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Christmas elf hygiene!
This morning the kids found our elves pretty quickly as they are in the bathroom cupboard (door open) as Tinkles cleans Ginger’s teeth!
The top part of an electric toothbrush makes a good size toothbrush for Tinkles to hold!
While I think it’s great after all those doughnuts and a sugary shopping list, the kids are a bit perturbed at cleaning Ginger’s teeth for 24 hours straight!
I wonder if Ginger will start singing “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” at some point?
Gone fishing!
Today we found the elves had gone fishin’!
And later found Tinkles proudly sitting in the herb garden with the fish she caught! Is she planning basil and tomato with her fish dinner tonight I wonder?!
Elves at the campfire
Obviously the Christmas elves enjoyed their camping trip as today we found Tinkle at a campfire, toasting a marshmallow beside their tent!
Meanwhile, Ginger was in the tent having a nap in the sleeping bag…
An elf library
Christmas books and reading them with your family is a great element of Christmas.
A number of people do a book advent calendar – like we did last year with a daily book.
However, I came across a new idea called an Elf Library. By having lots of Christmas books on display, the elves have a little home to enjoy between their antics and everyone is reminded to read Christmas books! I think Fleur has come up with a great idea and she was happy to share the idea and her photos with us.
We have reviewed quite a few of those books, but there are certainly some others there we have yet to try! What are your family’s favourite Christmas books?
The books shown here include:
- Christmas Wombat
- Pig the Elf
- The twelve dogs of Christmas by Alison Ritchie
- There was an old bloke who swallowed a present
- All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
- There is a monster under my Christmas tree who farts
- Santa
- Rudey’s windy Christmas
- Amelia’s Christmas wish
- Skylar and the Christmas elves
- Spot’s Christmas
- Smudger the dog saves Christmas
- There was an old lady who swallowed a star
- How Santa lost his job
- Santa’s …
- The twelve dogs of Christmas (Kevin Whitlark)
- The twelve cats of Christmas (Kevin Witlark)
- Aussie Jingle Bells
- Santa comes to Bendigo
- Bluey Hooray it’s Christmas
Christmas elves and sugary shopping!
So it appears Tinkles and Ginger got hungry last night, or just decided they wanted to have a party, as they have written a shopping list and flicked through some sweet reccipes overnight.
Ginger sitting a in a star biscuit cutter may also be a hint towards some Christmas cooking!
The shopping list reads – lollies, chocolate, ice-cream, gingerbread, candy canes and Smarties (I have used correct spelling to make it easier to read!)
I’m sure most kids would be happy for that shopping trip, but what do you think the odds are of us following Tinkles’ list today?
Taking Santa photos
I really enjoyed the delight my daughter showed this morning when she found Tinkle taking a photo of her baby and Ginger, the baby elf, with Santa!
Like yesterday, Santa was holding Ginger for the photo, posing beside the baby in our house, with tinsel at their feet – it is actually a cute Santa photo (and not a mask in sight!)
Tinkles’ camera looks to be a good one – it even has a flash but that was too hard to get photos of!
Elves decorating the Christmas tree
This morning Tinkles was in a container of Christmas baubles (as she liked my decorating and wanted to add to my part of the tree, according to my son!)…
But after school we noticed that Tinkles was holding two baubles and sitting in our Christmas tree!
Ginger was sitting in Santa’s arms under the tree…
Dear Santa, Tinkles
This morning Tinkles was sitting in a serving bowl reading Dear Santa 🙂
Dear Santa is a lift the flap book by Rod Campbell that goes through potential gifts in the process of finding the perfect present.
There is always extra excitement when Ginger is not with Tinkles, but she was quickly found amongst a display of Gerberas.
Christmas elves camping!
This morning we found Tinkles and Gingers outside the back door on our back deck again, snuggled up together in a sleeping bag in their tent!
And like good little elves, they even took their own toilet paper with them!
It is making us all itch to go camping soon, though!
Tinkles playing pandemic
It was easy to find Tinkles and Ginger this morning as they were on the floor in the family and pretty hard to miss! Tinkles was playing Pandemic with some friends, with quite a few infections around the world.
Meanwhile, Ginger was having a nap in the game box, wrapped in a face mask instead of a blanket!
We were impressed to see that Sydney had the only research centre and no outbreaks!
Pandemic
My son loves board games, especially those that require some strategy and thought. For his birthday this year, he received the game Pandemic which obviously fits 2020 although it was first released in 2008 so is not COVID-19 related – apparently it was based on the SARS outbreak in 2002.
The game is based on four viruses spreading through the world, with two to four players trying to find a cure before the outbreaks take over. Each player has a specific role (Tinkles was the medic whilst the dolls were a scientist and a contingency planner) and they have to work together to fight the outbreaks and look for a cure. I love that this game means everyone wins – or everyone loses.
There have been some expansions to the game (shhh, my son may just get one of these for Christmas!) – On the Brink (the first and most popular) and State of Emergency add more players and options – and there are some alternative scenarios available, too. Z-Man Games have also created some spin off games such as Pandemic Legacy, Pandemic Hot Zone (released July 2020 and based in North America), the Fall of Rome and Contagion (a card based version).
Elves in Spoonville
Do your elves sometimes hide outside of your house?
Generally, Tinkles and Ginger can be found in our home – there was the one exception when Tinkles was on the cubby roof! – so it did take a while for the elves to be found this morning… They were sitting in a plant pot just outside our back door with their own Christmassy version of Spoonville!
Just as well there is no rain expected today, my son said!
Love Santa and COVID-19
Christmas is Christmas, but COVID-19 is obviously a significant part of 2020 and will be impacting on Christmas celebrations around the world.
what does COVID-19 mean for Love Santa?
Santa is continuing as usual this year, and Love Santa letters will go ahead as usual, too. 
However, we are doing things a little differently to do our part in keeping everyone as safe as possible in these challenging times.
Letter content
2020 has been a different year, with many of our routines and plans changed. Some children have been more affected by this than others, too.
Some children will be helped by having Santa acknowledge the year has been tough and/or they have coped well with the disruptions. For them, we have added the option for adding a COVID-19 reference to our letters this year. However, for those children who are too young or want to forget about it all for a while, there will be no mention of COVID-19 and restrictions. Of course, if you choose to add this element, it will be a positive message for the child.
Letter delivery
First, we need to accept that mail delivery is slower at the moment and we all need to give Australia Post more time for delivery of letters. Accordingly, we promise to mail letters in a certain period but cannot be sure how long they will take to arrive so please take that into account when choosing a timeframe for your letters (especially if you are not in a metropolitan area). We are closing orders a little earlier this year to account for needing more time to deliver – but you can still order for cities up to 15 December! Additionally, we are offering an express post option where we can group letters in an express post envelope.
Our letters are written, printed and mailed in Melbourne. Victoria has worked hard and controlled the second wave of COVID-19. Even so, we will be using hand sanitiser before we touch letters/envelopes.
The general restrictions mean we may not have as many event blog posts this year but will do our best to find Christmas things to share!
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Order Cut Off Dates
Please note that letters need to be ordered before December 18 to be delivered before Christmas!
Order now to be sure of delivery before Christmas. Keep an eye on our blog for final ordering days as we get close to Christmas Eve.
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