Elf and Advent Update

We definitely have a sad little girl in our house since we had to say good-bye to our wonderful little elf, Fern. She actually got to stay with us an extra day so she could open presents with us but that night Santa came and got her to take her home to the North Pole.

Lily did not want to say bye to her and continues to ask where she is when she gets up in the morning. Usually she says, 'Fern's gone, that's sad.' I told her that Santa allows her to come back for special things, so maybe for Lily's birthday she'll make an appearance, who knows?!?

But, Fern had fun playing in our house until she left Christmas night. She loved getting into food for some reason. She had a bowl of Kix cereal, some Cheerios and even spelled out Lily's name, she made a really small gingerbread house, enjoyed some of Emma's snacks, gave the girls special outfits for our Special Day and had some left over popcorn. Fern played in the laundry, had a puppet show behind a pillow, tried to go for a ride in a little sleigh, swung from the ceiling fan and helped Santa fill their stockings on Christmas Eve. Fern was a very busy little elf during her stay in our house and we really enjoyed the Christmas spirit she instilled in all of us. We look forward to her coming next year and we heard she has a sister and are wondering if she'll come too?

As for our Advent calendar house, it was just as fun and is missed just as much as our fun Fern. The way I did these activities seemed to work out great. I made a list, printed out picture icons and wrote the activities on the back but left them all in a baggie. The morning of, before Lily got up, I decided what we would do that day and put that paper into the house. This way, I could pick and choose according to what our day had in store and what we would have time for. I also made these activities realistic and family fun things too. The second half of the month entailed two nights of Christmas light trips, a Special Day, getting dressed up to get our pictures taken, making Christmas cards for friends, helping our bird friends stay warm (I saved lint from the dryer and Lily put it in our front yard so the birds could use it for their nests), shopping for sister gifts, watching a Christmas movie, having hot chocolate, going to the library for Christmas books, making cookies, opening ornaments and sissy gifts and then of course, Merry Christmas!

Loving these two traditions we began this year and

now the countdown begins for December 2011!