Christmas In July: Elf Escapades

December was a rough month around here. Of course nothing Christmasy got blogged...sadly. Not even all our pictures had even been looked through. When I sat down to write this post, there were many that I had never seen...pictures left un-rotated, blurry ones, a billion of the same pose while I tried to get the best expression or lighting and then delete the others. Much of that wasn't done. Makes me sad. What else got neglected that month? :(

December was definitely the toughest for me health-wise...filled with feeling crappy, trying to figure it out, doctors and tests and medicines, stress over it all, extra burdens on Jason having to pick up my slack...

So here I sit more than halfway along till next Christmas but wanting to blog a few things about our Christmas 2010. And one of the highlights of our recent Christmases have been the antics of our family Elf on the Shelf: Wizby. You can catch up on his mischeif making from 2009 here.

All year long Wizby brainstormed fresh ideas he hadn't done on his previous visits. He gathered up little gifts he wanted to leave his favorite family and sometime in November he wrote every single night's "plan" on the calendar for his entire season of observing the S kids for Santa. He was meticulous and made sure to take into consideration the plans already on the calendar for the family that day...be it school for both boys, fun holiday outings, weekends...

He first arrived the day after Thanksgiving. He was in the boys' room and you should have heard Easton's excitement when he discovered Wizby was back! Wizby had set up a small Christmas tree for the boys and was holding on to the plug for the fiber optic lights:




We had bought the tree at Target on an after-Christmas clearance last year and the kids were with me. But Wizby must've known about it and he worked real hard to drag it up from the basement, leaving a bit of a mess behind:


The following morning the boys found him in their room again. Wizby had brought some tiny decorations for the boys' tree and was perched on their bedroom lamp holding on to some garland...but Daddy was the one who woke up with the kids so Mom could sleep in and so the pictures aren't quite as thorough. ;)




That Sunday before church we woke up to find the Wii on and Wizby was playing!

(Awwww, Blitz. *sniff*)



He was creating Miis which is something the boys were also obsessed with doing around that time. We found Wizby had made a Mii of himself and also Santa, Rudolph, Gingey the gingerbread man, and Frosty:


He didn't get too creative the following day...a lot of us feel that way on Mondays, eh? He simply hung around on the valance above our kitchen table:


The last day of November he hid in Autumn's room for what may have been his first time ever:

Look how little she looks...and how short her hair is!



December 1st he brought chocolate advent calenders for the kids which was great because we get them annually and had forgotten to do so this year:


Then that night (of the 1st) is when Easton got so very sick and he and I spent the night in the hospital. But Wizby had planned so carefully knowing the next day was Thursday and that Mom would be driving all 3 kids in the car that morning and would want something festive to listen to. He'd brought some CDs: Phineas and Ferb Christmas and a Veggie Tales Christmas one. He still had his markers from his doodles:


Poor Dalton...when he woke up that morning of the 2nd, Easton was, of course, not in their room since he was in the hospital and that had all happened after Dalton went to sleep. So he kept going...and I was not in my bed. Neither was Jason. He had planned to sleep on the couch because Easton had spent part of the evening in bed with me before we headed to urgent care. So Dalton finally sees Jason on the couch but we were feeling bad that he might've been scared no one was home. :( Once Easton and I finally came home later that afternoon, they were excited to check out the CDs Wizby had brought.

That night is when my own symptoms started...luckily Wizby had his calendar and Jason was able to help him get into his planned spot with the 3 Santa bubbles he brought:


And, with perfect timing with Easton's strep diagnosis, Wizby showed up with plastic bathroom tumblers for each kid in their favorite colors.


Previously they were sharing an old restaurant sippy when they needed water in the bathroom. Wizby brought one in his favorite color too:


Before church on Sunday the 5th, Wizby knew we'd all be up and getting ready (if Easton hadn't still been recovering) so he was in Autumn's room again with her bows:


He was even holding her Christmas tree bow:


That Monday we found a trail of our socks:


Wizby must've noticed we hadn't yet hung up our Christmas stockings and was trying to give us a hand but got a little carried away as elves are prone to do:




Easton's homework sentence that night:


But while Easton was writing such nice things about his friend Wizby, Wizby was planning this:

See him up there with his dry erase marker??? He got that idea from the TFH's monkey spies that visit at birthday times.








Eastie thought that boogie was really gross and erased it straight away, tee hee!

The next morning we found him chillaxin' just like the Phamily's elf recently had:

See how he had taken a bite?

