The adventures of Timmy Twinkles 2014

1st. Timmy reintroduced himself with two advent calendars and a note. 

2nd. Timmy was found playing jingle bells on the ukulele. 

3rd. Timmy had hung pants on the boys little tree. 

Maybe they should hang some proper decorations?

4th. Timmy was found playing with the train set. 

5th. Timmy had drawn on the family photos. 

Rather than the 'clean up' panick (worried Timmy was getting them into trouble) Ed had last year, he decided to join in and drew a fart on a photo of himself haha. 

6th. Amid our Christmas jumpers, Timmy was found wearing his very own! Maybe he wanted to join us in our festive activities that day?

7th. After a day of fun on the Santa steam train, where Ed made sure he met the big guy, Timmy was found sharing a festive story with Sally Snowball (the elf who is staying with Nanny). 

8th. Timmy was found playing a game of pairs with cheep cheep. 

9th. Timmy was missing...

It turned out in my angst to not have that 'Oh god where's Timmy' panic at 11pm, I'd put him some where safe...too safe maybe...

10th. That naughty elf taped up a doorway. 

11th. We had finally got the tree inside and were waiting for the branches to drop (after being wrapped in netting) but naughty Timmy spent the night toilet papering it. Grrr. 

12th. Timmy was enjoying milk & biscuits with some festive friends. 

13th. Timmy had a painting project for the boys. 

14th. Timmy was having a movie night with some snowflake snacks. 

15th. Timmy was in the middle of completing a festive jigsaw. 

16th. Timmy was playing cars with rudolf. 

17th. Timmy left the boys a new advent calendar after they both accidentally ate all of their chocolate calendars, with a note requesting that they don't eat them all at once again. 

It didn't work. Before I knew it we were up to the 20th...

18th. Timmy trashed their story books. Every single one out of the shelf! How on earth did he do that while they lay asleep mere feet away??!

19th. Timmy had wrapped the toilet. How...erm...festive. 

20th. Timmy had been making paper snowflakes. 

21st. Timmy had been having tea & cake with some strange new friends, Betty Biscuit & Pete Polar Bear. 

22nd. Group selfie at the top of the Christmas tree. 

23rd. Betty, Timmy & Pete were found camping & toasting marshmallows, all in matching Christmas jumpers. 

24th. Timmy's last night. 

Sat on top of a pile of Christmas Eve presents (the usual; new pjs, a Christmas story - this year it's the Dinosaur that pooped Christmas- and a movie - Mr Poppers Penguins). He was also surrounded by craft projects for the boys and an entire festive village. 

There were actual squeals of delight this morning.

However much I struggled this year, with working late every week night and all, I'm going to really miss this nonsense. 

Ah well, he'll be back next year....

Timmy can be found on Instagram, search #elftimmytwinkles.

Lying to My Kids...

Yesterday Ed lost his third tooth. 

Last night the tooth fairy 'forgot' to visit. Caught up in working late & the adventures of Timmy the elf, it completely slipped my mind. 

He woke up this morning completely miserable. With claims that he'd been good and gone straight to sleep, he couldn't understand why she'd forgotten him. He was so sad and seemed so genuinely heart broken I couldn't tell him the truth. I couldn't simply hand over his £1. It seemed far more important to stretch it out, to push the 'story' to its absolute limits. 

You won't believe how far I pushed it. 

I told him I'd call the 'Mummy helpline'. 

With my phone to my ear, I made an effort to re-enact my usual phone call behaviour; I wandered around the house, tried to avoid noisy rooms, spent a fair amount of time on hold trying to get to the right department, remained polite and ensured one of them overheard the whole thing. 

It went a little like this;

(Phone to ear)

-pause-

"Oh hello, can I have the tooth fairy department please."

-pause-

"Hi. My son put his tooth under his pillow last night, and he went to sleep and everything but he hasn't been visited. His tooth is still there."

-long pause-

"Oh right. Okay. That's great thanks."

(Put phone down)

I told him that 200 kids lost a tooth last night and the tooth fairy was extraordinarily busy. Apparently there were loads of kids missed last night so she's doing an extra shift today while they're at school. 

He was shocked, I guess he never thought the tooth fairy could ever have too much to handle, especially when he's of that age when everyone is loosing teeth. 

Ahhh, it all made sense now. He was ok with that. 

He put his tooth box on the top of his pillow so she wouldn't struggle to find it & lives in hope she'll make it today while we're out. 

I can assure you, she has. 

My husbands reaction to this was;

"I wish you'd stop lying to him"

Which I of course understand but he was so dejected, I couldn't do the whole "oh, it's just a story anyway, here's a quid"

That would've been awful.  

And in fact, the more I think about it, the less I regret it. 

I think it's massively important to spend your childhood believing in magic and fantasy. Aside from the fact that it's the only time in your life you can put faith in such things, I think those dreams and fantasies are the foundations of creativism and free thought. 

Childhood is the only period of your life where absolute silliness can prevail. When while days can be spent making up your surroundings in pure, unadulterated play. What is imaginative play without magic? Without made up characters?

