We had an amazing thing happen last Saturday, December 1st...Santa left us a surprise package on our fireplace...an elf named Solomon.  Yes, this year we are joining the whole Elf on a Shelf craze.  There were just too many cute ideas on Pinterest and the boys are at the perfect age for silliness.   If you happen to not know about Elf on the Shelf, basically the Elf moves around each night to 'spy' on the kids and report back to Santa.  I think this is totally creepy which is why I didn't start it before.  But, I thought it could be so much fun with some tweaking, so I did some searching and found this blog: http://asmallsnippet.com/2011/12/its-beginning-to-look-alot.html.  I loved what she did to incorporate Elf on the Shelf in her home so I used her letter as inspiration but changed it to fit our family.  This is the letter I wrote:

Dear Gavin, Austin and Adelaide,

Well, well, well…first off, I have to tell you that I think you are all very special children.  I know that you are filled with love for each other, your parents, but most importantly, you are filled with love for Jesus, and I know that He lives in your hearts.  He lives in mine too, so that makes us all really special!

I wanted to let you know something important.  You know that whole naughty and nice list that you hear everyone talking about?  Well…truth is, that’s not really true.  I don’t have a naughty and nice list.  Because I know Jesus, I also know a lot about grace and getting what we don’t deserve.  Gavin, I know that you asked Jesus into your heart this year so I know that you have accepted God’s grace in your life.  I am so proud of you!  I know Austin and Adelaide will make the same important decision when they get a little older.   Now when you make the wrong choice when you choose to sin, Jesus gives you grace and loves you still! 

I know that kids are not perfect.  I know that you guys aren’t perfect.  But I know that Jesus loves you all the time, and I do too.  That’s why I give gifts.  Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  I am so grateful for this gift God has given me that I want to give

gifts to others so they will know God’s love too.  So you don’t need to worry about being on my naughty and nice list.  If you believe that I will come to your house on Christmas Eve and leave you some special surprises, then I will come!!  That’s all you need…to believe!

Now, I need to ask you for a little help.  Since it is the first day of December, the month that we celebrate Jesus coming to earth to be our Rescuer, I thought you might help me by being a ‘rescuer’ to a very special friend of mine.

This is Solomon the Elf…

He is a dear friend of mine, but he tends to be a bit naughty.  I named him Solomon hoping he would have the wisdom to make good choices just like Solomon in the Bible.  I have explained grace to him many, many times, but he still chooses to sin and be a stinker.  I have told him that is why Jesus had to come…to rescue him, because he has sin in his heart.  He is beginning to learn, but I thought if he stayed with you for the Christmas season so he can watch the three of you being kind, respectful and obedient, just like Jesus wants you to, he might learn to be kind, respectful and obedient too.

One important thing about Solomon, he is an Elf, and elves are not exactly the same as humans.  Solomon stays still all during the day, but he comes alive at night.  You can talk to him, he can hear you and see you, but he is quiet during the day and plays at night once everyone else is sleeping.  That’s usually when he can get into some trouble, so you’ll have to watch him carefully.

When I told Solomon he was going to stay with you guys for a few weeks, he jumped up and down in excitement!  He really thinks you guys will be lots of fun.

I’ll be back to pick up Solomon on Christmas Eve when I come drop off some surprises for you!

Merry Christmas!

SANTA  

Gavin was so funny because he read about half of the letter and then handed it to me and asked me to finish it.  Apparently our Santa is a little long winded...not that I'd know anything about that!  

Anyway, Gavin was excited about the Elf, Austin didn't pay any attention to it. 

 Once we found a home for Solomon on the reindeer, Gavin said, "He kind of looks like a doll."  I didn't expect much excitement though so my feelings weren't hurt!

The next morning however, when the boys woke up, this is what they found when they went into their bathroom.  All of a sudden, Solomon was a lot more interesting!

Anyone up for a bubble bath in marshmallows?  Gavin was afraid he had stolen the marshmallows from somewhere!  He worried about that for three days!

The next morning, he had unraveled all the toilet paper (he's hiding behind the balloon left over from Dad's birthday).  The nice thing is that because Santa left him to the kids, they are responsible for cleaning up his messes.

Monday morning we found him reading Christmas books in the living room chair (you can barely see his hat over the book in the corner).  The naughty elf had scattered the books everywhere and the boys had to put them back on the bookshelf.  Gavin was nice enough to read him a couple books first.

Here he is!

Tuesday he blocked the boys' bedroom door with crepe paper.  I was a little nervous this would scare the boys but they thought it was very funny!

Here he is across the hall where he can watch them open the door in the morning.  As you can imagine, Solomon has been the center of many conversations this week.

I didn't take a picture, but this morning Solomon was hiding in the refrigerator hugging the milk, which he had turned green!  Gavin is now responsible for getting cereal served in the morning so he discovered Solomon which was a good thing because he was searching the house for him and was very worried when he couldn't find him.  I finally told him to just fix cereal and we'd look for Solomon after breakfast just so he would find him and stop stressing out over the trouble he might have caused.  It took a little convincing to get the boys to drink the green milk.  Gavin was brave and tried it first.  He ate his cereal and said, "It tastes the same, but it's not as good."  Austin refused to try it until I told him it was just cereal in 'Steak n'Shake'.  This is what he calls a milkshake.  Then he said, "I like Steak n'Shake" and ate it without another word!  Gavin said that even though it was still mischief, at least Solomon was trying to be kind by making his milk more festive.  Then he firmly told Solomon that they are not elves and they do not drink green milk before putting him back on his reindeer.  So funny!

Tomorrow Solomon will be playing Candyland with some of the boys stuffed animals, with the pieces strewn all over of course.  No picture because I haven't set it up yet!  It's only 11:00, I have lots of time!

Speaking of mischief, Adelaide loves to get into Gavin's school desk.  She especially likes to chew on his pink erasers.  She knows she's not supposed to go into his desk, as you can see by this guilty look when she was caught yesterday.

Gavin has been reading books for 'homework'.  Can it be homework when school is at home?  Anyway, now he is doing simple book reports about them when he is finished.  Just learning to identify characters, setting, etc.

This is the book Gavin just read that he is doing his report on in the pictures above.  It's a true story about a Rebel soldier who runs away before Gettysburg and hides with a local farm family.  

We read these books together this week.  Sorry they are so small.

This one is called, "You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier!"

We finished up Egypt by reading this book that talks about Ancient Egypt.

Gavin read this book for 'homework' and did a book report on it too.  Also a true story about a scuba diver who finds a baby dolphin with a fin wrapped in fishing line.  He manages to get the fishing line off.

He is now reading this book about a lady who studies sharks.

Together we are reading about Pagoo, a hermit crab.  We are learning about both the ocean and about tide pools in this book.

We are still working on this book at mealtimes.