It's beginning to look a lot....

LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!

Yay! Can you believe it? It's finally here! The "official" start to the holiday season. I am so excited!

Yes. It's stressful.
Yes. It's expensive.
Yes....I WILL complain!

But I love it!

Our season started off with the return of a very dear friend. Our Elf on the Shelf. I am in no way affiliated with this company, but I would like to sing their praises!

We love our Elf. His name is Roy. And last year, when he had to go back to Santa's house, it was so traumatic.....it almost ruined Christmas day for my 8 year old son. But that makes our experience sound bad. It wasn't bad. It was so much fun.

The Elf comes at the first of the Christmas season. Each morning he shows up in a different spot in your house. (because he's been gone all night, reporting to Santa Claus about all your activities during the day) We had all kinds of fun and mis-haps with Roy last year.

And you can bet that as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was over....my son was wondering when his dear friend would return!!

Gratefully, I had anticipated his excitement. And had fashioned a way for Roy to come back to us IN STYLE! Maybe your Elf on the Shelf would like to return in style each year as well...here's how....

I started with a large, square, paper mache box. I wanted a pretty sturdy box, because I plan for it to be Roy's "return box" for many years to come.

I found some scrapbook paper that I liked and used the box to trace the individual pieces. I then coated the box with Mod Podge and put my paper on.

*hint for Mod Podging thick scrapbook paper onto Paper Mache....use a little more than you normally would. The paper tends to want to pull up. It will be a little longer drying time. But your results will be better!*

Use sandpaper to lightly sand off any paper overhang.

Then I filled the box with a generous layer of tissue paper. (to cushion Roy's trip!)

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Next, I found some fun material to put on the inside.  I cut it just larger than the opening and then hot glued it to the inside.  I flipped the edge underneath so that no raw edges would show.

After the inside was complete, I found some decorations and a tag to attach to the top.

And finally, I covered the ENTIRE BOX with a liberal coating of Mod Podge to protect the paper. 

And on Friday night, a phantom knock came to our door....
Look what was waiting!!!

WELCOME BACK ROY!

We can't wait to make all kinds of memories with Roy this year!  If you don't have an "Elf on the Shelf" it certainly isn't too late to get one.  In fact, it's a PERFECT time!  We love ours.  He's like a member of the family.  And this year, my 3 year old has caught on.  So now we have 2 kids anxiously awaiting Roy's location each morning!  I love Christmas!

And speaking of loving Christmas.....(did I mention I LOVE CHRISTMAS?)

I thought it might be fun to end each post with something I love about Christmas.  I kind of have a lot of those.  

So I thought I'd share a movie, or music, or a tradition.  I'm gonna try and do some of the kookie ones, so you can get to know me better.  (and truly understand how crazy I am about this time of year)

One of my favorite things is to set my DVR to search for shows about Christmas and the Holidays.  I remember that my parents would only buy TV Guide once a year, in December.  And we'd go through and hi-light all the things we needed to see.  This is the modern TV Guide.

And the first thing to record this year?

The Night They Saved Christmas

An awesome 80's offering about blasting the North Pole to find oil. Oh yeah!! It's completely horrid acting and clothing and story...AND I LOVE IT!! My husband won't even watch it. And I'm sorry, but true Christmas-ees....will appreciate it's retro goodness!

HAPPY START TO YOUR HOLIDAY SEASON!!

LOVE,