on my shelf

You either love him or hate him.  He’s the (little creepy) bribery tool parents use to keep their kids well behaved for the month between Thanksgiving & Christmas.  You guessed it….he’s the elf on the shelf.  For the 2^nd year now this little elf has graced our house with his presence.  I have to admit that he creeps me out a little, but he’s become a tradition in our house and my son looks forward to finding “Adam” every morning.   (If you’re asking yourself “What the heck is an elf on the shelf?” then click HERE) 

The elf has been around for many, many, years but has recently picked up in popularity.  If you do a google search or just log into pinterest you’ll find hundreds of ideas for this stuffed sprite.  Some of these ideas are outrageous and as a working mom I don’t have the time to dedicate every night to setting up some elaborate scene for my elf.  I can barely remember to move him every night so to spend 15+ minutes setting something up each night is exhausting.  Maybe that’s just me but my 4 yo is not going to give a hoot if the elf is hanging off the chandelier or if he’s riding in a hot air balloon that was home crafted out of paper, ribbons and a balloon.    He enjoys finding him regardless. 

I’ve tried to get a little creative only because I’m running out of quick ideas of where to put this thing.  Half of me wants to wrap him in an ace bandage and say that he’s had an accident and can’t move for a week. But I can't disappoint my son, even though I’m pretty sure that he is not buying the whole story about the elf and is just humoring us as we move him every night.  But for now he’s playing along and we’ll continue to move our elf every night until Christmas Eve when we bid him farewell for another year.

Do you have an elf on the shelf?   cast your vote – creepy bribery tool or cute holiday tradition??

elf acrobatics

 

chocoholic elf

 

going for a ride on the Sodor Railway

 

made his own design with our window decorations

flying home to the North Pole makes for a hungry elf

zipline!

 

 

A Very Merry Christmas

My family rotates the cooking of Christmas Eve dinner so this year I was “off”. Yay!!  No cooking for me!  Well, I did do appetizers on Christmas Day, but that’s nothing compared to the feast I prepared last year for Christmas Eve.  I did a little baking for a cookie swap I participated in and made the chocolate candies I always make, but other than that I didn’t bake/cook as much as I normally do.  Christmas crept up on me so quick this year.  It probably was the unseasonably warm weather (um, 60 degrees in December in NY?!?!) that kept me in denial that Christmas was so close.  Before I knew it I was up until 1:30 am December 23^rd wrapping gifts.

My son was very much into Santa this year and so I started a few fun Santa traditions: the elf on the shelf, writing letters to Santa and we continued the milk & cookies tradition.  For the letters I found a local charity run Santa’s mailbox that mails back personalized letters from Santa!!  Very cool and was a huge hit with A. I also made him a video on the Portable North Pole, did a personalized phone call from Santa and we tracked Satna on Norad the entire night of Christmas Eve.

A was a very lucky boy and once again was completely spoiled by our families!  Every year seems to be better than the last in terms of his excitement.  If last year I had categorized it as a “Thomas Christmas”, well then this year was a “Super Hero Batman Christmas”.  We now are the proud owners of a batcave, batmobile, batplane, joker-mobile, and a myriad of super hero action figures (with all their little weapons) which I will continue to trip on for months to come.  My favorite gift that I got A was a PB chair that I got during their secret sale, which of course got one glance from A and an “it’s ok…” out of him and he went back to playing with Batman.  To my surprise he opened gifts in record time.  I had visions of it taking us hours like last year and A wanting us to open each toy as he unwrapped it.  Nope.  Each gift was ripped open, slid across the wood floor and it was onto the next.  After they were all unwrapped he strategically decided what to play with first.  LOL

The excitement as he opened each, however, was priceless.  It made the craziness and stress of all my late nights working over the past month just melt away.  One of my most special gifts I received was a necklace that my son picked out himself.  My husband went online to buy me earrings and when my son saw him shopping he wanted to buy something different for me – and it is gorgeous.  Spending happy quality time with my family makes everything that I do throughout the year all worth it. 

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2011

First Present (Batman, what else!)

