Yes, this is one of those posts. You know the ones…the ones that show allllll the things our Elf on the Shelf did this year. I don’t know about you but my Instagram and Facebook feeds were both taken over by Elves in Dec! I did not participate in posting any pics on there (but appreciated those who did as it gave our Elf some ideas!) but did want to share about our first Elf experience!
The day before Thanksgiving we heard a knock on the door and when we opened it there was a box that said it was from Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole!!!
Turns out Santa uses marshmallows for his packaging material (and this might have totally overshadowed anything else in the box!)
Inside the box was a special letter from Santa and a present wrapped in his special wrapping paper!
The kids enjoyed the marshmallows while I took over reading the letter to them!
Basically the letter was from Santa himself and introduced us to a special friend he was sending our way that night! It also talked a lot about Jesus and how we could teach the elf how to do the right thing. If you’d like to see a copy of the letter for yourself (maybe Santa might send one similar to your kids next year?) you can see it here!
Opening the book!
Kye = Pumped
Britt = Marshmallowsssss!!!!
Since I read the Santa letter, Daddy read the book 🙂
Kye picked the name for our elf and decided on Hermey right away. If you’ve ever seen the classic Rudolf movie…Hermey is the elf who is Rudolf’s fellow misfit 🙂
Thanksgiving morning Hermey made his grand entrance! Even though we talked about how Hermey would only come to life at night, Kye was still VERY disappointed at first. He had expected Hermey to be alive when he saw him. Once that initial shock wore off then Kye was pumped and became very in love with Hermey 🙂 What REALLY surprised me though was Britt. I figured she wouldn’t understand but she loved Hermey. Each morning she’d call out for him and they would both hold hands to find him together. Precious!!!
Here are all the fun things Hermey did during his stay with us!
Day 1: he made us muffins for breakfast!
Day 2: He knew Kye and Daddy were going golfing that day so he hit in Kye’s golf tees!
Day 3: He gave us a clue to our fun day…he was drinking hot chocolate and watching a Christmas movie!
Day 4: First day of Dec which meant we started our Christmas countdown calendar!
Day 5: Hermey must LOVE breakfast food!!!
I LOVED Kye’s reactions each morning 🙂
Day 6: Hermey had a run-in with Zurg and lost 🙁
The no-touching rule was tough!
Day 7: The army men helped Hermey escape and they tied up Zurg!!! Yay!
Day 8: Rachael and her fam came for a visit and their elf traveled with them (ours does not travel) so Hermey made a friend!!!
Day 9: Britt’s Birthday! Hermey had on his birthday hat to celebrate and even brought Britt a special “2” cookie!
Kye and Hermey are hardcore bffs 🙂
Day 10: Hermey knew it was Britt’s party day so he stayed out of the way!
Day 11: Taking a ride on our stocking holder reindeer!
Day 11: Since Hermey was so sad he couldn’t play with Kye and Britt he brought along some friends that they can play with!!!
Day 12: Nothing like a little car racing!
Day 13: Getting cuddly and ready for Christmas morning with new themed pjs!
Zach and I were in NYC for four nights but the kids stayed at Mrs. Charlotte’s for five nights (due to us having an early morning flight out). Hermey only lives at the North Pole and visits our house…he doesn’t travel with us. But once we got home he left us a special note on the Ipad and showed us pictures from when we were away!
Day 14: Showing us what we missed!
Here is what he had been up to!
Day 15: Britt’s bed!
Day 16: Pretending to be a baby!
Day 17: Cuddling up in Kye’s bed!
Day 18: Riding in Kye’s firetruck!
Day 19: Riding Britt’s horse along with the best cowboy (Woody) and cowgirl (Jesse) around!
Day 20: Doing a little fishing in the bathtub
Day 21: Oops! He fell into Britt’s stocking!
Day 22: I think Hermey wishes he was a football player like Daddy used to be 🙂 Hiding in our tree with the football ornament!
Day 23: He made a sugar angel!
Sidenote: our kids have never seen snow and therefore had NO CLUE what this was!
Day 24: Hermey made himself a little house out of boxes!
Day 25: Hermey colored a special Santa picture for us and brought along a coloring sheet for Britt and Kye! Kye has colored his and says he’s saving it to give back to Hermey next Christmas!
Day 26: On Christmas Eve morning we couldn’t find Hermey anywhere so finally decided to check upstairs in the new playroom. Sure enough there he was!!!
Kye has been asking for a grocery store for a long time (originally he had been asking for his own play kitchen like Britt has but I knew that was never going to happen so I suggested a grocery store instead!) and really wanted Santa to bring him one. Well, something even more special happened!!! Hermey brought him the grocery store he’s been wanting! Hermey made it for Kye and left it unfinished because he knows how much Kye loves to build things with his daddy!!!
PS: Kids did AMAZING not touching Hermey the WHOLE time until this moment. Britt did it! But luckily he was already going home that night haha!
Since we were heading to G-Mama’s that day Hermey left us a good-bye letter! He headed back to stay with Santa that night until next year!!!
Here is the video I took when we found Hermey and the letter and the reaction to the grocery store! I LOVE how excited Kye is and I love my awesome flu-sick voice 😉
One THRILLED little boy with the beginnings of his new grocery store!!!
Now that Hermey is gone Kye has been SO sad and has brought him up many times saying how much he misses him and how excited he is for Christmas to come so Hermey can come back and visit!!! I know some families don’t have an Elf on the Shelf who comes to visit them, but we have really enjoyed this new Christmas tradition! We LOVE Christmas and adding Hermey to our home during the holidays made it even more exciting and special 🙂
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I rarely watch videos on blogs but for whatever reason I did watch the one of Kye finding the grocery store. So cute! And your sick voice is smokin' hot :-). It also reminded me that "y'all" are super southern in GA!