The Adventures of Charley Days 4-7

Charley has been awfully busy around our house lately!

First he dyed our milk blue! (Which the boys loved only AFTER I assured them that it wouldn't make the taste any different.)

Then we found him slacking under the Christmas tree!

He had even used Mommy's scissors to cut himself a little blanket!

Then, sneaky Charley made powdered sugar angels on the coffee table!

(The favorite of the year so far...)

And then today.... Oh goodness.

Today Charley stole the candy bowl off of the top of the fridge and had himself a snack after returning from the North Pole!

He didn't try to hide the evidence either! Chocolate all over his mouth and wrappers on the table!

Charley is a mischievous little elf, but he's cute and he cleans up after himself so we let it slide.

Note to the creators of Elf on the Shelf.... Having some type of wire in his limbs would make him SO much easier to position! If I could bend his arms and legs and them STAY the way I wanted, it would make my life a lot easier.

I may add some to ours for next year so he can get really creative.

Also, I was skeptical at first about how he would be received and if it would be worth the money... VERY much worth it! I would have paid double! The words, "Be nice! Charley is watching you! He's gonna tell Santa!" flow through our house like the river Nile.

Thank you Charley!

The Adventures of Charley, Day 3!

The boys found silly old Charley slacking under the tree! He even stole a piece of my scrap fabric to use as a blanket! 

Can I just say, the fact that my children have not touched him all day as he lay lounging under our tree.... ASTOUNDS me. The whole, "if you touch him he will lose his magic" thing is some powerful stuff. 

Also, I find it somewhat amusing that my two oldest are arguing over whether or not Charley is real or not and it is my 2 year old, NOT my 6 year old, saying he isn't real....

He's coming around though. 

Santa's Challenge Day 2!

It is day 2 of the Santa's Operation Christmas Challenge!

Mason is starting to really get into it. Instead of having to be reminded to see if the box has reappeared in the chimney, he made sure to check! 

(After being crinkled up by the two smallest little monsters)

Day 2's letter says:

Good Morning Mason! It is day 2 and man am I busy getting ready for Christmas! 

I know that sometimes we get so busy each day, we forget to do things! I know that I do! Since you didn’t get a chance to tell Mrs. Simmerman why you love being in her class yesterday, let’s try to remember to do it Monday morning! I just know that it would be so special to her!  Don’t forget! 

As for today....Today’s deed is to teach your brothers how to make your very favorite silly face. Sometimes little brothers don’t quite know how to make a good silly face and since you are SO good at it, I know that you are just the one for the job. 

I am so excited to see which silly face you teach them to make!

Good Luck! 

My kids are very much in to silly faces and I knew Mason would love this one. Especially since he loves teaching his brothers to do things that he is a pro at.

So he got started right away. I literally didn't even finish reading the letter before he started! 

Showing his brothers how to make his favorite silly face. He is such an awesome big brother. 

And he promised me that first thing Monday morning he was definitely NOT going to forget to tell his teacher why he loves being in her class! 

Hopefully we are back on track! 

The Adventures of Charley, Day 2!

The first thing Mason says when he gets out of bed...

"We have to find Charley!"

So the search began...

After a lot of searching and a little help from Mom, we found him! 

He was perched high on top of the garland that hangs on our mirror over the couch!

Sneaky Charley...

Now, since last night I had fallen asleep and then woke up around 12 a.m. realizing that I had yet to move Charley to his new spot and just moved him quickly, I will have to get move creative. Charley needs to showcase his awesome personality! 

So tomorrow... Charley will be stirring up some mischief! 

Now, to come up with something fantastic!

Santa's Challenge Day 1!

So today was day one of Santa's Operation Christmas Challenge, the first day of deed doing. 

Not the hit the ground running kind of start I was hoping for, but he is 6 and has the memory of a fruit fly so I am sure we will pick up some momentum.... At least I hope. 

Once again, the deed filled box was found, by Mason, in the fireplace. 

And yes, I am WELL aware that our fireplace is filled with soot. Not necessarily on my high list of priorities and not thought about until now seeing as the majority of the year it is warm enough to wear flip flops down here. 

He tore into it to find out the deed of the day! 

Please overlook his bed head... This was post breakfast, pre hair brushing. 

Deed of the day! Tell your teacher why you love being in her class. 

Transcript of the letter:

Good Morning Mason! It is day 1!

I am so excited for you to get started with spreading Christmas cheer! Are you ready?

Today's good deed is to tell your teacher why you love being in her class! I am sure that she would be so happy to know how glad you are to have her as a teacher. 

Good luck! I know you will so a fantastic job of spreading the Christmas spirit!

Now.... Mason forgot to do this deed while at school today. So now, I am figuring out a way to incorporate the missing of a deed. Santa will, of course, know it hasn't been completed, but no harshness from the Big Guy.

