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It’s important to note that since I last posted about Buddy’s current antics, he was a semi-finalist in a mischievous elf contest! I follow The Elf On The Shelf’s FB page and saw a call for photo submissions at random one day so I sent one over. Then I forgot all about it until a friend said “I voted for Buddy!” and linked him up on my Wall. By George, there he was. One of the 50 semi-finalists in some crazy contest! The photo I entered was of Buddy in the fridge hanging out with a polar bear wearing a blue jacket & fur (check vol. 3′s photos). We did pretty good in the contest! There were a few entries that LIKE-wise (which was how you cast your vote) left us in the dust. The kids were so excited about the possibility of winning an elf prize package. It didn’t happen, but like I said to them, how many people can say their elf was a semi-finalist in a Christmas contest?

Here’s what Buddy has been up to this past week.

This was after a rough night flying to and from the North Pole. Elves need a caffeine fix every now & again too you know.

“Make that a grande triple-shot peppermint mocha with whip. And do you have any brownie cake pops?”

The miniature orange sock monkey is my coffee monkey. I really don’t know why. Emily likes to tell me I stole him from her. I might have. But now he sits in my K-cup carousel and watches over my coffees like a hawk. monkey.

Buddy has also been spotted in my girls’ room playing Emily’s violin.

“Let me just rosin up my bow and play a little “Devil Went Down To Georgia” for you”.

You thought I was going to say something from Johann Sebastian Bach and not Charlie Daniels didn’t you?

“I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, ‘cos I think I’m better than you.”

And then there was the morning the kids woke to find Buddy going over some very detailed flight plans from the North Pole with our reindeer. Emily said “It looks like he got that from Google Earth. I bet he did!”

Buddy, the felt pantsuit-wearing, sugar-loving, coffee-drinking, violin-playing, Google expert.

This morning, the kids woke laughing as they discovered Buddy had turned them into red-nosed reindeer in their sleep.

“Huh? Wasn’t me…”

I also have photographic evidence of Buddy hanging upside down from the top of my stove with 3 bottles of opened sprinkles below him. I would post it, but there are grease splatters all over my black stove and while I am sure you can appreciate that this makes me look real and human and like a woman who does her fair share of cooking, I cannot appreciate the glaring fact that I am behind on Windexing and polishing my stove top. So use your imagination for that one.

Something fun with that set-up though: When the kids weren’t looking, I stuck Buddy’s hand into one of the sprinkle jars. Of course they thought Buddy moved and tried to eat some sprinkles! The next day he left a note:

Those sprinkles looked mighty tasty yesterday. I couldn’t resist trying to eat a few when you all left the kitchen. Mainly because the blood was rushing to my head all day and I was feeling faint. Remind me never to do THAT again.

Love,
Buddy

I have a nice handful of assorted Christmas shots I will try to Blog soon. I’ve been checking things off my holiday photo checklist too. Today though, we’re switching from Christmas mode to birthday mode as we celebrate my nephew’s 1st birthday. Can’t wait to surprise him with our gift!

Have a lovely weekend!

I have a few more Buddy the Elf shots to share and wanted to do that now in case you needed some ideas over the weekend. I have even started an elf magic category so all of Buddy’s adventures will stay in one tidy place on the Blog.

As the pictures below will lay out for you in a colorful display of visual proof…

…I think Christmas might be bringing out my inner crazy.

The kids woke one morning recently to find that Buddy had gotten into our candy bowl. Upon closer inspection, we see that Buddy favors Kit Kats and peanut M&Ms. The M&Ms you can have mister but lay off my Kit Kats!

On this particular day, Buddy left behind a note that said:

“Sorry friends. I just thought you needed some minor accessories”.

Oh you know what would have been funny? If he drew some hair on my husband’s head.

Or not.

But really. It would be. The kids would die laughing.

Then there was the time that Buddy left a trail of marshmallows all along the kitchen counter leading to the fridge. What did we find inside?

An arctic elf of course!

You should wear fur more often Buddy. It looks great on you.

Really. How fancy is his updated Christmas hat? He probably could have went with a color other than pink, but when you’re working with Barbie’s wardrobe, you take what you can get.

