Elf on the shelf 2013

Another Christmas season behind us. Santa came and went which means another year with Curtsy the Elf has come to a close. We had a good year with Curtsy. She did some funny stuff but all in all she kept it mellow. Except for the one day she "overslept" (you can read all about there here).

Here are some highlights from our Elf on the Shelf shenanigans for 2013.

Sofia thought Cursty riding on Yoda's back was hilARious. 

On the tabletop tree Sofia eventually put in her room and decorated with ornaments she
stole off the big tree.

All dressed up for our Holiday luau. Another Sofia favorite.

I think this was my favorite this year. 

Quick Infinity scarf for Sofia

A few nights ago the kids were all in bed pretty early and Adam was doing some work on the computer so I had some extra time to myself. Not enough to start tackling an item on my extensive craft to-do list, but enough that I could get a quick little project done. So I crocheted an infinity scarf for Sofia. 

When I started crocheting pretty regular I was snatching up yarn right and left - especially if it was on sale - but I hardly ever bought more than two or three skeins of any one kind. That doesn't really give me a lot of yarn for large projects. But I can make a heck of a lot of scarves! Which I might start doing since Sofia seems to like this one. For this scarf I used one skein of this rainbow boucle yarn that I would like much better if it didn't have that weird olive green color in it and just crocheted single crochet stitches in the round until I used up all the yarn. It's a thick yarn so it came along quickly. Pretty easy peasy. 

The scarf. 

Since Sofia was sleeping I couldn't test out what size to make the scarf.
I figured if it fit me, it would have to fit her. 

Loves it! 

Mele Kalikimaka - Hawaiian Christmas Party

Our recent trip to Hawaii gave us some great inspiration for our annual Christmas party. Last year we did the Ugly Sweater thing. This year we went with a Hawaii Luau theme. This was such a fun party to put together. I was surprised there weren't more Hawaiian Holiday themed party ideas on Pinterest. Some, but not as many as I would have thought. Guess I'll just do my own thing then. It ended up being a bit more intimate of a gathering than we had planned for - far fewer guests than last year, but everyone who came seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly. It's just as well since our house is small and it's too cold to open up the patio or garage so everyone has to cram into the kitchen/family room/living room area.

Adam put together a wonderful playlist of Hawaiian music, both holiday and not. There was definitely some Elvis in there, and Hilo Hattie, and since Adam can not get this song out of his head when he hears it, he added a nice version of Hukilau, which Sofia loves dancing along to. I put together some Christmas ribbon leis to hand out to guests and had extra ribbon in case anyone wanted to try their hand at making their own. Only Christine was brave enough to try and then she gave up a forth of the way in. I had some amazing ideas for decorations, but I ran out of time so the only real decoration I had was a tissue paper fan I got from the dollar section at Target that I slapped a hula girl in front of. I had wanted to make a big sign that said Mele Kalikimaka and get some palm or Ti leaves as decoration for the table - oh well. Maybe next time.

Our food assortment was right on. Adam had wanted to roast a pig but when he went to buy what he thought was going to be a 30 pound pig, he was told it was more like 80 pounds. Uh, that's a big pig!! So he got half a pig and we made pulled pork sandwiches with the help of our friend Bobby, who is the hands down a king at the grill and smoker. I haven't had a piece of meat that Bobby was prepared that wasn't perfect. It would have been pretty nifty to have the presentation of a whole roasted pig, apple in the mouth and everything, but having prepared pulled pork for sandwiches worked out really well too. Other items on the menu included macaroni salad, rice, hawaiian sweet rolls and pineapple.

I bought some Spam not really knowing what exactly to do with it but knowing Hawaiians loves Spam so it made sense to have it. When I googled "Spam recipes" the first dozen items that came back were for Spam Musubi. Duh! Why didn't I think of that!! Spam Musubi is pretty much rice with a slice of Spam on top wrapped in seaweed. I was going into this hoping it wouldn't become a Pinterest fail. I borrowed a rice steamer from my neighbor. I figured if I was going to make something similar to sushi, I had better cook the rice the right way. Man was that thing handy! I know what my Christmas gift to me is going to be. Once the rice was ready I sliced up the Spam and fried it for a few minutes on each side just as is. Then I dredged the fried Spam in soy sauce with a bit of brown sugar. In order to put the whole thing together, you would usually use a Musubi press to shape and press the rice into the correct form, but I didn't have that and although I probably could have bought one online with no problem, I didn't think about all this until the day of the party. So instead I had Adam chop off the bottom of the Spam container and I used that as a press. Handy! Press the rice into the form, slap the Spam on top and roll a strip of seaweed around it. Ta-Da! I think these turned out awesome. Best part? My bonafide Hawaiian coworker said they were great. Win!!

The other awesome food item was the aloha inspired gingerbread cookies. I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread so I was actually just going to do sugar cookies but then it felt a bit wrong to use a gingerbread cookie cutter without making actual gingerbread cookies. So I made both. I decorated the gingerbread ladies in grass skirts, flower leis and a candy flower in their hair. The gingerbread men were rocking some sweet aloha shirts. I have never really made cookies to decorate before so I was a bit surprised at how long it took, but it was so much fun and totally worth it. I see now why decorating cookies is an activity loved by many. I saved a batch to enjoy at home after the party and brought another to work the next day. Work cookies were gone by lunchtime. Came home and found that stash was gone too. Another win!!

Although we try to keep our party ideas fresh and not do the same thing all the time, we might have to revisit this one down the road. Too much fun not to.

Enjoy a few (awful) photos of the party. I don't think I should ever get a job as a food photographer. Just saying.

Our welcome sign on the chalkboard. Perhaps I should have erased the board a bit better before writing on it...
Ohana Kea = White Family (in Hawaiian) in case you were wondering.

