Finish The Sentence Friday Holiday Link Party (And Some Elf Ideas)

The holiday season is full of twinkly lights, countdowns until school’s out, and magic. It’s also hard, and overwhelming. I’m not sure about you, but I always freak out a little bit when the month view on my phone’s calendar shows almost as much of the next year as it does the current one.

It’s easy to worry about getting all the things done. Gifts purchases, work complete for (hopefully) a bit of time off to spend with family, decorations dusted off and hung up, invites sent or accepted (or a wish for them)… \

A. Lot.

I, for one, haven’t finished shopping, and only have a few small items for my people that I ordered after seeing an ad (just in case Robert reads this, I won’t post spoilers).

Finish The Sentence Friday Holiday Link Party

Because December’s full of too many to-do’s, Finish the Sentence Friday this week lasts the rest of the month! People can link up as many holiday-related posts as they choose. Share favorite holiday memories, traditions, recipes, elf on the shelf ideas, each is welcome here from now until midnight on December 31, 2019.

As always, if you choose to link up, please visit others who do as well. It’s the season of giving, after all. Give a share or comment and the rewards will be plentiful. 😉

Some Elf On The Shelf Ideas

For years, I avoided buying an elf on the shelf. Elf on a shelf is creepy, and I didn’t want his smug little face in my house. Convinced we were on the “too old” side to get one, I figured I’d won.

“No late-night idea searching for me, ” I thought. “Suckers.”

Turns out, I lost. To make it worse, I lost to elf on the shelf after years of winning. Tucker was nine (!) when he came home from school with the whole “all the other kids have one, and they talk about all the funny stuff their elf did overnight, Mom.”

Gah. So I got one. He identifies with he/him pronouns, and has the incredibly unique name of “Buddy.”

Mostly, I remember to help Buddy do something before going to bed, but there was one night when I woke up at 3am and came downstairs to put him in the sink with some stuffed animals and a note about how he wanted to party but his friends were lame. I didn’t get a photo of that one, but I’m guessing you can imagine it.

Some Elf On The Shelf Ideas In Case You Didn’t Find Enough Online Already

Obviously, some nights I’m proud of my excellent idea for Buddy. Like this morning, he’d dressed up as a wizard, and taken our stuffed snowman to the couch to melt him. There was even a bowl of water underneath him. The note says “Tucker, I’m a wizard and am melting your snowman.” The one over the snowman’s mouth reads “NO!”

One morning, we found that Buddy’d drawn on all of our eggs. One said “Help me,” and another simply “I am egg.” We ate them first.

We can’t forget the morning we found the Christmas cow that I bought to mail to my mother-in-law last year (who’s been on our counter since) with a note that said “Tucker, this ‘horse’ wouldn’t let me ride it so I tried to flush it. I failed.” with Buddy hanging the horse over the toilet bowl.

Do I regret reminding Tucker that Santa is real? Probably…

We woke one day to find Buddy chillaxing in a marshmallow bath with his duckie from Tucker’s awesome friend (and mine first er, frist!) ZoeIvy of Uncharted AKA Life Under the Radar who sends him a real-life advent calendar each year. She’s super freaking awesome. For real.

I mean, she sends Tucker a REAL LIFE Advent calendar every year! It’s the first thing he talks about each morning unless Buddy’s shenanigans distract him first.

Of course, not every day can be awesome with elf on the shelf. I mean, come on. We’re tired. Some days, he’s lifting marshmallow/straw weights or just hanging from the blinds.

I figure I’m winning if I remember to move him at all. Having him actually do something? Huge win.

Don’t forget to link up your holiday posts! Old and new (or both) are welcome!

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. As mentioned above, for the rest of the month, people are free to link up old and new holiday posts. It’s a holiday link party!