magic elf dust: when someone touches your elf on the shelf

it clearly states in the story that comes with your elf on the shelf that if he is touched, he "might" lose his magic. yes, it says "might", but in this house that means he definitely will (my kids just won't learn their lesson any other way). and that is exactly what happened.

long story short... phoenix and tyler touched jimmy, our elf on the shelf, but we didn't want to ruin the whole experience for the rest of our children so we had to come up with something quick.

i "called" santa and he offered to give us a second chance. he told us he would be sending us the ingredients to make a special elf dust that would make jimmy feel better and give him his magic back.

i don't know how many other people this has happened to, but i figured we aren't the first people this has happened to so i decided to create this great way to keep the elf on the shelf fun going, instead of having to put him away for the year.

magic elf dust

you will need:

• small candy canes
• real christmas tree limbs
• cinnamon
• sugar
• fine red glitter
• thick chunky silver glitter

you can come up with your own measurements for each ingredient. i used small candy canes only because they fit best in the tin i had, but the regular size is fine too. if you don't have a real christmas tree, stop by a christmas tree lot and ask for a couple branches that have fallen off and can't be used. most places will have no problem giving them to you for free. we called the red glitter, "christmas spirit", and the silver glitter was crushed silver bells.

to make it fun, place the candy canes in ziplock bags and let your kids use a spoon to crush them up into a powder. the needles on the real christmas tree branches are very easy to remove by hand or you can let your child use scissors to cut them off as well. write your recipe on a fun piece of card stock or christmas recipe card and put everything into a container before you deliver it to your child.

once you have prepared your magic dust, sprinkle it on your elf on the shelf before bed and he should get his magic back before morning.

i was actually pretty upset that phoenix and tyler weren't able to follow the rules for our elf and nearly ruined it for everyone. thankfully, with the help of my oldest daughter mackenzie, we came up with this clever way to continue the fun for us all.


have you ever had an experience where your child has touched your elf on the shelf? how did you handle it?

joni - sixcherriesontop (at) gmail (dot) com | twitter | facebook | pinterest | instagram: sixcherries

elf on the shelf: round two

okay, so halloween just ended, thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but that's okay... let's go ahead and start talking about christmas just for a second.

last year, for the first time ever, santa sent one of his helper elves jimmy down from the north pole to watch over phoenix, tyler, and elijah to make sure they were on their best behavior for santa. he watched over them during the day and reported back each night. sometimes he came back with some fun presents for us, and sometimes jimmy was a little bit naughty and got into trouble. however, jimmy did a great job keeping watch over my three youngest and did his best to report back as santa had asked. jimmy even left little reminders to be on our best behavior.

the whole idea of jimmy is to basically scare the crap out of your kid into thinking that if they are bad, santa isn't coming and they will get nothing for christmas.

so, now you're wondering... did jimmy work for us?

HELL NO! in fact, i am pretty sure there was an instance where phoenix and tyler had the world's youngest WWF smackdown right on the floor at jimmy's feet last year. they totally believe jimmy is real, but they just don't care. and of course, santa brought gifts anyways and no one learned a damn thing.

so here we are, november 2012, about to go into round two of the whole elf on the shelf thing and i just hope and pray that santa grows some balls this year and puts his foot down when it comes to misbehavior. ha, yeah right!

anyways, to prepare us for ol' jim-bo this year, i have created a santa letter letting phoenix, tyler, and elijah know that jimmy is coming early this year (not too early, just nov. 20). i created the letter in photoshop using this letterhead template and addressed it to our 3 littlest family members, preparing them for his arrival. i am gonna play this bastard up this year and all i gotta say is it better work!

i also found this huge list of 101 elf on the shelf ideas that are going to help jimmy "come to life" and hopefully see some positive feedback from my kids. i think it is important to use some of these ideas, or even some of your own to promote that your elf is "real"... kids are no fools, so if your elf is just sitting there, you better give him two shots of tequila and wake his ass up!

basically you just need to convince your kids they are crazy and that toys come to life when they aren't looking! soon they may think that the toy story movies are based on a true story. or, just make them watch the movie child's play and you may get a wish list full of books and clothes this christmas.

ha, ha, just kidding...don't do that!

for those of you who have an elf on the shelf, what did you name your elf? what are some of the ideas you have tried using to convince your kids that your elf is real?

joni - sixcherriesontop (at) gmail (dot) com | twitter | facebook | pinterest | instagram: sixcherries

jimmy the elf

this year we got an elf on the shelf to watch over phoenix and tyler's behavior as we counted down to christmas. for some children, this "tool" really encourages children to be on their best behavior so that their elf can go back to the north pole each night and report their good behaviors to santa. 

however, my kids don't give one lick about what our elf, jimmy sees. their behavior has been no better than any other day and quite frankly i wish santa would leave them oreos with all the cream licked out and dirty underwear this christmas. do it santa, do it!

even though they have been rotten little turds, they still believe that jimmy is real and have enjoyed waking up every morning to see where jimmy is and what he might have gotten into while they slept. at first they were a little intimidated by the whole idea that some little elf, that obviously looks like a stuffed doll, would be frolicking around our house in the middle of the night. (think toy story movies in real life).

so far, jimmy has toilet papered our christmas tree, gotten into our candy canes and eaten them all, written phoenix and tyler a letter, swung from the ceiling, and even made and hung snowflakes. he will be leaving us soon until next year, but until then, i wonder what jimmy will do next?

does your family have an elf on the shelf? what sorts of things has your elf done?

 

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one more thing...

thank you to everyone who voted for my holiday card in the paper mama's holiday photo contest. out of the top 30, i am so excited to announce that i won 3rd place. yay!

joni - sixcherriesontop (at) gmail (dot) com | twitter | facebook | pinterest | instagram: mamacherry