beaker & jolly

my favorite advent activity so far (and i'm not sure what's going to top it other than christmas morning) has been the arrival of santa's elves.


on saturday night there was a knock at the door. nash answered and announced "there's nobody there..." then i heard a gasp. someone left something! there on the porch sat two little elves with special letters from santa. if you could have seen nash's face! santa sent "beaker" to watch nash and "jolly" to watch haven.  after a long round of Q&A as to how the elves got here (santa dropped them off), if they are real (yes!), when do they move (when people aren't watching), how long they will stay (till christmas eve), what do they eat (candy canes, gingerbread, and hot cocoa), we put the kids to bed. nash plays in his room for a bit before he goes to sleep, so i snuck upstairs and positioned beaker outside nash's door, knocked lightly, and then hid. nash opened the door and gasped. he then ran downstairs to tell dad all about how beaker wanted to see him so he came and knocked on the door! i went in to tuck nash in to bed and he explained to me that because beaker is a guest we needed to make him a bed. so we did just that and they drifted off to sleep. when nash woke up the next morning he found that beaker decided to take a ride on his horse in the night.

periodically throughout the day the elves move about. we've found them climbing down the stairs, reading books, hanging upside down from shelves, etc. each time the kids scream with excitement, "they're real! they're real!"

last night they must have gone back to see santa because they were gone when we woke up, but after we ran some errands this morning we came back to find them sitting on santa's mailbox. they had delivered nash's pile of letters to santa and brought back little gifts from him!




not only did santa send little snowmen for the kids, but he must have sent some magic, too, because they've been playing together (happily) ever since! which is why i'm posting twice in one day! christmas miracle!