Marco Planning 2016

Nearly impossible to believe that it is almost this time of year again, but alas it is upon us and as my past few weeks have been going - I wanted to get a jump start on planning for our elf Marco's return so it could just be all set and ready to roll come November 30.

We still participate in the Elf on the Shelf fun because the kids honest-to-goodness love Marco.  When we look back through our yearbooks they smile and ask questions about Marco like he's a real member of our family.  It it obviously brings a little extra special dose of magic to the season for them.

As in past years, Marco arrives with a note from Santa on November 30th and then follows with a little surprise each morning through December 24th.  Santa then takes Marco with him back to the North Pole when he visits that night.

I try to incorporate some of the other fun celebrations we do throughout the month in with Marco too (in part because it helps me remember the activities and him! hah).  Things like St. Nicholas day, the first basketball tourney of the season, and Rusty's half birthday this year are being helped a little bit by Marco.  We have a Harry Potter Marco this year as the two big kids are obsessed.

Mostly posting for myself (hah), but in case anyone else out there needed some ideas and/or motivation to get a jump start on it.  My theory is this planning outline is my 'set it and forget it- crockpot' method to Elf on the Shelfing.  hahhahahha  #momingsohard


....but first!  Thanksgiving:)
xxoxo I'm thankful for YOU!

is there more fun to be had than countdowns?

...but is there anything more fun then squeezing every last drop of anticipation out of an upcoming event by counting that thing down?  Over here at Team Studer, we're going to go with Nah, there isn't.

We love us some countdowns, we do countdowns for anything and everything in the upcoming future that us parents accidentally mention too early which then causes our sweet, curious children to ask incessantly on the half hour daily "Is it time now?"

And so, as we now have sufficiently stuffed ourselves with delicious turkey and thanksgiving merriment - it is time to move into the holiday season.  Which means our favorite jolly elf friend, Marco arrived again at our house on November 30, under the tree in a sparkly box all the way from the North Pole with a note from Santa.  best.day.ever.

We have been talking Marco up for the past few weeks actually, because Grey could barely stand himself in how much he was hoping Marco would come stay with us again.  He's mentioned quite a few times (read: approximately 7500 times) which of Marco's antics are his favorites (underwear in place of stockings -obviously; potty humor never goes unappreciated in our house).  So, with Greyson's favorites in mind and a little help from Pinterest - I've created another 24 days of Marco Mania in our house for 2014.

If you're a regular around here, you already know that we do Elf on the Shelf a little differently than the book goes - so Marco has spent his last two days here with us in the arms of my kids most of the time.  He's sort of like just another person in our family and we find him all over the house participating in our normal routines; at the dinner table, watching movies with the kids, and snuggling up at naptime.  Marco is our Christmas Countdown helper and someone that helps our kids to remember kindness, patience, and love is what the season is about.

While I was thinking about Marco and his tricks a few weeks ago, I got to thinking about how much effort goes into the whole countdown.  Every night, setting up these little scenes and making sure I have the accessories for each on hand for the right day.  I mean, it's not elaborate or anything but it is an effort and such a fun way to make it through the crazy weeks leading up to the season....and I got to thinking....Sheesh, what if we put this much effort into something special for Brandon and I every night?

And thus, our grown-up advent countdown was born.    This is not revolutionary - see this beer advent calendar, this sexy one, and this lotto ticket one.  But it is for us because we are notorious for putting our alone time dead last (like laster than last).

So - Quick, funny story -
B texted me last week "I have a surprise for you tonight" and I literally thought, "oh, I hope it's a chance to get an uninterrupted, unnecessarily long hot shower when he gets home and we go to bed early."  not.kidding:  this is my current fantasy with three kids under the age of 5.  super sexy.

Anyway, the surprise was actually our first solo dinner out at a fancy-ish restaurant in a reeeeeally long time (i'm talking like months...a year?  oh God).  So, I put on a dress and heels (!!!), ya know the whole nine yards, Gigi&Pappy watched the kids (thank you!) and just the two of us got to go to a restaurant where the floor wasn't sticky and there were no kid's menus.  it was delightfully disorienting.

Then the waiter comes over and starts telling us the specials using phrases like "pan-seared" and "resting on a bed of arugula" and I kid you not, I was smiling so wildly that I was near the point of giggling.  The 'Shouldn't laugh in church but now I can't stop' sort of stuff...all because I was honestly holding back moans of ecstasy at the sound of grown up food that I wasn't in charge of making and that no one was going to try to steal from my plate.  It was ridiculous. There must be a stay-at-home-Mom specific version of Stockholm's syndrome...no?

Okay - Back to our grown up advent calendar
It's super duper fancy and elaborate.

just kidding.
it's on post-it notes
and we had one rule: we aren't allowed to buy anything new to complete the activities.