Santa Has Arrived!!

Christmas Morning

One of my Gifts (and the story of my life)

Christmas Aftermath....

my hubby and I on Christmas Day

O’ Christmas Tree

It’s that time of year again when we go looking for our annual family Christmas tree.   Last weekend we took a drive up north to pick out and cut down our family Christmas tree – a tradition we started last year.  We decided to try a different farm this year since we weren’t overly happy about the prices of last year’s place and from friends’ recommendations decided to check out Battenfeld Tree Farm.  A had so much fun running around the farm looking for a perfect tree and telling Daddy to cut it down.  Santa & Mrs Claus showed up to take pictures with the kids and there was a sleigh ride complete with mini clydesdales pulling it.  Throw in some hot cider, doughnuts and a big bonfire to sit by to keep warm and it made for a very cozy afternoon. Of course A wasn’t into Santa or the sleigh ride (just wanted to look from afar) but if you wanted, one could spend the entire day there.

Once we got the tree home A wanted to help us put it in the stand and then anxiously awaited me to put the lights on so that he could decorate.  My little elf did a great job helping. Only two ornament casualties later….we have our fully decorated tree.  All ready for the big guy to leave presents under!!

A Christmas Memory

 

This is my first time participating in Working Mommy Wednesday.  The prompts this week are  #1 A Christmas memory... from this year or year's past  #2. Biggest challenge for the new year.  Since you all know already that my biggest challenge for the new year, I’ll give you a memory.

#1 A Christmas memory... from this year or year's past

It was so heartwarming to watch A this holiday season.  This is the first year he really ‘got it’ and it was amazing to watch his reactions.  We have this dancing snowman that plays “Frosty the Snowman” and A would play it (and dance/sing along) every single day, multiple times a day.  Each day when he came home from daycare he would stand in front of the tree and say “it’s so sparkly”. This year was especially fun because A was old enough to understand the whole Santa thing. While he was petrified to sit on Santa’s lap he enjoyed talking about him, we “called” him on the phone a few times to tell him what A wanted and on Christmas Eve we put out milk & cookies for Santa. 

So Christmas morning I parked myself next to the tree and set up the camera prepared to film an excited A coming down the stairs and running over to see what Santa left.  Well, when my H came downstairs with him, A casually walked over to me (didn’t even notice the presents) and asked to go downstairs to play with his cars!  When I pointed out that Santa had left presents for him and ate the cookies and drank the milk he left for him, A replied “No Mommy, Layla ate the cookies and drank the milk.”  (Layla is our 5 yo lab mix)  I just had to laugh.  That’s my kid….

Of course once he realized the pretty packages beneath the tree held toys we got this reaction from almost everything he opened:  Priceless!

A Thomas Christmas



Let me start by saying Christmas Eve dinner was a big success!!  It went very smoothly and we got a lot of compliments on the meal.  It was a lot of work, but worth it.  I love having all of our family together for the holidays.  Christmas day we spent at my mom’s house and I was so happy to just relax and be a guest for the day.

A was completely spoiled this year by our families and loved every minute of it!  Haha.  It's amazing to see him light up on Christmas, but this year was even better than last year.  He still doesn’t quite get the whole Santa thing, but regardless he was just in awe the whole day.  We left milk & cookies for Santa x-mas eve, but when A woke up Christmas morning he was more interested in playing with his other toys vs looking to see what Santa brought.  Once he started opening gifts he didn't want to stop.  Of course he wanted us to take out every toy he opened so he could play with it, so opening presents took quite a while.

As indicated from the title of this post it was very much a Thomas Christmas for him.  He got some clothes and other toys too, but almost everything he got was Thomas.  Trains, tracks, table & chairs, tub toys, personalized blanket, books, DVDs……  It started to get a little comical after a while opening Thomas after Thomas, but he was in heaven.  Today he played with his new train set for 2 hours all alone and without a peep out of him. Mommy now loves Thomas too!  LOL  Next gift (for his b-day) will be a wooden train table with drawers to keep all of his trains in.

