An Old ELf, A New Elf & A Crafty Elf

For somebody that was as eager for the holiday season to begin as I was, I was a little behind in putting up our Christmas decorations. It had been a busy few weeks, but we finally found an evening to put up our Christmas tree.

The first year that my husband & I started dating we purchased our first Christmas tree as a couple. We put it up in my apartment. We spiked some eggnog, put in the movie Elf and decorated the tree together. Eight Christmases later & we are still doing the same thing. Now we just have an extra set of hands & there is one smaller glass of eggnog minus the rum added into the mix.

We let Mai do most of the decorating this year with a few boosts from mommy & daddy. She did a lovely job.

We also added a new elf tradition to our holidays. Last year my sister bought Mai an Elf on the shelf for Christmas. Tonight I read her the elf’s story. She listened, intrigued by his tale, nodding in between sentences as to say that she understood. She named her Elf “Koontz”. She whispered to him that she would like a train set. Forgive me if the next few weeks are filled with pictures of our sneaky little visitor.

In the midst of all of our new & old traditions, Mai asked me if we could make a project. She loves working on projects. Since we were surrounding ourselves with elves, I figured why not one more.

Paper Plate Elf Mask

What you will need:

Paper Plate

Paint

Foam sheets or construction paper

Cotton balls

Glue

Pipe cleaners

Pencil

Directions:

Draw eyes on the back of your paper plate & cut them out.

Paint your plate in flesh tone. Let dry.

Paint on two pink circles for cheeks.

Paint a mouth and nose.

Cut out shapes for the hat, ears and collar. You may use construction paper. I always opt for foam sheets though as they do not rip or wrinkle. Glue into place.

Bend 4 pipe cleaners into curls as shown.

Glue the curls to the edge of the hat. Draw on eyelashes & eyebrows with a marker or paint.

Glue two pipe cleaners to the back of the mask. Use the pipe cleaners to secure the mask to your head.

Glue cotton balls to the rim of the hat & to the end of it to form the fur.