The Adventures of Arthur, Our Elf on the Shelf

As usual, I've got some catching up to do on my poor neglected little blog! I visit it often, maybe with the hopes that someone else has started updating my posts for me, who knows. I've got about a thousand posts to post, but every time I start, I seem to run into technical difficulties, then end up frustrated and turn to Pinterest for some cheering up, which gives me tons of wonderful ideas and activities to do with the kids, which I then want to post about on this lovely blog of mine...eventually.

And thanks to a technical difficulty-free picture upload session, I can finally begin posting some of our holiday festivities, traditions, and highlights from 2011, starting with Arthur, our Elf on the Shelf. After seeing all of the wonderful Elf on the Shelf ideas (on Pinterest, of course), I had to jump on the tiny red bandwagon and get the boys an elf of their own. It ended up being such a wonderful new tradition, and definitely one of the Christmastime highlights for Jaden and Elijah. After just seeing the movie Arthur Christmas, the boys decided to name their elf Arthur, and Arthur quickly became a part of our family. He was a hot topic in each day's conversations, an influence on extra good behavior, and the reason why I went to bed way too late (or jumped out of bed in a panic in the middle of the night) many nights, just trying to make sure he had the most perfect hiding spot when two excited little guys awoke with anticipation each morning, ready to begin their search.

So here are some of the many adventures of Arthur...

Arthur's farewell gifts for the boys...

While Christmas Eve meant the excitement of Santa's arrival, this year it also meant saying goodbye to our sweet Arthur, who brought so much fun, joy, and surprises to the lives of two little guys for 24+ days. They were very very sad to see him go, and even though he will be back next year, it's just so far away! The rules of "elfery" specifically state that in order to preserve your elf's magic, no touching is allowed. The boys were very dedicated to this rule the entire time, but on his final day, I assured them that a final hug goodbye was perfectly okay!