The Arrival of Chippy
Our Elf arrived November 28, 2012. The mailman left the package by the front door and the kids discovered him when they got home from school. He was all wrapped up and came with a special letter from santa.
Dear Charles, Brooklyn, Alyssa, and Hadley:
I hope you are having a good time getting ready for Christmas. Do you have the tree up and ready? Are the stockings hung for me to deliver presents? Have you baked my favorite Christmas cookies? I have been very busy here at the North Pole. My elves have been hard at work making all the toys. Rudolph has been playing reindeer games in preparation for the big night and Mrs. Claus has been feeding me lots of good food to plump me up for Christmas. Every year I add new children to my list and it is getting harder and harder for me to keep track of who is being naughty or nice. This year I have delivered you an early Christmas present. As your Mommy and Daddy may have already told you a special visitor might be coming to your house. This special visitor and your early Christmas present is one of my special Elves. This special Elf has been hanging out at my adoption center waiting for the perfect family to adopt him. This year I have chosen your family to take this special Elf home. You will need to give him a name and make him feel welcome in your home. Once you have chosen a name for him he will receive his Christmas magic and will return to your home every year to keep a watchful eye on you. Your special Elf is an excellent listener and has a watchful eye for good and bad behavior. He will be my eyes and ears and decide if you will be on the naughty or nice list. Please be gentle with your Elf. Although he is a magic Elf, he is not a toy. You can talk to him (he is a very good listener) but you must not play with him. Touching your Elf will cause him to lose his Christmas magic! Each night after your family goes to bed your Elf uses his magical Christmas powers to fly back to the North Pole. Once there he will make a daily report to me and visit with his Elf friends. The Elves will share stories about their beloved families, play with the reindeer, and of course sneak in some of Mrs. Claus’ cookies! Don’t worry though before your family awakes in the morning your Elf will fly back to your home. My Elves are known to play games and their favorite is hide-and-seek so don’t expect your Elf to be in the same spot. Your Elf is new and this is his first Christmas on assignment. He’s still learning how to use his magic so he might get into a little bit of trouble while your family is sleeping. Please take care of your new Elf and enjoy the short time you have with him. He will be on assignment in your home until Christmas Eve. Please have his bags packed by this time because when I come to drop off the presents I will be taking your Elf back to the North Pole with me to start preparations for next year. Don’t be sad though. If you have done a good job taking care of my precious Elf he will return again next year to spend the Christmas season with your family.
Hugs and Kisses,
Santa
P.S.- I have also left you a new movie about one of my special scout Elves and what happened when his child touched him and he lost his Christmas magic. Enjoy your new Elf and your new movie. Also don’t forget to leave me some milk and cookies on Christmas! I really loved the ones you left last year and remember your new Elf is watching!
Santa
P.S.- I have also left you a new movie about one of my special scout Elves and what happened when his child touched him and he lost his Christmas magic. Enjoy your new Elf and your new movie. Also don’t forget to leave me some milk and cookies on Christmas! I really loved the ones you left last year and remember your new Elf is watching!
Chippy Day 1
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| Chippy brought Santa's good list |
The first day Chippy flew back to the north pole and came back with Santa's list. All 4 of my children were pleased to see that they had made Santa's good list. Chippy made his resting place on our clock.
Chippy Day 2
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| Chippy makes a mess! |
On the second day we had our Elf he used his magical powers to get into a bit of mischif. Chippy ended up getting our toilet paper from the bathroom. Climbing up into our Christmas tree and wrapping the whole thing up. This kids thought Chippy was slightly confused on how to decorate a Christmas tree. They thought he must have thought it looked nice. The kids thought this was hilarious! It didn't take a lot of time or effort and cleaning up the mess was worth it!
Chippy Day 3
Now I am all about easy but this one took a little bit of time! Since it was Saturday Chippy decided he would bring the kids donuts! The kids were estatic! But don't worry mom even made Chippy his own "Elf sized" donuts!
To make the elf sized donuts I simply used cheerios. I slightly dampened them and rolled some in powder sugar and others in a cinnamon sugar combination. For the sprinkle ones I used a dab of frosting that I had leftover from some cupcakes I made and then dipped them in sprinkles.
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| Close up of the donuts |
Finding a box was the hard part. I searched all over my house looking for the perfect box to put these donuts in. What i ended up finding that worked just perfect was the plastic box that my daughters ear plugs came in. Then I simply went online and looked for a picture of the Krispy Kreme logo, scaled it to size, and glued it to the box.
To pull it all together I pulled out my cupcake stand. I wrapped each donut in plastic wrap to prevent them from getting stale. I then placed Chippy, his donuts and a cute little note on top.
Chippy day 4
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| Chippy leaves a message in spray snow |
My husband and I happened to be staying in a hotel on this night for his work Christmas party. We had a babysitter and I was scared to death that Chippy was going to get revealed. I was afraid that she would forget to move him! I wanted to come up with something easy for her that didn't require more than moving the Elf but I still wanted to make it fun.
