Christmas In July (Again)---Elfin' Around

I've been getting encouragement and compliments lately on my "good writing skills". Really? Me? Anyway, that prompted me to look back at some old blog posts....I don't know that I'm a good writer, more like I had good material. These kids are a hoot! But reading the old stories which I have no recollection of whatsoever in my present memories made me a little sad that so much has gone unblogged all these years. I switched to sharing mostly things about the kids on Facebook which is great and all and means it's really only my friends (and not those who unfriended me) seeing what we're up to but it's not the same as being able to click back through my old posts.

One of the things that kept me from blogging as much in the past was my frustration with uploading pictures. That's still an issue but I set it aside for today to do an Elf on the Shelf post. It's an easy place to start...if "starting" what it is I'm doing. I'm not sure...

Anyway....

I bring you, "Wizby: Year 4" (Here is Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, by the way).

This was our first Christmas here in our new house and Wizby had some new spots to explore. The kids were worried he wouldn't know where to find us so Easton sent an email to Santa with our new address asking him to please let Wizby know our new whereabouts. He must've shared because the day after Thanksgiving, Wizby showed up in Dalton's room with a new small tree and a Bing map with our new house circled on it. (The boys used to share a room--and a small tree--but now they all have their own rooms and "needed" a 3rd tree.)



The next day he was already tricky to find. Eventually we discovered him in the pantry with some elf pals:



Ah, back in the day when we used to eat all sorts of processed things. Our pantry looks much different now, actually.

One morning the kids awoke to find him sleeping in their bathtub in Autumn's sleeping bag!

He was snuggled up with some new seasonal "soft friends" for the kids:



Another morning we found him on the table near our front door sporting festive cups for each kid:


And bungee jumping with a Slinky from the light fixture over the stairs:



He pulled out the Angry Birds game and brought each kid a tiny Angry Bird ornament wearing Santa hats:


He must've enjoyed his bungee jumping night because he went for a little more thrill-seeking when he rolled himself down the stairs inside a roll of toilet paper:


We couldn't leave him there all day, however (the cat loves toilet paper), but rules are rules and NO ONE is allowed to touch an elf, lest he lose his magic. So, Easton grabbed our "Elf Yourself" microphone from last season and changed his voice to "elf" to explain to Wizby that we'd be carefully lifting him up by touching the toilet paper and Easton didn't want him to panic:


One morning he was hanging out happily in the car:


And he'd drawn a self portrait on Dalton's dry erase easel....not too shabby for drawing in the dark, eh? ;)


On the day of our housewarming party, Wizby must've known it would be risky to be out and about with all the guests milling about. We found him tucked away in the master bathroom napping in a box of Kleenex:



And once we were done showing off our new house, he showed up with Santa hat chair covers sitting in a poinsettia we received as a housewarming gift.


One Tuesday morning he showed up in the garage with a date!


You like his sport coat and how he's parked right in between our cars? Rascal!


The following morning we found him sunbathing in Easton's room in a bikini!



Not only was he in beachwear, he'd changed the clothes each kid had laid out to swimming suits, flip flops and goggles!


Another day he'd brought a festive treat of Christmas Goldfish (awww, processed, artificially colored Goldfish, my kids sure miss you....) and wrote secret messages that later showed up as "bruises" on our bananas:


He knocked the star off the top of our Christmas tree and replaced it with himself!


I guess some fellas didn't like that idea much....they held Wizby hostage!




Super hero Green Lantern was trying to free him, it seems:


The next morning we'd discovered all those "bad guys" were tied up themselves:


And Wizby and his rescuer were taking it easy in a Crock Pot hot tub with a few lovely ladies:


The following day he was in the master bathtub on a boat:


He'd brought some sponge capsules for fun!


Oooh, turns out they were Christmas shaped:


He spelled out some advice with M&M's (awwww, we miss you too, M&M's!):


And he brought some wintery mirror clings for the powder room:


He gift wrapped the clothes the kids had set out for the next morning! Oh, Wizby....


He disguised himself as a wise man with a candy cane staff and came to see the Baby Jesus:


He lined up with the nutcracker collection but brought some Christmasy puzzles for each kid:


The kids woke up for church with red (ish) Rudolph noses!


Wizby!!!

At least he was sporting a rosy nosey too:


I was sleeping in that morning, I have no idea how the kids discovered their red noses. Oh well.


He perched in our ornament wreath listening to Easton's "Son of Neptune" Audio book one day:


He brought each kid their very own snowglobe for their rooms which is great because they are always trying to steal mine:


He brought a fun Charlie Brown Christmas book with fun sounds:


And gave each kid a "grow your own crystals" kit with a snowy theme:


He dressed like firefighter Barbie and sat in a vintage firetruck in the laundry room:


One of his less inspired evenings, he posed in the missing vertical blind hole.

(We hate those things but still haven't decided what to do instead...ugh!)

Poor guy only ever gets to see Christmas decorations. We discovered he'd pulled out some Halloween décor and was dressed as a ghost!



And on his final night leading to Christmas Eve he crepe papered the kids' doors:





Of course that was the night that Dalton threw up a time or two (can't remember at this point) and mama had to hurdle the papers to get to him. Ugh! But this way works too:


And there you have the 2012 elfin' season. With less than 5 months to go, I hope he's already making more plans for 2013.

(Thanks for stopping by!)