On Being an Elf

We have a large advent Elf in storage with all of our other belongings. Every year his pockets are full of daily challenges of goodness, and an occasional surprise. If Santa is symbolic of the Savior, bringing us all great gifts, the Christmas Elf is symbolic of us, the Savior's helpers.

We've been borrowing Geoff's mom's little Elf to carry out this tradition. He hides in a new place each morning, and always has a little slip of paper with a challenge like, "Help someone with their daily job today" or "Tell someone something you love about them". They'll become more challenging as the girls grow, but for now they are pretty simple.


A few days ago the Elf's challenge was to leave some food for the Winter birds. The girls readily made pine cone bird feeders by spreading peanut butter on the cone and rolling it in bird seed. We do this every year. This year we're trying to learn the names of the birds that like our feeders.



Yesterday, in addition to the daily Elf challenge, was a little vile of Insta-Snow. You pour the white powder in your hands, add some cold water, and it puffs up into snow right before your eyes. The girls loved it, and since we found it in the science section of a toy store it came with some chemistry explanations and experiments which Geoff ventured to teach. While the big words may not stick, the girls loved putting salt on their snow and watching it turn to water. Next in line is opening up a diaper and putting water on the inner cotton to see gel form. I've seen enough of that experiment in my day...


Hope you have some experiences this season on Being an Elf.