Mr. Maxwell Mittens
Christmas is a big deal at our house. We love decking the halls and spoiling the children. We don’t “do” Santa. We spend our hard earned money of gifts for the kids and I don’t want some obese grandpa taking all the credit!
A couple of years ago, for some long forgotten reason, we came up with this idea that we had an elf living in our attic. His name is Mr. Maxwell Mittens. (I found this cartoon elf created by Dagan Moriarty that fit just perfectly!) The poor little fella isn’t that great at toy making and he burned all the cookies when he tried to work in a tree, so he lives in our attic. He doesn’t give gifts, but he creates elaborate scavenger hunts every year for the twins. (They know he isn’t real, but have a tremendous amount of fun, anyway!) When the girls wake up Christmas morning, there is glitter and streamers and confetti all around the door to the attic. After reading the Christmas story and slowly tormenting the children by developing patience in their character, they begin to open their presents. We handle this part differently every year, but sometimes all their presents are hidden and they just find the first clue in their stockings. Last year, we had them open half of their presents in the morning and then after lunch the alarm clock went off in their room and there was a glittery envelope from Mr. Max with a clue where to find more toys. Some clues are a series of math problems, word searches or riddles. The hunt takes them at least an hour and is a fun way to prolong the fun.
Jeff and I spend weeks planning elaborate ways to change it up every year…this year we will have a short hunt in the morning (so they will think it is over) and then another one in the afternoon. It’s so fun and the whole family participates!
So why am I sharing this family tradition with you? Did you notice that there is no food in this story? No cookies, no fudge, no mints, no cheese balls? I’m working on creating memories for my daughters that don’t wrap eating up with love and holidays. I know we all have special foods that we eat at Christmas and I know that is normal and healthy, but EVERY memory should not be coated in powered sugar!
Hi y’all! I’m a deep-fried Southern girl, born and raised in North Carolina. I’ve recently relocated to Boulder, Colorado and I am determined to adopt the healthy lifestyle of the people around me! It’s time for a real shift in my lifestyle – a paradigm shift that will create new habits and result in a thinner, happier, and hopefully better, Sara. A Sara 100 pounds lighter than I was when I started! Hope you decide to come along for the ride.