These aloha inspired cookies were definitely a hit.

My less than stellar attempt to display the pineapple in a pineapple. 

Spam Musubi. Nailed it!!

Christmas Ribbon Leis

The only real decoration I had up. 

Sofia in her aloha wear showing us how to hula.

Mommy - 0, Curtsy the elf - 1

Every morning Sofia wakes up and comes directly to my room, stands at the edge of the bed and as soon as I open my eyes and say good morning, she asks if she can play a game on my phone. So the other morning when she came into my room and asked, "Why didn't she move last night?" it took me a second to realize what she was talking about. What? Oh Crap! I forgot to move the elf!!

Oh, I'm sure she has a good reason, Sofia.

But she's supposed to fly to Santa every night and she didn't move, she's still on top of the Christmas tree! 

Well then. I guess my theory that Sofia's excitement over the Elf on the Shelf was below average was false. She really did go look for Curtsy the minute she woke up. Thankfully Sofia had school that day so I was able to whip up some good excuse and move Curtsy while Sofia was out of the house.

Sofia, I had so much fun watching Christmas movies with you yesterday that I overslept! Don't worry. You've been very good. I used extra magic to quickly fly back to Santa to let him know. Love, Curtsy the elf

I used the mini Christmas movie marathon we let Sofia partake in the day before work to my advantage. Oversleeping is totally believable! Although Sofia didn't actually say it, I could tell she was worried she did something wrong to keep Curtsy from flying back to Santa that night and I did not want her to think my mommy fail was her fault at all. This seems to have worked wonderfully. I'm actually surprised with this being our second year that I haven't forgotten to move the elf before this. At least, not that I've gotten caught.

Whoops.

Good save, Curtsy. Good save.

Elf on the Shelf

Just to put it on the record, I think the Elf on the Shelf is creepy. It's already a little strange for me that Santa knows if I've been naughty or nice, but now he's got elves spying on us?! Elves who don't talk or move and look surprisingly like puppets. I mean, really, what kind of kid actually thinks that elf is a bonafide elf. They know the thing is a doll, right? I'm curious how many times our elf has been touched but miraculously did not lose her magic powers keeping her from moving to a new spot in the morning since there is no way I can guarantee my daughter has not touched the elf. "You didn't touch the elf, did you?" "No." Like she would really say yes if she did. I have no clue. I don't have the elf on a nanny cam. Besides, the elf doesn't do anything that Santa wasn't already doing on his own. All that elf does is make more work for me. Assuming kids believe in Santa until they are 7 or 8, we do this elf thing between December 1st and 24th each year, and Sofia is nice enough not to ruin it for her brothers as soon as she finds out it's all a sham, that means I have to keep this up for another 6 years and find some 142 more hiding places. Lord help me. All that work for one month worth of marginally better behavior. Because, let's face it, no kid says, "I better behave otherwise Santa won't bring me any presents for Christmas" in JULY.

That being said, Sofia seems to enjoy finding our elf, Curtsy, in new hiding places. Whether or not she actually believes that Curtsy flies to Santa every evening with a report (which I'm guessing she doesn't since she asked me why Curtsy never moves or talks several times this year already), she does believe Christmas has a magic all it's own. Whatever I can do to help that magic thrive, I will do. It's all for the enjoyment of Christmas. There are some days our elf just moves from the bookshelf in one room to a bookshelf in another room. But for the most part, Curtsy finds herself in creative situations. Or rather I should say Sofia finds Curtsy in creative situations. Sofia isn't so excited about Curtsy that she bolts out of bed in the morning and instantly searches the house. But her eyes do light up if I ask her if she found Curtsy that day. If Curtsy was doing something amusing, Sofia lets out a great laugh. "She was at the coffee machine! Silly, Curtsy" like she talking about one of her friends at school. This is the part that I like about the Elf on the Shelf. The gentle nudge part. The friendly reminder. The hide and seek game portion. The creation and bond to a magical friend.

Did a part of me buy into this Shelved Elf thing so that Sofia wouldn't be the only kid in school without one? Sure. I'll admit I felt some "everybody else is doing it" pressure.  I don't want Sofia to feel less special because she doesn't have Santa's elves visiting her. My parents did a lot to keep my belief in Santa strong. I'm sure my brother helped out too since he knew what was up long before I did and he didn't spill the beans. He is 5 years older than me. I remember one year we had to go out of town on Christmas Eve and I was so distraught that Santa would not know where to find me if we were weren't home for Christmas. My parents told me they were sure he'd know where I was. And sure enough Christmas morning I woke up and found a ginormous teddy bear sitting on a seat by the bed - a gift from Santa. Our Santa presents were always wrapped in different paper than our family gifts - which also happens to be how I remember learning the truth about Santa. Same gift wrap. Heeeeeeyyyyy, wait a minute! Up until that point, however, my parents kept the Santa magic strong. Looking back I appreciate the effort they made. Kids grow up so fast and life really can be the pits when you get older so why not make childhood as magical and wonderful and exciting as possible. When our kids get older, I hope they will remember the effort we placed on making Santa seem real, and I hope that will just add more magic to an already magical time of year.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on or memories of Santa and his elves.

In the meantime, here are some photos of Curtsy's hiding places last year.

I outfitted our elf with a home made skirt and some bling on her hat. 

Three-year-old Sofia was particularly irritated that the elf drew on her photo. Like moved to tears. 

I was most proud of this one. Climbing the tree using candy canes! I didn't even steal this from Pinterest!

Checking herself out online. 

Two elves are better than one. 

Orange you glad you found Curtsy? 

Uh-oh. 

Relaxing in a Christmas hammock on Christmas Eve.