The point is to set aside time after kid bedtime to do something together that we don't normally make time to do.  Some of the activities are short & sweet:  hand massages for each other, or slow dance to our wedding song - and some more time consuming like a game of scrabble with wine or our favorite Christmas movie and popcorn.

Tonight?  I'm taping The Voice to watch while we enjoy a beer together on the couch when he gets home from practice :)

Is your family fans of countdowns too?
Yes?  How are you counting down the season?

Marco the Elf is back!

Guess who's back?  Marco's back.

Our version of the Elf on the Shelf phenom has arrived back at our house on November 30th, just in time to perform his first stunt on December 1st.   This will be our second year spending the weeks prior to the holiday with a sneaky little elf in our home.  We do things a little differently than the original book, you can read our whole start with Marco the Elf here from last year, but as a quick run-down here are the main things that differ from our Team Studer version from the original:

• we have The Elf on the Shelf: Plushee Pal so that the kids can hold him and love him all day.  In the original story, the kids are instructed not to touch him, but with two very young kids - they hang out with Marco all day and then put him to sleep in a box on our tv stand before bed. 

Grey and Marco playing the Wii together

• The biggest thing that we do differently than the original is that Marco is introduced to our kids as an elf that they are to look after and help guide towards being kind and making good choices until Santa comes to pick him up.  Our family operates on the idea that we are kind and try our best all year around, so the idea of presenting an elf to the kids that would tell Santa about when they were naughty went against all of the things we talk about all year.  The letter that arrives with Marco from Santa highlights this idea.  We don't talk at all about Marco 'telling on' the kids to Santa or that they should be good because Santa is watching.  We just continue to talk as we do all year (that we try to be good all the time) and Marco gives us an opportunity to remind others (Marco) about making good choices.

I wanted to re-use some of our activities from last year with Marco that the kids still talk about.  Marco had a whole page outlined in our 2012 yearbook and the kids love looking back on Marco and all the funny things he did.  Some of their favorites included the fort, green milk, and hanging up from their underwear!

Marco's first stunt this year was to build a fort and the kids loved it again like last year.  We thanked Marco for the fun surprise but also reminded him that, "if you make a mess, even for fun, you have to be ready to help clean up when we're done playing with it."  

Marco has also helped to give encouragement to Gemmi while she is practicing potty training.  He left a little note for her and some hilarious butterscotch chips in the potty.  The kids were cracking up.

It has been so much fun to see how different it is with the kids this year now that they are a little older.  Grey tried to figure out how Marco was able to sneak out the dollhouse from Gemmi's room without waking her up in the middle of the night.  And this morning after Marco was found playing Hot Potato with some stuffed animal friends, Grey announced that Marco was sharing with his friends and 'Great Job, Marco!'

Today we had the perfect opportunity to remind ourselves why we choose to do our version of the Elf versus the standard version.  Greyson decided to draw big swirls all over our leather couch today with A PEN.  [gasp].  After having Grey try to scrub it off (using Honest cleaner and a rag), until he sighed and said, "eh, I can't.  There's too much." I was fuming.  He didn't seem remorseful in the least!  And in the heat of the moment it was so easy to look at that 'Santa-it's-going-to-come' bait dangling in front of my face.  Mmm, it would have tasted sweet to snap at that.  But instead, I caught a glimpse of Marco and decided it was the perfect teachable moment to talk about making bad choices and what to do.  Instead I told Grey that it was a very bad choice to draw on the couches.  Very, very bad choice.  These were our couches for our whole family and we need to take care of our things so we can all use them.  I said, "when you make a bad choice, you need to come tell Mum and Dad and ask for our help to fix it.  We can't always fix your mess, but we can help if you ask us."

Then we acted it out - I went to the kitchen and Grey came in whimpering, "Mum, I made a bad choice and I need some help."  We went back into the living room again - Me feeling much less like a red hot scalding tea kettle - and we scrubbed together to clean the couch off.

Thanks, Marco for helping us, parents too.

It only takes a quick pin-search to see mountains of suggestions for Elf on the Shelf hilarity, but if you're interested in taking a look at our upcoming Marco schedule for the rest of the month, here is what it looks like for a 21month old and 3.5 year old.

Happy elf'ing out there to all of you!

final stretch to Christmas & Marco's last stand

The week before Christmas was our last chance to squeeze in our favorite holiday traditions and last minute fun.  And boy did we ever squeeze some fun in.

I hosted our annual 'Adams' cousin cookie baking day at our house with my late grandma's sugar cookie and boiled icing.  Since my grandma passed away, six years ago (how has it been so long already?), my sisters and cousins have tried to still get together every Christmas to bake cookies just like we used to when we were young with my Grandma.  She would have us all over, fill her kitchen with flour, while we all sneaked bites of raw cookie dough when she was not looking.  Our cookie baking day at Gram's are such wonderful memories that it makes me so happy to continue the tradition.  I feel lucky that my kids get a chance to spend time with their extended cousins doing something that their great grandma taught us.