So I am thinking a mentioning of the deed not being complete in a round about/"it's ok, we will try harder next time" kind of way. 

Now, I am off to type! Day 2 deed PLUS "let's make up for the missing yesterday's deed" letter isn't going to type itself. 

Santa... You owe me! I'd like something sparkly!

Or some peace and quiet. Something with a salon day.... 

Think about it. 

Welcome Charley the Elf!

We finally broke down and joined in on the "Elf on the Shelf" craze.

We spotted him on sale at Target PLUS it came with a $5 gift card with purchase. How could we pass that up!

Although, if he succeeds at convincing our children to act even sweeter than their normal evil fantastic selves, then he would have been worth paying full price. 

Plus he's cute.

I built up the hype on the way home from school. 

"I found something odd when we got home from the grocery store," I said.

Then I built up the story. There was an elf sitting on his Santa's good deed box in the fire place and a book on the coffee table and I had NO CLUE where they had come from. 

I told him that I had taken a picture of the elf with my phone and asked if he would like to see. Of course. His reaction????? "That thing freaks me out."

Yeah.

Luckily when we got home, we read the story and searched all over for him just to find that he had climbed up the Christmas tree and planted himself on one of the top branches. AFTER knocking an ornament off of the tree.

He warmed up quickly and we decided on Charlie.

(My children have a slight obsession with YouTube where they discovered the "Charlie Bit Me" video. They now LOVE this video and watch it repeatedly.)

Now he reminds his younger brothers constantly often that Charley is watching. 

All three of them looking AT THE CAMERA!

AT THE SAME TIME! 

Quick! Someone add this date to Wikipedia! 

Too bad no one gave me a real smile. Or any smile at all for the little one there... 

Man I love starting new traditions! I may force them to go with the Charley thing even after they decide that Santa isn't cool anymore... 

(And yes, I know that Charley isn't spelled the "normal" way. I am going to SAY that I did this on purpose, we have a great great great great great great great great great grandpa named Charley, because I definitely didn't get up at 3:30 a.m. with a fussy 1 year old and spell Charlie wrong in our book to keep forever in permanent marker due to extreme exhaustion... So there) 

Santa's Operation Christmas Challenge

I have been knowing for a while that I wanted to do an advent calender for the boys this season, but I didn't want the run of the mill peel back the paper and pop the chocolate out of a platic mold. (An advent calender they are also doing, hey, it's chocolate and they are kids! They love it)

So I started looking.

Then I ran across this post from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar mentioning the Good Deed Advent Calender that she and her family did last year. I immediately knew that this was what I had been looking for. Especially after Mason informed me the other day that Christmas was about gifts.... Yeah, time to steer his young mind in the right direction! After all, no one enjoys a "gimme" attitude during the most wonderful time of the year.

But then I thought... We really don't have a place to string up 25 small buckets. Maybe something a little more compact???

And then I ran across this post by Delia Creates showcasing an advent calender made up of simply one box that has it's contents replaced daily.

That was PERFECT for us!

So I combined the two and put our own little spin on it.

Now I am calling it, Santa's Operation Christmas Challenge.

I started with a box that I found at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, a dollar.

Then, to make it a little more festive, I wrapped it in brown craft paper and added a red and white striped fabric scrap bow.

Next, I decided that the first day of December would be introduction day. I constructed a letter from santa explaining exactly what he was to expect and the reasoning for the "challenge."

The letter says...

From the desk of...

 Santa N. Claus

(Santa apparently has no middle name, but I thought a middle inital looked more professional. So Santa, if your reading this, your middle name is now Nicholas. Go with it.)

Dear Mason,

Ho Ho Hello there Mason! While I get ready for my busiest time of year, I would like for you to do me a favor. So many people forget the true meaning of Christmas. A time for giving and caring and celebrating Jesus' birthday! I need for you to help me remind people of the reason for this joyous season. In this box, each morning until Christmas Day, you will find a deed of the day for you to perform to make someone's day a little brighter. Try your hardest and always remember, a little thoughtfulness goes a long way.

Thank you for your help! You will do GREAT!

See you soon,

Santa

After printing the letter, (which I did on a small scale to fit the box and let's face it... Tiny note from Santa??? It doesn't get much more magical than that) I rolled it up like a tiny scroll and tied it with another fabric scrap before placing it on a bed of red sparkly tinsel.

Now, when we get home this evening, the box will be discovered (after some stealthy moves by me) in the fireplace (It's from Santa! Where else would he find it!).

Some of the good deeds that are lined up to "appear" in the box are:

Tell your teacher why you love being in her class

Teach your brothers to make your favorite silly face

Give some toys you don't play with to your local thrift store

Donate a toy to Toys for Tots

And then of course, there will be 19 more!

I am so excited to start this tradition with my boys!

happy Thursday everyone!