Oh and my H and I didn’t make out too badly with gifts either :-)  It was truly one of the best Christmases we’ve ever had. Watching A’s excitement was better than any gift I could have received.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

X-Mas Eve, Here We Come!

I am gearing up this week to welcome approximately 2o people to my house for Christmas Eve dinner.  Between work and the prepping/cleaning I have to do it’s going to be a busy week up until Friday.  Christmas Eve is a huge event in our family, and also H’s favorite day of the year.  We do the traditional 7 Fishes Italian Feast and this year I’ve added 2 different dishes to make our total fishes 8, well sort of 9. 

1.  Shrimp

2.  Scungilli

3.  Calamari

4.  Crab

5.  Clams

6.  Baccalà

7.  Eel

8.  Mussels

(9.  Salmon I’m making for my step dad who doesn’t eat the other fish)

The first year was a bit overwhelming, but each year I’ve found shortcuts to help me out and now have it down to a good routine.  Thursday I will prepare a lot of the cold stuff and chop herbs & garlic for the other dishes.  Friday morning I fry all the fish. Then I’ll prepare all of the other dishes in foil tins so they’re ready for the oven.  The only main item that will need to be cooked in-between courses is the pasta dish, which doesn’t take long.

Here’s my menu for this year:

First Course:

Shrimp Cocktail (with homemade cocktail sauce)

Scungilli & Calamari salad (cold)

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Second Course:
Linguini with mussels in a red sauce

Third Course:

Fried Baccalà

Fried Eel

Clam Casserole

Salmon (for my step dad)

Tossed Salad

Fourth Course:

Assorted Cookies & Chocolates (homemade)

Rum Cake

Roasted Chestnuts

Fresh Fennel

Coffee & Cordials

It Smells Like Christmas

 

As I sit here in my kitchen, I can smell Christmas all around me.  The pine from our Christmas tree, the freshly baked cookies, the turkey roasting in the oven…..and my son in the background singing Frosty the Snowman.  Aaaahhh it all smells amazing. 

This time of year while we are dealing with the shopping, traffic and headaches, sometimes we forget that the best deals of all are created right in our own house.

THIS is Christmas .

A Griswold Family Christmas

This year we (well, really I) decided it would be nice to go as a family and cut down our Christmas tree.  So yesterday we went to Wilkens Farm in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. The weather was cold and windy which made for a cranky husband and an even crankier toddler.  We walked out to the area where they had the trees and quickly tried to pick the best one. I felt like we were the Griswolds!  We found a tree, had the guy cut it down and quickly hopped on the tractor to ride back to the main barn.   Back at the barn they had hot cider and doughnuts for us to eat while we waited for our tree to be tied up. 

Despite the cold, I thought it was a fun experience and would like to make it a family tradition.  If you ask my husband though, he’ll probably have a different answer. 

Making memories…that’s what it’s all about.

Before:

After:

2010 Christmas Card

Joy Magic Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

The Great Holiday Picture Meltdown

 

We went this morning to have A’s Christmas pictures taken.  You had though I asked him to sit in a pit of snakes the way he reacted.  He refused to sit or even stand and I had to end up playing a game with him to get a semi-half decent picture. Needless to say it wasn’t the most enjoyable photo experience of the past 2 ½ years…..  Oh and Santa, well that was another meltdown in itself.  We didn’t even attempt a picture there….I hightailed it out of Santa’s Workshop real fast.

But I'm glad it's over so that now I can use the couple good pictures we got along with some other ones I've taken to make and order our Christmas cards.  For the first time last year I got our cards through Shutterfly and just loved them.  They have so many designs to choose from and creating them is super easy.

My favorite cards Shutterfly offers is the folded cards.  I’m leaning towards the “Red Snowflakes“ Christmas card for this year, but already I'm finding it hard to choose a design because I love them all.  I also make a photo calendar for each coming year so it's time to get started on creating a new one for 2011. They have some pretty cool photo gifts (like the photo ornaments) that I’m thinking will be great gifts for the grandparents this year.

If you want to get your own 50 free cards go here <---