Posing Elves for fun....

December is here...

Well it won't be long before Christmas is here.   I thought I would be adding a lot of posts to my blog but this year has been full of distractions.   I'll write more about that later. 

As for now, I think it's time to add some more fun Elf photos.  You can pose your vintage elf's if they are still in pretty good condition.   Here is our Elf Christmas tree with vintage and new elves.

Here are a few close ups...

The Elf is very inspiring!

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog but I guess it is never too late.  We've been working pretty hard launching our Facebook page, and in a very short time we have almost 900 LIKES.  We've uploaded quite a lot funny photos related to the Elf on the Shelf.  We are having so much fun this year with our elves.

Our Facebook page is dedicated to all that love the elf and his mischief and rightfully titled "Elf Mischief".  Be sure to check it out.

This is just a sampling as there are a lot of fun photos on our Facebook page.  Feel free to share your favorite on Pinterest as well.

SHOP NOW - for the Elf on the Shelf

Letter from Santa and Head Elf

Has your child been on their best behavior because they know that their Elf on the Shelf® is reporting back to Santa? Let them know that their good behavior has been noticed by their elf and he or she has reported it to Santa and Elf Headquarters located at the North Pole! This sweet little note is for a standard sheet of paper which you can roll up and tie with a cute ribbon and have your elf deliver. According to the note, the Naughty and Nice list is still a work-in-progress so they need to keep up their good behavior!

Found this little treat on Nolamommy.com

Letter From Elf on the Shelf

Bring back the Mistletoe

Bring back the Mistletoe!

Way back when I was a child, I remember thinking Christmas was the best season of the year.  Looking back now, I know why my mind often goes back to those years growing up.

Our Christmas surroundings and events were very different than they are today.  I lived with my great Aunt and Uncle just outside a small town in Mississippi and while we didn’t have much money, we sure had a lot of love.   We had a country store on a little 35 acre spot about 12 miles from Batesville and approximately 10 miles from Oxford.

The holiday season was kicked off during Thanksgiving where all the family came together with food, conversations and a lot of laughter.  This was also the time I got to see a lot of cousins that I didn’t get to see throughout the year.

After our company had gone and all the dishes were washed, left over’s were somehow stored for later; our Christmas decorating started.  This was tradition and as I look back on it now, I don’t know how my great Aunt did it.  She would drag the tree out and we would work for a long time making it perfect.  It was a Silver tree with pon pom puffs on the end of each straight branch.   The silver pole had holes drilled in at an angle and each branch was color coded to fit in its place with the longer ones on the bottom and shorter ones toward the top.  We had only one option for decorating our beautiful tin tree.  We would hang red ball ornaments perfectly around the entire tree. 

Somehow I felt we must be rich because we had such a beautiful tree.  It wasn’t green like the ones on all the television shows; ours sparkled – especially when the color wheel was on.  The color wheel was made of a four color round disc with a light behind it and was strategically placed to illuminate our tree in the front window.  Colors of red, yellow, blue and green would seem to change the silver like magic when the disc would turn.  We had a fancy tree skirt that my aunt handmade to cover up the tree stand.

We have my husband’s mom’s silver tree just like the one I grew up with.  We put it up but have changed the color of the ball ornaments to blue.  Luckily we found a color wheel a few years back so the tradition of our tin pon pom tree will live on.

Growing up in the country, my great Uncle would take his gun and shoot some mistletoe out of the trees.  He would bring the sprigs home and secretly hang them around the house and the store.   Somehow I was oblivious to this event until I would get caught under the Mistletoe with a neighbor or cousin and he would say “You are both standing under the Mistletoe so you must kiss”.   We would hesitantly kiss with a quick peck on the lips and then quickly take our sleeve and wipe off any cooties we may have gotten.   Then giggle and run out of the house or store, not taking a chance of getting under another piece of that stuff.

Christmas was the only time I was really allowed to help in the kitchen.  My aunt and I would make cookies, candy and fruit cakes to give to neighbors and friends.  We would neatly package each gift, tie them up with pretty bows, then load up our  gifts in the car for delivery.  This was usually a two day event about a week before Christmas.   The reason it took so long to drop off our gifts was because we would be invited in to have some pie, cookies or some other home cooked goodie and it was a must to sample when offered because as my aunt would say “It would be very rude not to enjoy someone’s hard work – she would follow that by; “ don’t you dare spit anything out that you don’t like” and I knew she meant it.   Now fruit cake was not my favorite, actually I despised it.  It had too many fruits in it to make it good and felt like carrying a brick.  Why everyone seemed to make one, I don’t know but when possible I stayed clear of those things. 

It was always fun to see all my friend’s decorations and I have to admit, I was a little jealous of some gifts under their trees.  Everyone took a lot of time to wrap each gift with bright and colorful wrapping paper and top with pretty bows.  Sometimes while looking around, I would find myself under the Mistletoe and end up with a kiss.  Yes I would wipe the cooties but tried to do it a little more secretly – that was just polite.

I look back at the good ole days and my mind goes back to that Mistletoe.   Rarely seen these days but looking back Mistletoe was a fun tradition that always brought on a lot of laughter.   Maybe people are still scared of cooties, I was way back then however, I really didn’t know what a cootie was – and still don’t.   So now I say, bring back the Mistletoe and let the kissing begin.  Smooch!  
                                                                                 

Yearly memory box, turns into a family Journal

This year 2011-2012, we decided to start another fun family tradition of saving memories.  Our Plan:  Make a memory/Note box and  from New Years day until New Years eve, we will add our individual special memories, thoughts, photos etc., into our memory box.

The Box:   We sealed a cardboard box and made a collage of Note Box design with our family name Sebree which basically cost us nothing but time.   We cut a slot in the top about 5 inches long and about 1/2" thick.  Now we are ready to go.  We decided to create some little quarter page note pages with a place for the date, some lines for our thoughts.

We will be adding little love notes to each other, special photos, drawings, proud comments, sad things we want to share, memories of loved ones, friends and family.   A special note is on our fridge that simply states "Memories" as a reminder.

On new years eve, 2012 we will cut open our memory box as a family and read the memories with each other, have some fun, tears and some laughter for sure.  I feel we will truly gain a lot from this experiment as a family.  We will learn a little more about thoughts, feelings, love and more.   After sharing our memories, we will bind it all together to make a homemade family journal for the year, 2011.

What is your Elf's Name?

Ok, So we received a new Elf in our office and put a lot of thought of what to name her.   We thought about all the girly names that had some type of Christmas inspiration to them like.... Holly, Grace, Angel, Joy, Tinsel, Eve, Sparkle, Belle, Pixie (just because we were naming an Elf).   In the end we decided on something uniquely different.

The name had to be fun and memorable and it also needed to make us smile when we heard it.  So we decided  her name should be JingleMcTwinkle and this blog is named after her.   She doesn't sit alone either because we have a male Elf as well - His name is ZipManTwinkle and is very much a part of our life too.

Elves just as humans have their own personalities.   JingleMcTwinkle is absolutely a girly girl Elf that enjoys all that Christmas has to offer - She is very inspirational though out the Holiday season, encouraging family fun and holiday traditions.   ZipManTwinkle is a little goofy and somewhat rambunctious, in a good way though because we finally figured out, he just wants everyone to smile, giggle and have fun.

So does your family have an Elf, and if so, what name did you pick and why?