Obviously, at this time of year, we are well and truly amidst the story of Father Christmas, whose existence has been discussed greatly, but we are sticking to our guns and carrying on with the story for a little while yet. 

Why, at just six years old, would I take that away from him?

I found this interesting article on the Wall Street Journal website, about how important magical thinking is to kids, and how they use it to understand the world around them. It made me feel good (not something I often feel when it comes to my motherhood skills) about my decision to stretch the story. Like the article says, when he looked me straight in the face this morning, I assessed his level of doubt and found none, only sadness. We can go a little longer telling stories. And he'll need these skills to have a better understanding of history and people who live elsewhere in the world because the ability to imagine, to put yourself in someone else's shoes, is invaluable. I used to worry that imaginative play is so internal, because only they can see what they see, that it would encourage them to live in a bubble, but on the contrary, it will help them both become compassionate men.

One day they'll discover the truth and therefore the lies I've told them, but I hope they understand that I only did it to keep the magic alive. 

Unfortunately it does make my life difficult. 

Remembering the tooth fairy needs to visit a boy who often stays awake quite late and not neglecting the elf's activities every night for 24 nights in December is often more than I can cope with, but I'll battle on. 

The tooth fairy, in her angst, did leave the £1 coin but forgot to take the tooth. Ed decided her bag must have been too full and that actually he'd like to keep it anyway. So long as he's happy. 

Elf on the Shelf: The Adventures of Timmy Twinkles 2013 - updated

I can't tell you how excited I am about this year's elf on a shelf shenanigans...not that I have a clue what's in store for us! Last year I had it all planned out that doesn't seem to have happened yet.

Anyhoo, I thought, since I never got around to posting it last year, I'd show you what our Timmy Twinkles the Elf got up to last year.

So here goes....

Our Elf introduced himself by being found, early on the 1st of December, on the printer, photocopying his butt.

Here's a copy of the note he was found with, which was originally printed onto red card and was so small we could barely read it.

On the 2nd, Timmy Twinkles was found sat aloft the family photos with an incriminating red white board marker and someone had drawn on each one....

The boys were a little freaked out by this and quickly grabbed a cloth, frantically wiping it all off, while muttering about being worried he'd get them into trouble. I'll be honest, I was wetting myself laughing - I have NEVER seen them clean anything haha.

 On the 3rd, he was found in the middle of making paper snowflakes. The boys joined in and we hung them all up.

 On the 4th, he was tangled up in the lights on the boys little Christmas tree.

On the 5th, naughty Timmy had hung the boys underwear on their tree.

On the 6th, he was enjoying tea with some friends.

But things soon turned sour amongst the other toys and he was found on the 7th having been kidnapped by playmobil figurines.

 On the 8th, he got his own back on the world and wrapped the entire toilet in wrapping paper.

On the 9th Timmy had made a brilliant block tower, so tall it didn't fit in the photo.

On the 10th, he was enjoying milk and biscuits with some new festive friends, more to his liking.

On the 11th, he had a climbing adventure on our hallway decorations.

 On the 12th, he was found cooking in the boy's play kitchen.

But once again things went awry and on the 13th, he was found in the oven ready for roasting.

On the 14th, he had got the boys breakfast bowls out ready, but he'd also covered most of downstairs in sticky bows.

On the 15th, Timmy was in the process of finishing a jigsaw. Bean happily helped him finish it.

On the 16th he had some 'seeds' for the boys to plant, under strict instructions that they must only be planted in sugar.

On the 17th, the seeds had grown into candy canes and Timmy was riding a dinosaur in celebration. He does love candy canes you know.

On the 18th, he was found atop the Christmas tree, possibly trying to point out we still hadn't put anything up there.

On the 19th, he'd made himself an igloo using Jenga blocks.

On the 20th we all woke up to red noses and Timmy was found with Rudolf and an incriminating red paint dabber. It didn't wash off so we all spent the day looking like his friend. Thanks Timmy!

On the 21st, he had made a mighty mess, making Stollen using Nanny's recipe.
(That was the night I'd been out with the girls, thank goodness for Mums! Even at my age, they're still needed for rescuing haha. She'd come over while I was out and set him up).

On the 22nd he had letters from Santa for the boys.

On the 23rd he had been camping and toasting marshmallows.

The 24th was a sad day, the boys were gutted to say goodbye and he has been hidden somewhere peculiar ever since, sorry no, he has gone back to the North Pole to make presents!!

This is the note he came with.

So there you have it.

This year, I need to keep a closer eye on where Timmy is at all times because we don't have a 'no touching' rule so he's played with all day, every day and most nights I had to search the whole house. Often, I'd find him under Ed, who would purposefully sleep on top of him to stop him being naughty. He once tied him up with string to stop him getting away.

Writing this...it's possible I'm scarring my kids for life here, but when Timmy left, they were genuinely gutted. And it can't be as bad as a big fat man who fits down everyone's chimney. And what's a childhood without a little naughtiness?

If you want to follow this year's nonsense, the best way is through Instagram. 

Follow me on kitty5069 where the photos will be updated daily, or search #elftimmytwinkles.

I suppose I best get planning then....