Elf on the Shelf Day 8 Advent Activities Day 2

Oh my this has been quite a day. Let's just say I just, as in 2 seconds ago, put my son to bed after a 2 hour stand off! Let me take a breath....ahhhhhhh ok

Onto business. Our Elf Mater started organizing the troops. This morning we found him leading a band of Braydon's stuffed animals.

I was impressed by his creativity and his leadership skills. Braydon was not only NOT impressed, he was very angry that Mater took his stuffed animals off his bed and was playing with his "parade set" without asking. He didn't want to share and he didn't want Mater to lead the animals in a parade.

This was the scene, after Braydon carefully put all his toys away without touching Mater, we didn't want him to lose his Christmas magic. I had to talk to Mater about staying away from Braydon's toys from now on unless he asks first. (Lesson learned. When a 3 year old is involved you play by 3 year old rules. No matter how cool the idea) Mater the Elf is on board and we all moved on.

That was until we had some friends come over and Mater was accidentally covered in puzzles. Since mommy needed to touch him to move him, his magic disappeared. Have no fear! We found a Christmas magic cure! If you sprinkle sugar on him and say, " I believe in Christmas Magic, Christmas Magic please come back" and place the Elf back in the Christmas stocking the magic seems to return. Also you don't need to buy a kit. Win win, the positive of creating magic with a 3 year old. On the fly Elf First Aid.

Since Mater was going to be on his way to see Santa we asked Mater to deliver Braydon's Christmas list to Santa. 

Good news! Braydon should be on the nice list today because our Advent Activity was to buy a present for a teenager we picked out from Angel Tree. My amazing cousin is coordinating this year so we dropped the gift off at her house. She is delivering some of the presents personally.  Braydon doesn't grasp the full concept of what we did, but we talked about how Christmas is not just about how many toys we get, but how much we can help others.  Baby steps. When this becomes a tradition, and the epiphany of what this means happens, I am going to be grateful we choose to start this good deed this year.