Elf on the shelf

It's the first of December!!! And this year that means the Elf on the shelf comes to stay :) Kids were so excited this morning to come down and find the box on Marks desk, but when they opened it it was empty! A quick search and we found that Star (as the kids named her) was in the kitchen with a surprise breakfast for them :)

Cameron read the book to Caitlin and we named the elf and signed the contract promising not to touch her or she'll lose her magic. Can't wait to see what tricks she gets up to :)

As well as being the first of December it is also the last storytelling Sunday of the year! Due to the time of year I thought it made most sense to document the decorations we've bought for the kids over the years. Each year we buy them a decorations which represents something from that year, a hobby or milestone or something. The idea is that when they are older and have their own homes they can take them for their own trees.
These are Caitlin's. The first 3 are because my nickname for her has been Tinkerbell ever since she was born. I wanted to call her Isabelle when I was pregnant but then Mark pointed out Isabelle Steele (is a bell steel) was a bit mean, lol. The ballet shoes I got her the year she started dance lessons and the snowflake will have a photo of her first day of school......when I get around to printing it off that it. This year I've got her a chipboard christmas tree which we can decorate together as she really has developed her creative skills this year.

Cameron has an extra one because we went to York craft fair when I was pregnant and found this little angel and thought it would be good luck to have for out first Christmas even though Cameron wasn't here yet. The two penguins are because he LOVED the film Happy feet when he was a baby and had a teddy penguin named Mumble he took everywhere with him. A train represented the 'Thomas the tank engine' phase before the cars phase started. his snowflake is still waiting for a school photo too *hangs head in shame* then Mario for last year when his computer game obsession began. This year after looking everywhere for some kind of decoration to represent maths, I've decided to make my own. Last Christmas Cameron won two die in a cracker, he spent the rest of the afternoon rolling them and making sums with the resulting numbers. Over the year this has developed from 2 bog standard die, to up to 4 of marks 20 sided ones. The boy LOVES maths and is amazing at it so wanted to get a decoraion to show this. To that end I've bought one of the empty plastic baubles and am currently searching for little dice beads to fill it with :)

I love searching for the 'right' decoration each year, particually now they are both showing such clear interests, and though some of them are cheaper than others (cars one) and some are glued in places (red tinkerbell) hopefully they will enjoy their momentos of their childhood when they are older.