I should mention that the kids wanted to eat some of the marshmallows which were cold and hardening. They proclaimed them the coolest treat ever so the next morning, Buddy left a note:

“Gee willikers. I was so cold spending all day in the fridge yesterday friends! I see you discovered my tasty North Pole treat: ice cold marshmallows!”

This morning, we woke to find Buddy sweatin’ the the oldies on the living room windowsill.

“Hey friends. Lets work out!”

Buddy did something a little different in his note this morning and the kids got a big kick out of it.

“Hi friends. I see you’ve found me. Holy snowballs – this is one heavy weight! Imagine the muscles I will have if I keep this up!

The elves are putting the final touches on a few of your gifts this weekend. Can you guess what they are?

Love,
Buddy”

Emily: _ O _ S _ E _   H _ _ H   D _ L L

Andrew:  _ L A _ _   P _ _ R L

Gracie: K _ _   _ U I _ A _

They were so excited to find that and fill in the blanks!

And no I am not helping you with a word puzzle designed for kids ages 8 and under. Fill it in yourself!

Have an awesome weekend!

You may remember my post from last year introducing our Christmas elf, Buddy. Please read that entry if you want the basic logistics of housing a Christmas elf. I don’t want to be the girl who repeats herself.

This year, Buddy came back to visit a bit earlier than usual. In our house, Buddy cannot come back to visit until our Christmas tree is up. After all, it’s got to feel a little bit like the North Pole to make Buddy feel at home! The kids begged us two weeks ago to put up the tree and even though my husband fought tooth and nail to not have to drag down the tree boxes before Thanksgiving, the other 4 Millers eventually won. “Do it for the kids, man!” <- I may have actually said those exact words. Right for the heartstrings.

So this year, instead of going through the basics on Buddy again, I thought I would try to take as many pictures as possible of his silly adventures and document them on my Blog. This is our 5th year with a Christmas elf. I’ve come up with lots of fun ideas and have borrowed others that I’ve found on the web that are equally as fun. If we all continue to share and inspire others, felty little elves will eventually rule the land! …or something like that.

Usually Buddy arrives in a sleigh in some grand fashion. One year he crashed into our glass front door. I made sure he brushed up on his driving skills before attempting that stunt twice. This year since our tree went up so suddenly, he arrived that night after the kids were fast asleep. Easiest elf entrance to date. I asked the kids how they knew that Buddy had in fact arrived. They said they got up and looked for the sugar mess in the kitchen. Naturally. Why wouldn’t your elf come to visit and sprinkle sugar on your counters?

The 2nd morning everyone woke to find Buddy in the shower.

“I’m baaaaack…!”

Make yourself right at home Buddy.

This year, Buddy has tried a few new things. He’s tried his hand at cooking which didn’t go over too well. The pasta tastes better boiled Buddy.

He had a sock fight with a bunch of sock monkeys…

Personally, I think if he’s going to throw socks around my living room in the middle of the night, he should clean them up the following day but he’s not seeing it like that.

It appears that Buddy has taken a special interest in the ladies this year and he’s not even particular as far as them being blond or brunette. I am not sure I approve.

Grace was very concerned and double-checked to make sure that Buddy was wearing his seatbelt.

On Thanksgiving, everyone else was in the kitchen so why not Buddy? Only he wasn’t preparing a turkey. Rather, he was preparing a dish with his favorite ingredient as the star: sugar! There were actually mini marshmallows in his perfectly polished frying pan too but little hands picked at & ate those before the camera came out.

I’ve got to point out one very helpful tip, especially if you are Mom to girls: take advantage of Barbie’s stuff. Her clothes, her furniture, heck even her. It’s perfectly sized for your elf and makes his hiding spots lots of fun.

If I don’t get a chance to snap a picture with my “real” camera, I’ve been taking them with my iPhone just to have a more detailed record of Buddy’s misadventures. This is one of my favorite shots so far this year.

Do you spot our knight in felted pant suit riding off into the sunset? I was trying to put a cowboy hat from Andrew’s Jesse doll on him but it was too top heavy.

Note to self: must still rethink that cowboy on reindeer plan…

We’ve caught Buddy hiding amongst some Christmas friends.

He’s even traveled to Grandma & Grandpa’s house a whopping 2 minutes away and joined the kids for a sleepover. That was something new and the kids were really surprised to see that Buddy had found them.

