for good behaviour! Sammy came with ingredients for some sort of magical recipe. The catch: it only grows if everyone is getting along and being kind to one another. I like this sort of recipe!

The kids couldn't wait to get started. They started by putting the Reindeer food into a bowl and planting their seeds into the oats. Once the seeds were covered they had to sprinkle the magic ingredients (the fertilizer) onto the mixture. I guess now it's just a waiting game to see what sprouts up! Hopefully it's something edible that they can share.

Chocolates

Every year Ryan's family gets together to make chocolates around Christmas. This year we are pretty busy and they are meeting in the middle of the week so we weren't going to be able to join them. The positive of this was that there wasn't going to be a load of chocolate around my house tempting me to eat it, especially when I absolutely no will power when it comes to sweets. Ryan decided that he wanted to make some chocolates of his own, kinds that he really likes since we wouldn't be joining his family. We went out with our shopping list and hit up the bulk barn getting all the supplies we needed. We ended up with a batch of perfect caramels, chocolate covered sponge toffee (it was the first time i've made sponge toffee and it's pretty cool stuff), and reese peanut butter cups. They were so yummy! Ryan was a star and did the reese peanut cups all himself, dipped all the sponge toffee and wrapped the caramels! Now I just really need to work on my will power!

Elf On The Shelf - Day 14

Unfortunately Sammy was a no show today. Apparently he was as upset about the kids recent behaviour as I was. If they don't listen to me, hopefully they will listen to Sammy and start to be respectful.

Elf On The Shelf - Day 13

It looks like Sammy wants to learn how to play the guitar as much as Brayden does.

Elf On The Shelf - Day 12

It looks like we found a use for our extra toothbrush. Hopefully this means I won't have to worry about Dental for Sammy!

Elf On The Shelf - Day 11

I think that when we decorated our Christmas tree Sammy thought it was lacking a little something something. Sydney found the sneaky little bugger in her underwear drawer this morning and the kids all had a few pairs of underwear hanging on the tree. Thankfully for all parties they were all pairs of clean underwear!

Elf On The Shelf - Day 10

Sammy was back to the extreme sports this morning! I hope he can hold on all day and finds a soft landing spot when he lets go:

O Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight and I have to say I think it looks fabulous. We don't have fancy, matching decorations but passed down and a home made assortment making it an original one of a kind. I think that type of tree suits our family perfectly! I hope you all enjoy Ryan sneaking his way into my picture, but then I wouldn't expect anything different.

Elf On The Shelf - Day 9

If an Elf makes a big mess does he clean it up? This morning we woke up to quite the mess. Sammy took the toilet paper from one bathroom and dragged it through the house to a different bathroom leaving quite the trail. He then proceeded to TP himself and the toilet.

Elf On The Shelf - Day 8

It looks like Sammy likes to do some fishing. If the fish aren't real does that mean he's cheating?

Elf On The Shelf - Day 7

It can sometimes seem like an impossible task for us to get a decent family picture. To have all of us looking at the camera with eyes open and decent smiles is quite the accomplishment. I'm almost offended that Sammy would take one of these few occasions and defile it in such a manner: