Candys Troubles Are As Sweet As Her Name

So it's been another crazy week in the Ruvi house...  With major deadlines at work, tons of crochet hat orders to fill, and a craft fair it's all starting to blur together as if we've fallen into a weird time loop vortex in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  I can see myself spinning as I fall through a black and white swirl where the edges of the frame get all distorted and some ominous music plays in the back ground.

However, I've managed to keep up with Candy Cane, our Elf, quite successfully and creatively through it all.  Here are photos to inspire you with your elf stories perhaps...

First daddy even got in the fun by helping hang Candy from the ceiling...

The girls had a lot of fun finding her...

Then Candy Cane found the chocolate advent calendars that Grandma had bought for the kids, Candy tried to wrap them, opened and ate some, then got tangled up in the tape!

Then Candy Cane continued our annual paper chain tradition.  We hadn't assembled one yet, and normally I wouldn't spend money on something we could do for free at home, but it was late, I was out of inspiration for that evening, and was wandering aisles at our local Target, when in the $1 bins I found pre cut strips of Christmas paper specifically for paper chains.  In my mind $1 was worth my sanity.

But last night was great, Candy made mom a little mad because she got into the good make-up.  Then, not only did she use mommy's new lipstick, but after applying the lipstick, Candy Cane kissed daddy all over his bald head!

I was pretty proud of myself for relying more on my own creativity than those inspired by Pinterest.  Hopefully I can keep up the magic a few more days.  As my kids so kindly remind me every three minutes or so...

Only 16 more days left!

Night 4: Elf Graffiti

So the other night little Candy Cane got very naughty and was tagging.  We actually had alot of fun using white-board, dry erase markers to graffiti all over the bathroom mirror.  We saw this idea on pinterest originally.  My mom drew a Santa beard and moustache right above the sink, so when you stand there it looks like it's on your face. 

Notice I am on the naughty list with my two older sisters and yet Miss Scarlett is the only one on the nice list?  My mom did that, but I protest, it should be the other way around!  My dad got a laugh over the Santa beard though when he went to wash his hands because it lined up perfectly. 

 

My mom put on a big show in the morning proclaiming that Elf needs to start cleaning up her own messes. 

Day 3: Elf Hunting

Yesterday morning was the first day back to school for my kids following the week long Thanksgiving break.  My 5 year old, Lilyana, is always a bear to wake up in the mornings.  I come in to their room each morning singing, "Good morning, Go-o-od morning, ain't it great to stay up late?!"  The lights are turned on bright and I do a body rub down to start to stir her, and she normally finds the edge of her covers and pull them over her head and pulls it tight so I can't remove her covers.  Then we transition into a full-on tickle war so she loosens her grip on her covers and I yank them off.  It takes the two girls about 20 minutes simply to get dressed.  However, yesterday was different.  I went in to wake them up and they both popped up like bread out of a toaster.  There was a rush of sleepy words, "Can we go find Candy Cane before we get dressed?  Please?  Pretty Please?"  I used my cell phone to capture video of them searching the house and I told them they only had 3 minutes to find her.

They raced downstairs and first searched near the fish tank where Candy Cane was fishing the morning before.  I gently hinted that she might be in a different room this time.  They each passed right by her at least 3 times.  Time was up, I told them to start getting ready and maybe they'd find her when they weren't exactly looking for her, and just then my 5 year old let out a squeal and a giggle as she spotted Candy Cane stuck in our vase.  I was still capturing video and caught my 5 year old gingerly touch Candy Cane.  

I'm trying to find a way to get the video loaded to share, but it's not working right now.  But as we played it back my 7 year old, Isabella caught Lily touching the elf on the play back.  Lily denied it, until she saw it herself on camera.  She was embarrassed.  It was cute.  

Night 3: Candy Cravings

I'm sorry. I tried to get this out yesterday, but today was the first day back to school and I needed some sleep. We figured that elves like to eat candy, because of the traditional Christmas candy, candy cane (kind of ironic due to the fact that our elf's name is Candy Cane). So we had Candy Cane diving head-first into one of our gigantic decorative vases for some candy.

Unfortunately, we did not have any candy canes so we just used some of my sisters (hehehe) Halloween candy. I made this quick because I was tired, but hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things and go all out on wrecking havoc throughout the house. My mom will blog the results soon and I'll blog the next hiding spot at about nine or nine-thirty tonight. 29 days remaining!

Day 2: Caught the Big One

So my girls were tickled pink over seeing our little Candy Cane fishing in the fish tank, but I think they're not used to jumping out of bed yet just to hunt for our mischievous little elf.  It was late in the morning by the time they discovered Candy hauling in her catch and I was in the midst of getting ready for church that I missed most of the conversation.  My nephew was concerned for our actual fish, worried he might have been hooked, but was assured to see our fancy guppy swimming freely.

Sadly I don't have any reveal pictures from this morning, but I ran into many friends who don't have children and have no idea what Elf on the Shelf actually is.  Well, as we all know Santa is a very busy man and so he sends his "scout" elves to live in each child's home.  Each family adopts an elf, which are available  with different features such as eye/skin/hair colors, the basic elf comes with a soft red fleeced body, and a very vintage doll face.  However, you can also purchase a skirt and make your elf a girl, as our family has.  When you "adopt" your elf, they come with a story book, and you get the opportunity to name your elf.  Once your elf has been adopted and named, and the story has been read, your elf is filled with Christmas magic.  Each night, after the kids have gone to bed, the elf uses his/her Christmas magic to travel back to the North Pole to report to Santa on the day's behavior.  Kids are also cautioned never to touch their elf or the elf will lose his magic.  Then the elf returns after reporting to the big man himself and always gets into mischief as he waits for the children to awaken in the morning and find them once again.  They often makes messes and get into tangles, but this makes the magic even more fun.  Then on Christmas eve the elf will make it's last trip to the North Pole, and remain there until the next holiday season, dreaming of all the mischief they will get into next time!  To learn more, watch the animated holiday special "Elf on the Shelf Presents an Elf's Story" on December 14th on CBS, 9:30 p.m. EST.

Since tomorrow everyone is back to school from the Thanksgiving break, all my kids have gone to bed early.  My son did manage to set up the next stunt, however he has gone to bed.  He will blog pictures tomorrow afternoon...  Until then, we'll just keep you guessing about where Candy will pop-up next!