Buddy leaves notes too. He types them of course because he’s very tech-savvy like that. We think he may have his very own MAC at the North Pole but we can’t be certain.

He doesn’t leave a note every night, but if the kids write to him he will write back. In fact, this year Emily started a really cute mailbox on the back of our front door. She drew a red flag and attached it to an envelope. If they want to write to Buddy, the notes go in there. He answers back and leaves the note in the kitchen where his sugar mess is. Here’s a sample note from the morning after the sleepover:

Kids,

Was that a magnificent trick or what?! Were you surprised to see me at your sleepover? I told you I am ALWAYS watching.

p.s. Holy candy canes – that is one big dog that lives in that house!

Love,
Buddy

(The dog Buddy is referring to is my brother’s Goldendoodle which is roughly the size of oh, a small horse. Can you imagine if she got a hold of Buddy? That could have been a Christmas tradition gone South *real* fast…)

Sometimes the notes are more educational as the kids start to question Buddy’s magic…

Dear Buddy,

Why don’t you talk to us? Wouldn’t that be easier? I can’t wait til night.

Love,
Emily

Dearest Emily,

I am not allowed to talk to you, remember? Those are Santa’s orders and part of my magic. I almost slipped and answered your question yesterday but then I remembered Santa’s rules and was afraid he wouldn’t send me to your house anymore if I didn’t listen.

Sorry about my hiding place this morning (shower). I really needed some freshening up though.

Love,
Buddy

Did anyone catch the half hour Elf On The Shelf Christmas movie that aired on CBS last night? It was adorable! I would definitely recommend trying to catch it at a later air date. It followed the website/book perfectly so if you follow along with this particular elf tradition, everything matched what you’ve most likely already told your kids (i.e. why your elf won’t fly and show you his magic in front of you, why you shouldn’t touch him, etc). Very sweet little Christmas flick that the kids and I enjoyed.

Do you have a Christmas elf? Has he or she come to visit yet? Feel free to link everyone to your Blog where we can read about more elf adventures. After I get another batch of Buddy’s crazy antics photographed, I’ll be sure to share again.

Have a great weekend!

You’ve heard me talk about Buddy before and while I should probably be Blogging about turkey projects at this stage of the game (like perhaps the one Grace made in pre-school today that she proceeded to come home and EAT, glue and all), I have to share the magic that is Buddy before he makes his arrival next Friday! Emily gives me an official countdown every day. “15 more days until Buddy comes!” “12 more days until Buddy comes!” Screw Thanksgiving. We’re just interested in when our little felt houseguest arrives.

(side: I mean no offense to Thanksgiving, cranberries, stuffing or pie of any sort. I actually love Thanksgiving and all of the carbs that come with it. Good day).

So, you want to know exactly what we do with this little elf do you? A good place to start would be to claim your own elf. They come straight from the North Pole! Don’t believe me? Then how did ours get dropped at our doorstep back in 2007 in a box clearly stamped North Pole?

Inside the North Pole outer box is your cute little felt elf sitting in the box pictured above. What’s so special about him? Well, he’s Santa’s helper of course. The idea is that he comes straight from the North Pole to watch over you during the Christmas season. He leaves your house and reports back to Santa each night to tell him if you’ve been naughty or nice. He usually hides in a different spot upon returning so part of the fun is getting up in the morning to look for him. (Hint: He always hides in plain sight but high enough away from little grabby hands).

How come your elf won’t talk to you? Well, he can’t. He just listens. And you can feel free to talk to him or ask him to tell Santa stuff. He is ALWAYS watching & listening. But as per Santa’s orders, he will not have a conversation with you and most importantly, you cannot touch him or else he’ll lose his magic.

Dun dun dunnnnnnn!

Just kidding. It’s not that dramatic.

So a little bit about our own Buddy (and yes, he was named after Will Ferrell. Similar antics with much less bushy hair):

- The movie Elf taught us that elves love sugar. Buddy gets into our sugar bowl every. single. night. and tracks tiny footprints through it. Yes, I wake every morning and have to wipe sugar off my countertops. My mother thinks I am insane. I {hope} one day my kids will look back and not see insanity but see a really fun Mom. But I embrace my insanity in other ways, make no mistake about that.

- Buddy comes bearing gifts. They are not always big gifts but he does leave the kids something each night. Probably once a week he leaves something a little bigger (in the past this has been new pajamas, three sets of new boots, a Christmas DVD, Hallmark ornaments, etc). Usually they are smaller items sprinkled in the sugar (gold coins, mini chocolate Santas, some M&Ms, etc). At the beginning of his visit last year, he left an Advent calendar which was well-received. This year one of his bigger gifts is going to be this set of wise men. He also tries to leave something extra-special on the 23rd, the night before his last. Two years ago it was 3 small, fat wooden nutcrackers that the kids went crazy over).

- Buddy is big on silly antics. One time he took out all of our canned goods and stacked them in a big pyramid in the middle of the kitchen floor. Another time he hung a candy garland from our curtain rod. And another he opened every cabinet door and drawer in the kitchen which was a bit dangerous walking into as soon as we woke up. This year I have it on good authority that he’s planning on having a snowball fight with the bag of cotton balls in the bathroom. It’s not uncommon to find him swinging from a light fixture or a bedroom fan each morning.

- Keeping in line with his love for all things sweet and sugary, he sometimes gets into my massive sprinkle collections and we’ll find bits of colored sprinkles mixed in with his sugar trail. Other times, we’ll find our bottle of syrup left out. Last year, he wrote a note asking if we could have frozen waffles on hand at all times.

- No I am not as nuts as I appear right now.

When does a Christmas elf usually arrive? Any time really. For us, Buddy arrives the day after Thanksgiving once our tree goes up. It’s always night and he always enters in some grand way. The first year he was left in that North Pole box I mentioned earlier. The second year we found him on our front stoop in a miniature sleigh. Last year, he almost broke my glass front door. The kids and I heard a loud rattle and when we opened the door, we found Buddy in the Cadillac of sleighs, sitting on the stoop with gifts on board and a trail of snow behind him. Emily already wrote him a letter and said that she couldn’t wait to see how he arrived this year. I’m thinking one of these times the kids are just going to expect to see him park a car right in front of the house.

Other: Buddy always sends a letter around October to get the kids excited about his impending arrival.  ::  The absolute ONLY time that anyone is allowed to touch Buddy is on Christmas Eve. I let the kids sit on the couch and I carefully pick Buddy up from out of our tree (What? He chooses to sit there every year on the 24th so he can survey the dinner scene on Christmas Eve) and place him in their hands. You have to see how excited they are to hold him. I always take a picture of this special moment.  ::  Emily cries every year when Buddy leaves.

Buddy’s magic: I sit here right now and swear to you that the magic of Christmas and elves and sugarplums and all of that jazz is absolutely real because of this story. One day (hopefully not this year but I am aware that my kids are only getting older and other kids at school can be harsh and cruel) when they figure out the whole elf thing I won’t deny that I was behind the magic the whole time, but I am certain I can make them feel good about Buddy and Santa and everything else because at 30, I still believe. You can laugh if you want but I know there’s a real Santa because otherwise I am not sure how my living room gets packed with toys the night before Christmas. Anyway, one day last year I had to ask Buddy to leave. The kids were being so disobedient that I had to break all elfin law, TOUCH Buddy (I know, the horror!), place him on my kitchen counter and ask him to just get out because what he was witnessing was just too terrible to report to Santa. When everyone was in their bedroom, I hid Buddy away in a kitchen cabinet.

Fast-forward about two hours. The kids were begging Buddy to come back. Again when nobody was paying any attention to what Mom was doing, I stuck Buddy in the side of our Christmas tree. A little more time passed. We heard an ornament fall to the ground, looked over and wouldn’t you know it? There was Buddy. The ornament fell from the exact spot he was sitting in only nobody was near him at the time.  Call it what you want but the three Miller children and their gullible kid-at-heart Mom believed it to be a real Christmas miracle. Buddy was back AND he was trying to break our Christmas ornaments!

Now it’s time for you to order your own elf and share in the wacky holiday fun. If you don’t want to order from the website (although I do recall them having very speedy shipping), you can usually find your own Buddy at various nurseries and Christmas stores.

Ho! Ho! Ho!