All this required was using a can of spray snow on the window. After it dried I wrote "Chippy was here" and drew a few pictures. I then closed the blinds so all she had to do was open them before she went to bed and place Chippy in the window! My kids were thrilled that Chippy moved and left them a message. And my oldest son who is 11 was now a believer in Chippy. He thought it was mom and dad all along but now that Chippy moved without us being home he had a new found belief that Chippy was real!
Chippy day 5
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| Chippy a little under the weather |
Our son ended up comming down with a terrible cold/sore throat. I thought it was only fitting that Chippy should be his "sick buddy". So I placed Chippy in Barbie's bed snuggling up with a stuffed bunny. I then placed cold medicine, nose spray, a medicine syringe, and cough drops on the night stand. I filled the garbage can with a bunch of ripped up tissues and stuck a thermometer under Chippy's arm.
Chippy left the kids a note saying: Sorry Kids! I seem to have caught Charlie's cold on my way up to the North Pole. Santa sent me back with Medicine from Mrs Claus. He is hoping that you let me get plenty of rest and take very good care of me so I can get better. Aaachoo! Chippy
The kids were surprised that even Elves can get sick!
Chippy day 6
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| Chippy brings a gift |
Chippy is feeling better and to make up for being sick yesterday he brought the kids a special gift! Its a "grow your own candy cane kit". It came complete with North Pole potting snow (sugar), North pole fertilizer (sprinkles), peppermint seeds (round peppermint candies), and North pole pots (mugs).
The kids placed the snow in the mugs, buried the seed, and sprinkled on the fertilizer. Now they just have to wait patiently until a candy cane grows!
This was a really simple kit to put together. I just put the sugar into a gallon ziplock bag. A 4lb bag of sugar was almost too much for 4 mugs. I placed the sprinkles into a snack sized ziplock bag. The peppermint candies went into the printable seed packet and the mugs I picked up at our second hand store for .50 each! What a steal!
Here is a link for the magical peppermint seeds printable
I would love to know if you use this idea! My kids thought it was spectacular!
When my children arrived home from school they were excited to see that their candy canes had grown!
The finished product
Chippy Day 7
Today Chippy reenacted Santas sleigh using the kids Zhu Zhu pets.
I used one of the Zhu Zhu cars for santa's sleigh and placed Chippy in it. I then used pipe cleaners to make antlers and a harness for the Zhu Zhu's. I found Santa's workshop and the paper Santa at Dollar General for $1 and thought it would make a nice prop for this.
Chippy reenacts Santa's sleigh
Chippy Day 8
The kids searched forever to find Chippy today and it wasn't until breakfast that they found Chippy hanging out in the fridge.
He had a surprise up his sleeve as he made the kids "Peppermint Milk" straight from the North Pole.
I used a few drops of green food coloring and added it to a half gallon of milk. Make sure you buy milk that comes in a see through container and I suggest only doing 1/2 gallon as it wasn't to appetizing to pour green milk into cereal.
Chippy Day 9
Today Chippy pulled off quite a task....He learned how to zipline!
He started at out ceiling fan which was decorated in candy canes and ziplined to our Christmas tree.
I tied one end of the string to the fan and the other to the tree very tightly.
I couldn't make our Elf do this without some modifications to him. So while the kids were at school one day I had to do a little surgery and make Chippy bendable and have Velcro hands.
Here is the link I followed to do this: Bendable Elf on the shelf tutorial
I wanted to make it just a little more special and I also added Velcro to magnets so I could easily attach magnets to his hangs to allow him to hang on metal.
Chippy Day 10
Chippy got into a bit of mischief today and made a little mess in the bathroom. After writing HO HO HO all over our shower walls he hopped into the bathtub for a relaxing marshmallow bath.
I simply used the kids Barbie bathtub and filled it with marshmallows. I also wrapped a small Barbie towel in Chippy's hair and added a rubber duck.
Chippy Day 11
Today the kids and I set up the Christmas Village. Since the kids were so fascinated with it I thought Chippy might be too. Today was a very easy day as I simply set Chippy in the village. To my surprise the kids were just as happy with Chippy doing something simple as they were when Chippy went over the top.
Chippy Day 12
Chippy had his hands full today as he was babysitting for Barbie and Ken. (Possibly the whole neighborhood.) The kids got a kick out of it! I simply used the kids Barbie furniture and Barbie babies.
Chippy Day 13
The kids were getting low on candy canes so Chippy came to the rescue!
Chippy Day 14
The kids had been good lately and Chippy felt they deserved an extra special treat so Chippy (I.E. Mom) whipped up some Elf on the Shelf cupcakes.
This one took some time because I not only had to bake, frost, and decorate cupcakes I also had to print off and cut out the Elf on the Shelf cupcake toppers. I attatched each one to a toothpick and stuck it into the cupcake. I also printed off the matching banner and hung it up displaying a special message to the kids to remember to "Be Good!"
This one was by far one of my kids favorite!
