One Week into Elf Season

So, we are one week into Elf Season…. How are you feeling? We’re feeling pretty good but have already learned several things!

First, we have to balance picking something that our daughter is interested in with something that she is willing to wait to play with. We want her to be excited to see what her elf is doing, but not upset that she can’t play with a toy that day (or where we have to do a complicated maneuver to move the elf without touching her).

Second, we learned to do a combination of easier and more complicated poses and days you are planning for a complicated blueprint, make sure you have the supplies for the next easy blueprint you’re planning in case things get crazy and you need to switch the order you were planning to use the blueprints. We had a night we were planning to have the elf swinging from the banister on a large ornament (the Wrecking Ball blueprint), but work was crazy for both my husband and I that day and neither kid went to bed easily so by the time we were moving the elf we were both exhausted and just wanted something easy. We also found by mixing the complicated and easy poses it kept things interesting for our daughter, while also not wearing us out.

Third, if you are doing anything with food, make sure it is obvious your elf ate some of the food. If you can, have the elf sneak some food throughout the day when your child isn’t looking. We did a pose where our elf was holding a jumbo marshmallow and tore pieces off as the day went on. We also put a little bit of marshmallow on her face.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to combine blueprints or not follow a blueprint exactly as it’s written. Blueprints are all about giving you ideas and then letting you incorporate them into your life and family as you see best. For example, we ended up combining the Ride a Little Pony blueprint with the Elf Hiding in the Decorations blueprint. Basically, we put our elf on the pony and then put the pony in the decorations on the fireplace mantle. This made it more fun for our daughter and also kept the elf out of her reach.

What other lessons have you learned? Share them with us onX (formerly known as Twitter).