But he brought the rest of the box to share with us:


On Thursday the 9th the kids could not find Wizby. But we didn't have forever to look because we had to get Dalton off to rehearsal for his Christmas program, and if memory serves me, Easton was also with us, must've had the day off for some reason. Well who do you think we found coming along for the ride?!


Look how he'd propped himself on pillows so he could see out! And buckled himself in! Luckily Wizby knew no one would have to ride as a passenger that day. We follow the rules and no one is allowed to touch Wizby lest he lose his magic. You may notice that he wisely puts himself out of the reach of 1 year olds. The boys were always very nervous if we'd get close to pull the garland out of his hands or whatnot. I love how seriously they take it.

During the following night, Wizby used his hammock to clean up the faces he'd drawn on our pictures:

How nice of him! And then he assembled a Christmas tree out of Legos and made friends with our nutcracker collection:




He showed up in our powder room on the towel rack with some festive window/mirror clings:


And he was fishing over our bathtub:


Errr, what would have been our bathtub if it hadn't been in the process of being remodeled. He had little paper fish with Christmas and wintery themed jokes that our kids could actually understand written on them:


Later that day I heard a scream of terror from Dalton. He came rushing downstairs hysterical and it took a long time for him to calm down enough to where I could even understand what was wrong! Apparently, he'd given Wizby's fishing line a little tug and...
.
.
.
.


He was certain not to touch Wizby but he was still absolutely terrified he'd hurt him or that Wizby would leave and not come back or something. Poor fella. :(

But he did come back...sporting some festive bandages...and he brought the rest of the box to share with the kids:



Whew! So glad he was okay! :)

We sometimes take things away from the kids as punishments...Wii games for E, "soft friends" for D. The spot is above the kitchen cabinets near the sink...Wizby decided to keep some confiscated friends company one evening:




Another morning we found Wiz in the laundry room with what looked like an elf shoe...

Apparently it's a planter and came with a little spruce tree seed. Fun!

He brought tasty frosted Christmas tree brownies to the kitchen another day:


And on the day Christmas vacation started, he brought out some of the Wii games we keep hidden away because the kids get obsessed if allowed to play them too often:


This had to have been another night when I couldn't even make it back downstairs myself....


Wizby hid in the basement for the first time his next visit...

The kids had a really hard time finding him that day. And we don't give hints if we've seen or heard him around. If they don't find him right away, it's fine. It's all part of the fun, if you ask me!

Another tricky spot was when he was in the pantry...he'd brought us some red and green colored chips.

They were yucky!!! I guess they eat different things up at the North Pole than we like down here? We didn't even find him till lunchtime. We were sitting there and I had forgotten to close the pantry door back up and there he was!

One morning we found him burning calories on the ellipitical:


At least someone uses that thing. ;)


One morning a few days before Christmas we found an elaborate set-up with a zip line across the living room to the Christmas tree!




He was hanging on a candy cane...

The kids hate mint but I think he brought a candy cane for each of them anyway...I can't quite remember. Oh wait, I just remembered...he had 3 boxes of wintery animal crackers hanging around with him somehow.

Christmas Eve Eve I know he brought gifts...we found him head first in Autumn's stocking with Christmas Silly Bandz on his legs:


And on Christmas Eve he rearranged all the presents that were already out under the tree!


What fun Wizby always is! Wizby thought about coming back to bring us our new kitty but then we went and picked her up ourselves. And he might have been here more recently...the strangest thing happened. I was out shopping one night but Jason and Easton told me about it...and this is a total true story but to keep the kids from being freaked we said, "Maybe it was Wizby..." Anyway, Jason was taking Easton to bed. E hangs out in our room while Dalton falls asleep in their room. J was carrying Easton down the hall and Easton had his stuffed Max. Apparently he dropped Max in the hall. They both saw it land and Jason planned to return for it while Easton climbed the ladder to his bed. But, when Jason turned around, it wasn't there in the hall anymore!!! So, we assumed maybe Sugar stealthily sneaked up and took it somewhere? We looked for a few days, even. Then one morning Easton ccame downstairs with Max. I was like, "Oh, where was he?" and he said, "In my bed...I reached for Mario and found Max." I said, "Oh, Daddy must've found it and put it in bed with you." So when Jason woke up I was all, "Where'd you find Max?" and Jason was all, "Huh????" No one had found him. But he'd somehow ended up exactly where he belonged in Easton's bed. Sugar can climb the ladder but I don't think she could manage all that...keeping it hidden for days and then putting it back in exactly the right spot while no one ever noticed her? (We keep the door closed when the kids are sleeping). So we blame Wizby because who the heck knows what else it could've been!?!?

Can't wait to see what fun Wizby brings back in about 5 months!