It is amazing to me to think of how Gram used to keep us all in line through cookie baking day.  We were all fairly young and cookie baking day is hard work!  We have to make all the cut outs, bake them, and then ice them all - and when you're talking about 20 dozen cookies, we all tend to get a little goofy by the time we're icing the last few batches.

There were a few times that I looked around the room and listened to my cousins and aunt laughing and thought about how this would make Gram so happy to see us all here together.  To see her great grandchildren eating her cookies and icing and being with their family.  I hope you were smiling Gram. I love you and miss you every single day.

On Monday evening, we met up with our friends Corey, Stacy, & Lila and also Pappy & Gigi at one of our favorite local restaurants to have dinner with Santa.

When Santa arrived, he made his way around to all of the tables to give the kids a quick hello.  Our girls were not too thrilled about him, Grey on the other hand was memorized.

We even got a chance to sit on Santa's lap and Grey reminded him that he wanted "the Jungle and Megamind" again, just in case he didn't quite get it the first time we saw him :)  Lila even gave Santa's beard a little tug to make sure he was legit (he was!)

i love these weird kids

Then Gem and I (not to be confused with 'Gemini') went to Grey's day care to watch his toddler class sing a song.

The kids all came out in angel robes and some had crowns on - the song was adorable and went like this:

Baby Jesus, please don't cry
please don't cry
Don't you know we love you?
Don't you know we love you?
Yes we do.
Yes we do.

and then the toddlers all were filed out of the room while they screamed and cried hysterically because they could see their parents but couldn't go with them.  It was hilarious and horrible all at once.  After a solid 3 minutes I could still recognize Grey's screaming from the hallway and went out to motion to his teacher as to whether I should sneak away silently or comfort him.  She gave me a look of relief and sent Grey over to me which he flailed himself into my arms like we had been separated for 7 months instead of 30 minutes.  I got him to calm down ('catch you breath Grey') and then I heard Ms. Melissa tell another little crying girl, "Don't you throw up, honey.  Don't do it."  Followed by the child throwing up all down the front of her angel robe.  It was hysterical in hindsight but thank goodness for teachers.  they are amazing.

Then it was off to Katie's house for our 2nd annual kids & polar express & hot cocoa playnight.  The kids exchanged gifts and the two big kids together only deluded Kate and I more that they are destined to get married someday.  Same goes for the two little ones...poor kids don't stand a chance.

I brought our old-school popcorn popper and dazzled the children with non-technology.

And then we watched a little of the Polar Express and ate a little pizza, and played a little dress up, and shared some toys.  And Gemmi acted like she ran the place all the while.  And Kate and I chatted and changed diapers and drank beer and it was wonderful.

And then we were just about ready to start the 4 day Christmas celebration, but not before I whipped up some chocolate-covered pretzels (my fave)

and I also attempted to make monster cookies and didn't realize until right when it was time to add the oats that I had no oats.  so I totally pretended I was Pioneer Woman and knew what I was doing and thought that cheerios would be a legit substitute.  it wasn't.  #fail

Marco took his last week with us to heart and made us smile each morning.

Day 22, we found him playing Chutes&Ladders with some toy friends under the Christmas tree

Day 23, (with Dad's help) Marco had rigged up a zipline across the living room.  He was able to glide with the help of a pencil that was strapped to his hands with a rubber band.

Day 24, Marco had been really naughty and changed all of our technology screens to his very own 'selfie.'  He is so tricky.  (let this be public proof that we have the absolute most disgustingly filthy iPad screen on the planet.  I dare anyone to challenge this atrocity.)

On Day 25, Gemmi was the one that found Marco - he was hanging from our basketball hoop!

Day 26, he was up super high with a superhero cape!  We had to remind him to be safe because we think he wanted to fly like MetroMan.

We got a sweet breakfast surprise on day 27 when Marco surprised us with donuts.  His note reminded us that Santa was going to pick him up on Jesus's birthday eve but that he loved being in our family too.  Grey thought Marco deserved a hug for that.

On Day 28 (Christmas eve, eve) we found Marco having himself a little 'cookin' toy' breakfast in front of the tv.

And on Day 29, Marco had set up our new tent (from Gemma & Grey's great grandma Mimi) with a note to us. His note said,

"Dear Greyson & Gemma,
Thank you for letting me be in your family and for all the huggas and kisses.  You helped me practice being kind and trying my best.
It is baby Jesus's birthday tomorrow!  It is an exciting day and Santa is coming tonight to help you celebrate Jesus's birthday.  He will take me back home to the North Pole where I will keep being kind and trying my best just like you taught me.  I love you, Marco"

Since Marco has left Grey has occasionally asked where Marco is.  We remind him he went back to the North Pole with Santa.  Sometimes he'll say, "Remember Marco?  He lives in Neverland."  I guess we need to cool it on the Peter Pan watching..?