F* the Elf, we have a Christmas Angel

I think over the past few years I've voiced my opinions (and as usual, maybe too loudly) of my disdain for the "Elf on a Shelf".  Without spending the entire blog post going off on a rant about the weird creature, I'll sum it up for you.

He magically comes to your home the day after Thanksgiving.

Via a friendly, well-marketed book and "doll".

A doll. . . which is pretty darn creepy and cheap looking, yet costs a pretty penny to buy.

And his/her book warns the children that they need to be "good" because every night, he/she will report back to Santa.

You also can't touch the Elf (per his/her instructions), because then he/she will loose his/her magic.

Over the course of the days before Christmas, thanks to pinterest parents/guardians will sometimes spend *uber* amounts of time coming up with clever things for their Elf to do and get into.  Making messes, climbing walls, making "snow", pooping chocolate. . . you name it.

I, for one, have enough of my plate and I will selfishly say I will not NIGHTLY go through the mundane task of setting up a stink in' elf.  An elf that is there to tattle on my friends, and also get into a lot of trouble and make quite a few messes!!

I don't like snarks.  I don't like tattle tellers.  I certainly don't want one in my house.

I don't tell the girls they have to be "good" to get presents.  Santa brings them because he is generous (just like the real St. Nick) and loves them.  I don't want to threaten them with a creepy little elf.

I already feel guilty about all of the lies we tell our children over Christmas.  Santa, reindeer, the North Pole, Elves. . . why add another elaborate scheme??

Okay. . . enough about the elf.

So late last year, I saw a post about a nicer version of the Elf (here).  You can make the doll yourself, and the point is to teach your children to do something nice for Christmas.  It's not about being good for the elf so you can get more presents, it's about doing things for others.  I liked that idea.  As it turns out, someone already came up with something similar, and my Aunt bought us our Christmas Angel.

So every day this month, our Angel (whose name is still unclear. . . ) came with ideas of good deeds to do. . . random acts of kindness.  I will admit. . . it was still a lot of work!!  But if I'm going to go through the trouble, I'm glad it's something that sends a good message to the girls.  She arrived every morning with a message in glitter (aka angel dust) as a hint for what to do that day.  Then I typed out notes with the explanation and a message.  For example, the day we donated food her note said, "Hello Isabelle and Sophia!  There are some people who are not able to buy food for themselves.  Food pantries are set up to help feed the hungry and help out those less fortunate than ourselves.  We are so lucky to have a warm home and plenty to eat!  Collect some food and donate it to those in need."  The word "FOOD" was written in glitter.

So needless to say, it's been a busy month!  Here is our day by day re-cap:

Dec 1: Remember to be kind and share with your friends.

We hosted our home-based Pre-School Co-Op this day, and the Angel asked the girls to try and be extra nice and welcoming to their friends

















Dec 2: Send out Christmas Cards to loved ones to they know we are thinking of them

 Isabelle insisted she write out the names on all of the cards, so this project lasted at least 3 days.  I managed to sneak in a few addressing myself when she was sleeping, but she was ON IT!

Dec 3:  Donate crayons and coloring books to the children's area of the hospital

 The lady at the welcome desk was so sweet and gave the girls each a little pillow made by their volunteer to thank them for their donation.  They thought it was pretty cool.  It kind of defeated the "give and not receive" lesson, but it was also nice to be able to explain to them why it happened (when you are nice to people, then they want to do something nice in return!)

Dec 4: Wrap gifts for others!

 This was a hard one for type A, anal mommy.  If you happen to receive a rather messily wrapped gift from our family. . . you'll know why :)

Dec 5: Make homemade gifts

This has been a bit of an on-going event, also.  The girls had so much fun putting everything together, tho!  We made some simple foam ornaments, decorated mugs, and made snowman handprint ornaments, as well.

Dec 6:  Prepare and deliver gifts for St. Nicholas's Day

They REALLY wanted those goodies themselves! We did have some extra for them to enjoy, but focusing on surprising our neighbors and imaging how excited they would be really help keep them focused and be okay with the fact that the candy and toys were not for them.

Dec 7: Call a relative that lives far away and let them know that you are thinking of them.          

 Isabelle was more than happy to give her Aunt Casey a call :)  

Dec 8: Donate books to the library.                                               We have a LOT of books, but I realized myself that we must read a lot of books because *I* even had a hard time letting any of them go!  We did manage to find a few that we didn't read very often and thought another child might be able to enjoy them more.  And luckily mom had a decent stack to donate from her own collection :)

Dec 9:  Ummmmm. . . the angel forgot to leave anything out.  Haha!!!  Another reason why I DON'T have an Elf!  I said, "Maybe she wants you to think of something yourself!"  Isabelle sweetly remembered Siphesihle, our sponsor child that lives in Swaziland, and thought it would be nice to send something to her for Christmas.  She had recently sent us a drawing, so Isabelle wanted to send her one, too -- and wanted it to be a little picture in a square just like Siphesihle's.  :)  We found a little reindeer ornament to stick in the envelope, as well.  

 Working hard on her art-work. :)

Dec 10: Give your teacher a gift.

While neither of the girls have a formal "teacher"-teacher, we have a few teachers from dance, music, nature class, etc.  The teacher we've know the longest is Miss. Jodie, who has taught their music/dance classes since before Sophia was born.  Now, Sophia attends her "Tiny Dancers" class and Isabelle goes to her "Fabulous Fours (and 5's!)" class.  Isabelle made her a little card and we gave her a small gift.  The girls just adore this lady!

