Tinkles merrily on high!
Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav’n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! Tinkles the elfie
Is sit’n with faces grinning*
It was not until my son walked out the back door that anyone spotted Tinkles this morning!
She is sitting on the roof of our two storey cubby! Goodness only knows how she got herself up there, but she is looking quite pleased with a bit of sunshine and a nice view.
Due to the slope of our land, the cubby roof and my eye height at the back door are fairly close so she is was fairly obvious once we went out the back door, but nobody had spotted her through the windows! My daughter had opened every drawer in the kitchen and looked under every bit of furniture in the family room trying to find her 🙂
Tinkles had probably watched us search for her as she has a great view into the family room windows today 🙂
In the meantime, Ginger the baby elf was back in her cradle with a new message for the kids…
* Original lyrics of Ding Dong Merrily On High are by English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848–1934), with a few personalisations by me to suit Tinkles’ latest escapade!
Elves getting excited by presents!
The kids spent a bit of time this morning walking around the house wondering where Tinkles and Baby Elf were (Baby wasn’t in her house so we assumed she was with Tinkles), but eventually found them sitting on a pile of presents eating some fruit!
I’m not sure if they are guarding the gifts or are itching to know what is in them now the pile has grown and we are getting close to Christmas! What do you think they’re up to?
She sees you when you’re sleeping…
She knows when you’re awake,
She knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
Just in case the kids had forgotten that Tinkles, Baby Elf and Santa are ever watchful, they each woke this morning to find an elf beside them!
Baby Elf lying on a pillow – the hat was near by so we guess she got too hot and threw it off!
Tinkles was sitting in the corner of the bed …
* Lyrics are of course from Santa Claus is coming to town, originally by John Coots and Haven Gillespie and published in 1934. Interestingly, it was first played on a radio show by Eddie Cantor but he added additional verses encouraging people to be kind to each other!
This Christmas – towards zero
Walking along the river in the city yesterday, the kids and I came across a pop up activity titled This Christmas.
Run by the TAC as part of their towards zero campaigns, the pop up had rainbow ribbons to attach to rings.
The idea is that you select up to three ribbons with messages that resonate with you. Each message is a positive action that can help us all be safer n the roads, such as “I will not rush to Christmas lunch so I arrive safely”, “I will thank the designated driver” and “I will stay calm behind the wheel”.
The stall was well attended while we were there, which is great, and hopefully it helps a few people think and thus make our roads safer this Christmas. My kids loved it – between the colourful ribbons, finding the different messages, and checking out the colouring in pictures of Melbourne, there was a lot to see in a small space.
Tinkles toasting marshmallows
Resting against the Lego advent calendars, we found Tinkles and the Tooth Elf toasting marshmallows over a Christmas candle this morning.
Baby Elf was sitting in Tinkles’ lap, presumably waiting for her taste, while Hermoine and Harry look quite interested in what’s happening!
Building an igloo for Baby Elf
“I found Tinkles because there was a marshmallow on the floor”
That proclamation form my daughter this morning was surprising to say the least!
SO it turns out that there was a marshmallow on the floor in front of the freezer which lead her to open the freezer and find Tinkles – I suspect Tinkles had left the marshmallow there as ‘bread crumb’ to help herself be found.
Inside the freezer, Tinkles had been busy building an igloo from marshmallows around Baby Elf!
Personally, I’d be a bit cold sitting in the freezer, but both elves seemed happy enough – guess they’re used to the cold from the North Pole! And this time, Tinkles wasn’t trusting a cold climate activity anywhere outside an icy environment!
Children’s Christmas doors
Decorating a door adds to Christmas cheer and laughs!
I love this idea currently underway at my children’s school. Each class is decorating the outside door of their class, making the entire school look festive and happy whilst also expressing the personalities of the students themselves.
I don’t know the details, but apparently the school is doing it as a competition between classes (and resulting in some kids taking it a bit too seriously rather than in the spirit of Christmas). And then it turns out that they aren’t allowed to stick anything on the glass doors in the new classrooms so some classes decorated a large board instead!
It could be done without the competitive elements – imagine every house in your street decorating their door, or each bedroom in your house, or each office at your work, and so on! I think if I run a Christmas door activity though, I will make a home made rule like our school has so everyone has to get creative rather than buy the fanciest decoration available, and that everyone ‘inside that door’ has to contribute so it is a team effort.
While I didn’t manage to get photos of very room, I wanted to share those doors I did capture…
Foundation and Year 1 doors…
I love this ‘door’ – it is a lot of fun and I bet the kids love being elves!
