We do not do Elf on a Shelf around here because well, he kinda creeps me out, and we try to steer our kids away from all the Santa hoopla. And elves are Santa's hoopla builders, dontchaknow?
Which is really hard when you have kids in school, but at home, we don't really talk about Santa bringing gifts, and instead talk about St. Nicholas and Jesus' birthday. Don't get me wrong, my kids definitely know of (and possibly believe in) Santa...we just don't emphasize him. I'm sure we're setting our kids up for some huge therapy bills one day.
Therapist:
So why are you so messed up?
Kids, now Teenagers:
Well, our parents never taught us to believe in Santa but everyone else was doing it, so we jumped on board, but then it turned out our parents were right, which we know can't be the case. They deprived us of our childhood!
So I was VERY excited to find out from Melody that Jennifer at Catholic Inspired would be hosting a linkup for her Wise Men ADVENTures.
The gist is that the Three Wise Men are searching for Jesus and get a little lost and into a few mishaps along the way. Each night, the Wise Men journey under the stars looking for Jesus, and in the morning the kids find them in a different place. So, it's the same "fun" as Elf on a Shelf with a little religious inspiration.
We pulled our wise men out of our Little People Nativity and started them on their journey!
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| Day One: Found in front of the computer, googling a map of Jerusalem. |
My kids thought it was hysterical that they were checking the map at the beginning of their journey. This is going to be so fun! Join Jennifer's linkup here!
Now on to the wise lady part...
Once a week, I come home from work and start cooking and prepping food for breakfast and lunches for the week. Tonight I made some egg muffins:
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| So yummy just reheated in the morning. |
Some Butternut Squash Muffins (with chocolate chips). My kids loved them, and I was able to use up my leftover squash!
And some Roasted Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup for Phil and I to eat for lunch all week. Mmmmmm :)
I was feeling really good about myself getting all this done (Phil was all "You're on fire!") and you know what they say about pride coming before the fall. The only problem with this planning ahead is that it leaves me too tired to actually cook dinner! So it was nachos and frozen pizza tonight. I guess I'm not such a wise lady after all.
You're definitely a wise lady doing all that cooking!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you put in your egg muffins? Do you just mix everything up with eggs, pour into the muffin tins and then bake? Sounds yummy and super easy.
We do a similar thing, with an angel. She is preparing the way for us... it's pretty awesome, because I love the joy each morning!
ReplyDeleteTeehee, the Elf on the Shelf is a creeper. Dave calls him "The Pervert in the Pantry".
ReplyDeleteWhen I was googling images of the elf to use, I found out that people do such perverted things with him. Yuck! Dave is right!
DeleteI saw Jennifer do that last Christmas, too. Such a great idea. I'm looking forward to doing it with Baby C next year when she understands it better, and I think the older kids will love helping with the placement of the kinds each evening ;)
ReplyDeleteCan you please share your butternut squash muffin recipe? I bought a bunch because I sometimes get optimistic at the grocery store, and it's still sitting. That sounds like a great way to use it!
ReplyDeleteI sort of used this recipe:
Deletehttp://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/spiced-squash-muffins
But I always change things around...less corn syrup (I normally wouldn't have done any, but we had a teeny bit leftover from pecan pies), added chocolate chips, and some pumpkin pie spice.
someone else just directed me to that site last week...I thought she has a great blog and such "inspired" ideas! But--again it makes me look pathetic that I barely do a thing close to what she can accomplish. And hey, YOU are one up on me...if we have nachos, its just nachos at least you have pizza AND nachos--so there! Something to make you feel accomplished ;)
ReplyDeleteand the elf thing--we don't do it either. I feel like I have a gazillion things to do and I would not enjoy trying to come up with creative ideas for the elf to do. I just had this discussion with relatives over thanksgiving. They do the elf and I was like--AHH NOOO! Not for me and everyone was trying to convince me what fun it is. The wise men--better idea than the elf, but still, too much work for me. At least the wise men make sense to me. The elf I just don't get.
Kim,
DeleteSee what Patty said up there...you can get your big kids to do it for the little kids! So you don't even have to do anything at all :)
You are amazing, some of us eat cereal for breakfast, some of us eat nothing. Sad but true. And yes! The elf creeps me out too!
ReplyDeleteThe Elf is creepy. I love the wise men idea so much more. I'll probably do that next year for our family. First I need to get a Nativity set. All that food looks so good!
ReplyDeleteI agree about the elf on the shelf thing, so creepy and where the heck did that every start? Never even heard of it til blog world a couple years ago!
ReplyDeleteI like that idea of the wise men looking for Jesus...Might have to get ours out...so much to do in Advent!
That soup looks wonderful...mmmmm...
I love frozen pizza. Wish I could have that every other night. I love that Wise Man thingy idea..super smart and fun and NOT CREEPY!
ReplyDeleteI love that you had them looking at the map! And it made me so happy to see the Little People guys! They just make me smile!
ReplyDeleteI just saw the funniest comment on my Facebook page today. It read, "Well, I'm a huge failure as a parent. It's only the 3rd day and I forgot to move the damn "elf on a shelf". (I about spit diet coke all over the computer screen.) Then another mom commented, "I am so glad that my "parenting of littles" days are behind me…before the time of Facebook…and Pinterest…and Twitter…etc. I didn't need to share publicly with anyone my parenting "failures". BTW…Will your children really be better off b/c you do Elf on the Shelf?"
ReplyDeleteI had to comment and tell that "stranger" to me…"AMEN sister!" LOL
I love this idea with the Wise Men! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love this wise men adventures idea. We don't do elf on the shelf either.
ReplyDeleteAnd share your recipe for your egg muffins and squash muffins pleeeeeease.
I'm so impressed mama. Working and cooking and house making. Amazing!
I will never do elf on the shelf" we did fine without it.and who ever came up with that is just another commercialized thing..our tradition is lighting the advent candles during dinner and praying..
ReplyDeleteWe want to have a similar approach to Santa and ALREADY people are telling us we're depriving our kids lol. I love the Wise Men Adventures, though! That may be something we start now :).
ReplyDeleteGood idea to have them Google Jerusalem
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us with the Wise Men ADVENTures, Colleen! I love seeing new ideas! You have a beautiful family and I hope they are enjoying the new tradition! :-)
ReplyDelete