Our oldest , who is 7, asked if we could write Santa a letter to see if Chris can come differently this year. Of course we can!! So, he wrote a letter, mailed it, and what do you know, Santa got it!!
Usually, Santa delivers Chris to our front door, wrapped in his special Santa paper that is also used on all presents from him on Christmas morning. This year,
Our son would like to go ahead and start the year off hiding. He's just a little excited, huh?? So, we decided to help a brother out!!
We have a traditional Advent calendar of fun activities for the whole month. The kids check it each day to see what activity/place/cooking etc they will do for the day. The advent for tomorrow, December 1 is a clue to let our boys know where to look for the response from Santa. We 'antiqued' the paper to give it a more North Pole feel (even though I don't know what the 'North Pole' feels like, it just can't be college rule lined notebook paper), rolled it up, tied a fancy dancy red ribbon and placed it on the tree. The advent is the first thing the boys do each day, so it's going to be exciting to start off our adventure in the morning!! Pics below show what we did for each stage- from advent, to note, to hiding our Chris. Come back tomorrow to see Day 2!!
Day 1
Day 2
Today "Chris" was playing a friendly game of pool - especially with the 12/25 balls :) He may end up being a pool shark....what a hustler :)
Day 3
Today Chris decided to 'decorate' our kitchen cabinets!! It took only 1 bag of bows to do this. I thought it would take several, so I bought 3...after tearing off all of the paper pieces on the back I realized that 1 bag was probably just fine :) The kids ABSOLUTELY loved this! I think it has been the hit of all we have ever experienced with Chris!
Day 4
Today was another cute elf idea thanks to Pinterest. I will say that I was NOT prepared, though. I knew we would need mini marshmallows, but I guess I didn't realize that mini marshmallows were so small or that my sink was so deep! It took 2 bags of the mini marshmallows, and even then I think that it would have been better if I had another bag. I almost didn't buy 2, but then decided...just be on the safe side. I will say that 1 bag would def not be enough. 3 bags would be better, but 2 was OK.
The kids loved the bubble bath idea.
Day 5
Today's Chris adventure was definitely a "What can I do really quickly because it is way past my bedtime and I don't feel up to being creative or even messing with this tonight" kind of nights :)
So...he played hide n seek...reeeealllll tough to do...3 rolls of TP...two on bottom with Chris inside the TP roll and one on top like as his hat. I did write a little note for the kids on the TP--its not as easy to write on as you may think lol
Day 6
OK...so its really sad that I have to do this to my boys, and its even sadder that it happened within the first week of December...but....they have been horrible!!!! They were playing in the living room and were being SO mean to each other...so I moved Chris where he could see them. When they tattled on each other, I just told them that I wasn't dealing with it and that Chris saw everything that they did and I was going to let him handle it. They didn't think much of it until the next morning. When they saw Chris's letter it was horrible! By the 3rd sentence, my oldest could hardly read because he was in tears. He handed me the note and ran to the living room crying. He was a perfect angel ALL DAY long! LOL Not sure how long it will last but at least one day turned out like it should :)
Day 7
Since the kids were so good yesterday, Chris was back out up to his old tricks again last night. He got together with his buddy Swarm, who is a Skylander, and they decided to play a friendly game of Tic Tac Toe with large marshmallows. Chris is obviously a smart player since he is going to win regardless :) After the kids found him, they each finished out the game by writing a X on the bottom
two marshmallows so that they could also play a game with Chris.
They liked being interactive and knowing that they were a part of his games.
Day 8
Just a Swingin'....Just a Swingin'....
This was not near as hard as I thought it was going to be!! A little tape and Viola! We used twine for the swing and a toilet paper roll for the actual swing. We taped the twine to the frame with duct tape. We also added some duct tape to the bottom of Chris and to the back of his legs so that he would stay on the swing throughout the night. To have him hold on to the swing, we had to cut his hands apart. I didn't mind doing this because the hand connection really limits his uses. We used regular tape and taped his hands to the twine and he held up great through the night. The kids were so cute-they wanted to help him swing, so they got behind Chris and pushed the toilet paper roll. It was so funny to watch them try to push the 'swing' without actually touching Chris! :)