More subtle than other doors, this one includes a bit of maths with all those hexagons!
Year 4 doors…
A Christmas tree in production…
Completed Christmas tree hanging on glass (so lots of reflections…)
Years 5 and 6 doors …
The older students created a scene rather than each student sticking to a class image. I do think this scene is cute though!
Want a hit of cricket?
Cricket may well be a summer sport, but Tinkles apparently knows and enjoys the game – maybe they just play indoors at the North Pole! And let’s face it, Christmas in Australia does include cricket between backyard and beach matches and the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, so why shouldn’t our Christmas elves join in?!
Tinkles and Tooth Elf are batting, and the babies are bowling and wicket keeping! Good to see them all playing active games today.
Both my younger children are in cricket teams this summer so they were quite pleased to find Tinkles, Tooth Elf and some others having a hit in front of the windows in the family room.
Tinkles looks happy to bat, and I love the concentration from the Christmas-dressed baby as she wicket keeps!
Invitation to make gingerbread
Even without a crystal ball, I think I can see some cooking in my future today!
It was easy to find Tinkles this morning as she was in the middle of the kitchen bench, on a chopping board and a request to make some gingerbread people. She’d even managed to get out some Santa and person biscuit cutters for us!
Tinkles colouring in Santa!
Tinkles is artistic! Or at least she is careful and colours between the lines nicely 🙂
Tinkles was discovered this morning colouring in a Love Santa colouring sheets! She has done some beautiful shading so far, with just part of the S in Santa to go before finishing off Santa’s face.
Probably just as well Baby Elf is in her high chair rather than in reach of those pens…
I wonder if Tinkles was colouring in to relax and be mindful or if she was a bit tired and just happy to sit quietly after her trip with Australia Post yesterday.
Whose bum? at Christmas ~ Christmas book review
Whose bum? at Christmas %27%20fill-opacity%3D%27.5%27%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23e7bce3%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(-34.83936%20138.50373%20-84.3023%20-21.20548%20338.4%20149.3)%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%2300cc52%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(-15.99017%20107.66386%20-121.11062%20-17.98727%20180.2%20131.5)%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23c90400%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(-438.67162%20-92.13117%2014.70789%20-70.02987%20185.2%20341.6)%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%232d2d00%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(47.09504%2066.76148%20-319.52196%20225.39795%2054.2%2063.1)%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "| love santa")
by Heath McKenzie
Illustrated by Ada Grey
Lake Press, Melbourne, 2019
Age group: 2 to 5 year olds
Format: 14 page board book with lift the flaps
Doing some Christmas shopping recently and I came across this cheeky little Christmas book which we’re giving to our young nephew. Whose Bum? at Christmas was first published this August so it is quite a new Christmas book.
The story
It’s a board book so not much of a story other than trying to predict who owns the bum sticking out from the flap!
My Christmas book review
My nine year old read Whose bum? to her brother and I last night, and we all laughed!
Sure the kids found it a little easy to guess whose bum it was on most pages, other than the names (I mean it is a bit hard to know which reindeer is which from their bum and they expected the snowman was actually Frosty).
I like that each bum is sticking out from something different, be it a fridge, a gift or a Christmas pudding! And the kids just kept giggling at the bums, of course!
The pages are thick and sturdy so can cope with little fingers turning and opening the flaps. However, the flaps themselves are obviously not as thick as a full board book so make a judgement on the child’s ability to treat books gently, or not!
Would I recommend it? It’s a bit cheeky, but that’s what makes it fun! So yes I recommend Whose bum? at Christmas for little people, but perhaps put it away for visitors without a sense of humour!
A different way to arrive!
This morning, the kids looked unsuccessfully for Tinkles. Finally, they found a note near Baby Elf in her cradle beside the Christmas tree…
The note told the children that if all went well, Tinkles may be somewhere unusual this morning as she was trying a different mode of travel today.
The note from Tinkles was “I’m heading off to the North Pole now. I’m trying a different way to get back in the morning (I hope it works!) so I may be somewhere unexpected when you get up…”
Puzzled, the kids ate their breakfast and wondered where Tinkles could possibly be. They realised Tinkles didn’t come via the chimney or Christmas tree, and suddenly thought more mundane and raced each other to the letterbox!
Poor Tinkles appeared to have got stuck in the flap of the letterbox, or maybe she didn’t like the idea of falling down into the letterbox? She was sitting there, and even had an address sticker on her lap. If Australia Post delivered her from the North Pole overnight, it was a quick trip!
Have you ever had an elf arrive by a different method? Or via Australia Post?
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