Here is a link for the Elf on the shelf cupcake toppers printable. She also has some other great Elf on the Shelf printables so be sure to check her out!
Chippy Day 15
Today Chippy was busy brining the fun of playing outdoors inside! He was busy making snow angles out of rice. This was super easy and really cute my only downfall was that I wished I would have used white rice instead of brown to make it look more realistic. However I just found that wasteful as my family only eats brown rice. However I have seen this done with sprinkles, flour, and sugar as well.
Chippy Day 16
The kids found Chippy warming up with Sonja from the Little People around a campfire. They were roasting marshmallows and enjoying a good ole campout! From the looks of the guitar nearby they might have been singing campfire songs!This was a display tent from walmart that my kids for their Barbie. The campfire, chair, and guitar were from the Little People campfire set. The marshmallows were just placed on toothpicks!
Chippy Day 17
Today seemed like a good day for Chippy to enjoy a game of candyland with a few of the kids favorite toys.
Nothing too fancy today but during the course of the day one of my younger children decided to touch Chippy causing a major upset to our home. I had to think fast and thank goodness I found a Magical Elf recovery kit. I quickly grabbed some red and green glitter we had on hand and slapped these fancy lables on it along with a special letter from Santa! I stuck it in the mailbox had my husband sneak out and ring the doorbell and quickly hide. Phew! I saved the day! The magic dust saved Chippy's powers and my kids spirit!
Here's a link for the magical elf recovery kit I hope you don't have to use it but just in case keep this link handy!
Chippy Day 18
Chippy decided to play a little trick on the kids so while they were sleeping he snuck into their closets and stole a couple pairs of each of the kids underware (diapers from the baby) and decorated the Christmas tree with them. This silly Elf really needs some help in decorating! The kids reactions were funny but a bit embarrassed!
Chippy Day 19
After the kids were slightly embarrassed about their underwear hanging on the tree all day I decided it was Chippy's turn to be embarrassed. He was simply "caught in the act" and the kids thought it was hysterical!
I used a toy toilet from a fisher price doll house the girls have!
Chippy Day 20
Since the kids liked the zipline so well I thought Chippy could give propelling a try. Here he is propelling down our kitchen cabinets.
I just tied a string around Chippy and attached it to one of my decoration on the top of the cabinet.
Chippy Day 21
Today I gathered up a bunch of mega blocks built some forts, staged an army of little people, threw out some marshmallows and allowed Chippy to have a snowball fight!
Chippy Day 21
We are getting so close to Christmas but Chippy wasn't entirely out of treats yet! Our favorite Christmas programs were on TV tonight and it only seemed fitting that Chippy would surprise us with popcorn!
I have to admit with only 4 days left until Christmas I think I'm going to miss this little guy!
Chippy Day 22
Where did all the family pictures go? Chippy replaced them with photos of himself!
This just took a web search for photos of Elf on the Shelf, some scaling to size, printing, cutting out the pictures, and swapping out the pictures!
Chippy Day 23
The kids found Chippy hanging out or rather hanging from our light fixture. He decorated the house a little in preparation for Christmas with some coffee filter snow flakes.
Of course after seeing what Chippy made the kids wanted to make some too!
Chippy Day 24
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and the kids are home from school so what better way to spend the day before Christmas Eve than decorating gingerbread houses! Chippy left a Gingerbread making kit for the kids! I preassembled the ginger bread houses out of graham crackers and I hot glued them to be more stable. we had no intentions of eating them. I them placed a tube of frosting and various sprinkles. candies, and chocolates for the kids to decorate with! This was bay far the best Chippy idea yet and the kids wondered if he will do this every year? I guess we will see!
Each house takes 5 graham crackers: 2 full ones for the top, two halves for the sides, and 2 full ones with a point cut out on top for the front and back.
And here are the kids finished houses! I think they look great and made a nice decoration for Santa!
Chippy Day 25
Today is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas day and Santa will be here bright and early. Unfortunatly this means Chippy has to go back to the North Pole. My kids have been so patient about not touching Chippy that I decided it would be a tradition in our house to lift Chippys magic for a short while and allow the kids to hug and kiss him goodbye.
So tonight Chippy was placed on the bookshelf with a letter to the kids saying goodbye. He talked about the fun he had watching over the kids and how much he enjoyed being our scout Elf. He explained he would be back next year and that Santa was lifting his magic for awhile so they could hug and kiss him goodbye!
The kids were really glad they could give Chippy a proper goodbye! I know they are looking forward to presents tomorrow but I know they are going to ask all year long when Chippy will return!
I hope that your family enjoys your Scout elf as much as we enjoy Chippy! I hope I was able to give you a few ideas. Thank you for reading our first Christmas experience with Chippy. I wanted to leave you with a tip I found helpful: Since Chippy sometimes was found in places we absolutely needed to use such as the bathtub, kitchen, etc we used a special set of tongs which allowed us to move Chippy. The kids knew it was the only way he could be moved!
Hope your family has a blessed Christmas!
