Our Christmas That Was

The past few days have been amazing with plenty of time together as a family, lots of fun and games and far too much festive food! But like all good things, it comes to an end and with the Mr back at work and the new year now here I thought I'd share our Christmas with you - It's something nice to look back on for me too.

We sprinkled reindeer food outside and set up some goodies for Santa. The Mini Mes don't actually like milk so they offered the man in red a coke instead, just in case he doesn't drink milk too!

Christmas Eve also meant we had to say farewell to our elf, Peppy Tum-Tums.

There were lots of lovely gifts from family and friends to open Christmas morning.

We enjoyed bingo and board games...

... and poker with my parents.

Then a Boxing Day buffet
(Can you tell the Mr likes his savoury nibbles!?)

What was your favourite part of Christmas?

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Creative fun over Christmas

The build up was immense yet it all seemed to be over so quickly. Christmas that is. 

Apart from the endless food and wonderful gifts we had a great time getting crafty and creative too over the festive period.

We made our own cards using fingerprints and potatoes...

We coloured in some cards in glitter gel pens to send to our family and friends to say thank you for the lovely presents they sent us...

We had Peppy Tum-Tums visit who helped us to make paper chains...

We met Santa and pretended that we had traveled all the way to the North Pole to visit him...

And we did lots of baking...

We were asked to share our creativity over Christmas As part of Carcraft’s Drive Happy initiative http://www.carcraft.co.uk

What creative fun did you have over the festive break?

Elf on the Shelf

Imagine your little one's face when they find a magical elf in the house from Santa! Sent to keep an eye on your child's behaviour, the Elf on the Shelf is a tradition where a cheeky pose-able figure visits during December until Christmas Eve when he catches a lift back with Santa. His mission is to ensure that the children are behaving to determine which list they deserve to be on this year, naughty or nice!

I've named him Peppy Tum-Tums

Your mischievous elf can be given a name and registered online and you can create some great scenarios for it to get the kids giggling and to encourage them to show the elf how it should behave properly. Each night he reports back to Santa to let him know how good your children are being.
I intend to have ours wrapping the Christmas tree in toilet roll and writing messages on the mirrors in toothpaste - simple yet fun!

He will be making an entrance on Saturday, 1st December, when the decorations go up and he will be arriving with a message from Santa and some treats to enjoy over the festive season. I have some great ideas planned for him and lots more goodies for him to magically present to the Mini Mes during the build up to the big day, including home grown lollipops! I'm hoping he helps to keep the Mini Mes calm and sensible up until Christmas morning but excited too by seeing what he gets up to next.

We received this lovely blue eyed Elf from PureBaby. You can pick up your set which includes a hardback book, a keepsake box and an elf or some lovely alternatives too here: http://www.purebaby.co.uk/?searchStr=elf&sub=Go%21
There is a female version available also.

Do you have a family tradition at Christmas? 

Do you take part with Elf on the Shelf?

What would you have your elf doing?