Jingle Came and Went

Well December came and went already but I'll have a few posts about what we've been doing. Just like millions of other families we had our first "Elf on the Shelf" experience this year.  Our elf, whom we named Jingle, since we knew Ella was too young to come up with a name on her own, arrived a little later than he was suppose to. Most people start right after Thanksgiving with the Elf on the Shelf. It was a few days into December before Jingle arrived early in the morning. When Ella woke up Jingle was waiting for her on the table with a note saying who he was and why he was at our house. He also brought a book for us to read telling a bit more about him.

At first Ella didn't want anything to do with him. When each new morning would come and she had to find where he was in the house or what he had been up to after returning from the North Pole the night before, she became very excited. This is what our Jingle adventures looked like. 

One morning Ella found that Jingle had painted her a picture and left out the paints so she could enjoy painting that day too. Ella also liked looking at the book and we read it almost ever night.

There were a few times that I had to point Ella in the direction of Jingle's hiding place. One of her new things is when she is thinking about something she will put her pointer finger to her cheek and say "Hmmm, let's see or let me think".  She would do this when trying to decide where to look for Jingle. Every time she found him she would get very excited. 

 "There he is......way up in the decoration!"

Since we hadn't put up our Christmas tree prior to Jingle's arrival, he left us all a hint that it was time to get it up and decorated. 

One of the rules you have to follow when Santa sends you an elf is that you must not touch him or her. If you do the elf will loose his/her magic and cannot fly back to the North Pole to tell Santa if you are being a good or bad little boy or girl. Ella was pretty good about not touching Jingle (we had two slips). She would say "Just look, no touch Jingle". 

Once we got the tree up Jingle decided one day to hide there. Then he got into some of Ella's toys and mommy's decorations. 

He brought Ella a homemade toy to play with. (more on that DIY craft later)

(I actually think she might have touched him here....she sure wanted to so many times)

The best morning was when Ella found that Jingle had already started breakfast. At first she was confused I think and then she insisted that Jingle could not sit on TOP of the table, that he was suppose to sit nice in a chair. (Her face tells it all below).

 She quickly warmed up to the idea of sharing breakfast with Jingle and talked his pointy little elf ears off.

We found Jingle hanging from Ella's bedroom door,

deciding he wanted to read the Gingerbread Baby after hearing it read to Ella multiple times,

trying to get daddy's train to go around the tree,

and after a late night movie, popcorn and drink box.

But the best one was Christmas Eve morning when Jingle decided that he was tired of not seeing any snow. We hadn't seen a single flake and it was going to be Christmas the next day. So......

He made a snow angel. 

And when we all woke up on Christmas day........THERE WAS SNOW!!!! When Ella looked out her window she said "Santa bring snow!"