Zippy says goodbye

Last night Zippy (our Elf on the Shelf) returned to the North Pole, but not before he got into our pantry, spilled some pasta, and wrote out a little message.

Farewell, little friend.

Zippy makes a friend

My mom emailed recently to say that Zippy seems quite busy, and wondered whether he had found any friends to talk with at night. Well, he’s an elf of few words, so I haven’t heard him mention anyone, but it looks like he’s made at least one new friend here in Pennsylvania. This morning we found him down in the basement playing foosball with a chubby guy from Idaho.

(Did you notice the score? That’s our Zippy!)

little paper snowflakes

I don’t know what I was thinking when I threw away all of the paper snowflakes I made last December. I must have assumed that I would be equally inspired this year, but unfortunately I haven’t found time to cut any paper snowflakes.

Fortunately, Zippy (our Elf on the Shelf) took pity on me and cut out a bunch of snowflakes last night while I was catching up on my sleep. Thanks, Zippy!

Zippy’s Photo Enhancement

Zippy, our Elf on the Shelf, must have thought that the photo we sent out with our Christmas letter was too boring. This morning we found that he had, uh, enhanced a framed copy of the photo. Good thing he didn’t use a Sharpie!

Zippy the artist

Last night Zippy got into a brand new packet of velvet art stickers that I had just given the kids last evening. Don’t you think he did a nice job coloring in the Christmas tree?

Hayden knew that the velvet art was in his room last night, and wondered how Zippy got into his room while he was sleeping! That Zippy sure is stealthy…

Zippy joins in the Reindeer Games

Over the weekend, I hosted the First Annual Reindeer Games at our family Christmas celebration. We divided into two teams and played nine games — one for each member of Santa’s reindeer team, of course. One of the games we played was Vixen’s Snowball Toss, in which the players tossed regular-sized marshmallows into one of three containers of different sizes to earn points. The smaller the container, the more points the team earned.

Unfortunately, Zippy wasn’t able to participate in any of our Reindeer Games, but this morning we found him playing his own game of Vixen’s Snowball Toss on our kitchen counter. And he was even wearing reindeer antlers like we did!

Let’s see a close-up shot of those antlers.

Zippy’s apparently pretty handy with a white pipe cleaner and a brown Crayola marker…

our sELFish photographer

Now that I have a digital SLR camera, Zippy apparently thinks my trusty old point-and-shoot camera belongs to him! What a sELFish little photographer.

Zippy takes the plunge

Hey, Zippy’s just keeping it real around here. December isn’t just for cookies and Christmas shopping and trips to Grandma’s house, y’know…

to Grandmother’s house we go

I thought the kids were pretty eager to celebrate Christmas at Nana’s house today, but it turns out Zippy was even more excited. In fact, our little Elf on the Shelf was so impatient that he was already waiting in the van with his seatbelt buckled when we got up this morning! Thank goodness he had a booster pillow to sit on. Safety first!

Wasn’t it so thoughtful of him to bring a gift?

zippy+paper: an elf’s Etsy shop

Zippy must have read my announcement last night about free shipping on all {rachel+paper} orders today. While we were sleeping, he set up a little paper goods shop of his own with free shipping to the North Pole.

So if your elf needs any gift tags or garlands for their holiday celebrations, be sure to tell them to stop by {zippy+paper} today!