Dec 11: Donate food.

I'm all for doubling up on fun.  Noblesville Parks had a free "Christmas at the Park" day and they were asking for food donations, so we made a drop off and also got to make some crafts, feed the birds, play games, go on a wagon ride, and enjoy hot chocolate.  :)

Dec 12:  Donated the new, unwrapped toys that Mommy collected during her toy drive to the local fire station (for THEIR toy drive).  

Isabelle was pretty stoked about getting to see the inside of a REAL fire station.  I was in shock that neither of them asked to keep any of the toys for themselves <3  I think this was one of the first days I felt like all of this "giving and not receiving" was sinking in.  Now when they look for the angel, they don't expect anything for themselves, but instead get excited imaging how the other people will feel and act.  They're getting something out of it that's a little deeper. 

Dec 13: Leave a treat for the mail carrier.

We went with a lg bag of M&M's, hot chocolate, and candy canes.  And a sweet note with our family Christmas Card inside :)  We even got a card and thank you note back from her, so that was a nice surprise.

Dec 14: Smile at everyone you pass.

Today was Isabelle's Christmas Dance Recital, so she was pretty smiley already.  She would get so excited when she made a point to smile at someone and saw them smile back.  "I made them smile, Mommy!!  I made them smile!"  Spreading the cheer :)

Dec 15: Candy Cane Bomb a parking lot.

It is just as it sounds -- we left candy canes on the windshields of cars in the parking lot at the local library.  Just a nice treat for people, just because.  The girls loved this one for some reason. . . I think they liked doing it in secret.  I had typed up the poem about the meaning behind candy canes to put on each one ("J" shape for Jesus, turn it over and it's a shepard's hook, red for his blood and white for his purity) but then I felt like it wasn't leaving them "just because" but leaving them to try to make a religious tie to it.  So I decided against them.  Just plain old candy cane on the windshield :)

Dec 16: Donate money to the Salvation army and give the worker a hot-cocoa kit to help keep them warm. 

This deed took an extra few days. . . we caught as bug and were tied to the house :(  But it was so fun to do when we finally made the trip out! Luckily, I knew of a really sweet volunteer at the Kroger near our house who I knew would have a reaction that wouldn't falter ;)  Isabelle went on and on all of the way home how excited the worker was to get his cup and hot chocolate.  "He was so happy, Mom!!  He said I was so so so sweet!  Wasn't he so excited?!"  

Dec 17: Leave some money in an envelope and tape it to a vending machine to surprise someone with a free drink/snack.

I had wanted to do this in a place were it might go to the best use (like the hospital, nursing home, or library) but our trip to the mall to finish up Christmas shopping gave us the opportunity so we took it.

Dec 18:  Put extra diapers at a baby changing station for any moms who might need them!

It's happened to me on more than one occasion, and I remember the time I was at Von Maur and SOOOOO glad they had their [free] stock available.  Another time I was at Wal-Mart and not so lucky. . . Hopefully were we left them, they will go to good use :)

Sorry. . . got bad about keeping my camera on me and forgot to take a pic!

Dec 19: Go visit Grandma and Aunt Ann in the nursing home.

Isabelle and Sophia worked on some cards to bring them, also :)  Sophia was here, but she wasn't interested in being part of the picture :P

Dec 20:  We were traveling to OH for a family Christmas that day, so the Angel simply reminded the girls why family is important.  Since they would be receiving lots of gifts over the next several days, she also reminded them about being gracious and grateful for everything they received from others, and to pay close attention to how the gifts that they gave made others feel.

Dec 21:  Donate some warm clothes, hats, and gloves to the local shelter.  

(Sorry. . . no pic!)  I lucked out and a friend was doing a drop-off on Christmas Eve, so we worked together and went through the house to find some items to donate, then dropped them off for delivery.  We had already touched on the less fortunate when we donated the food, but it was good to further explain the needs of the homeless and take another opportunity to answer Isabelle's questions (she certainly has a lot!)

Dec 22:  Animals are our friends, too! Make something for the birds or animals outside to eat and/or enjoy.

This is where we enjoy mothering at it's finest.  We still haven't followed through on this task, so we have it on the back-burner to finish up later this week.  3 family Christmas's in 3 days and 1 hubby with the flu. . . hopefully the birds don't start bombing our house :P

Dec 23: Bring snacks to the local fire station.

We had a baking freezing and spent almost 5 hours baking for the firemen and for our Christmas party on Christmas Eve.  What a mess!!

Dec 24:  The Angel talked about Christmas, remembering why we celebrate the holiday as Christians.  I believe Jesus would find it important to understand and accept all types of people (race, religion, culture) and be open to other's ideas and opinions.  So we took this opportunity to touch on Hanukkah.  (Today is not only Christmas Eve, but happens to be the 8th and last day of Hanukkah!) We had made a menorah on day 1, and we read books, watched some prayers online, and I showed her how they lights the candles each night.

This month has been pretty hectic, but it has been great to see the girls grow and learn from the experience the angel gave us.  It WAS a lot of work for all of us, but it was great to have something that pushed us to do better and try harder.  I'm undecided if I'll use the angel next year. . . I still have mixed feelings about adding another trick/lie to the Christmas scheme.  I'm thinking about using an advent calendar with slips of paper in it with good deeds instead of the typical candy treats. . . and setting the angel on top as a reminder.  But that's now 365 days away. . . we shall see!!

Merry Merry Merry Christmas, everyone!!!