Our Special Visitor

The weekend after Thanksgiving, when grabbing the paper, we found this present on our porch ;)  After opening it, we figured out that it was a special delivery straight from the North Pole - from Santa himself!  Inside of the package contained a book, a note and some Santa pictures (more about those at the end of the post).

Santa sent a note encouraging our children to be on their very best behavior, as well as a book that told us all about our special visitor.  Christopher Popinkins was already 'hiding' in our house, waiting for us to find him {Christopher is the less creepy, slightly cuter, version of his cousin 'Elf on a Shelf'}.

Each day, Christopher sat perched in a special spot around our house - watching and listening to our kiddos.  At the end of each day, he would 'zoom' to the North Pole to give Santa an update, and then he would 'pop' back into our house in a different spot for the following day. 

It was a hoot to watch the kids search the house each morning!  His spots were always too high to reach him because if kids touch him, he loses his special powers. 

On Christmas, Santa took Christopher home with him... but we look forward to his return next December!

Have I told you about my sassy, stubborn, line-pushing daughter?!?!  Good golly, I do love my Quiners, but she has an attitude that is all her own.  She does really well at school, but let's it all go when she is at home. (Believe me though - I would much rather that, then have her be an angel at home and a stinker at school!)  In hopes of transferring some of her good behavior home, a few months back I made a stop light.  She is really the only one of the kids who grasps the concept, but they all have a clothespin.  She gets a warning first, and then if she needs to be told again - she has to move her clip to the yellow (I have also done this in my classroom for years... but that didn't matter until her preschool teacher had one!).

So... that clever Santa sent pictures of himself to add to our stop light, to help Christopher know what to tell Santa each night.  Did it help, you might wonder?!?!?  As you can see, she was still on the yellow many times, but it helped keep her off of the red more than a few times!  Overall, I am calling it a success for her :) 

Now that Christmas is over, and the Santa stoplight has been put away until next year, I have added purple stars for each of the kids (a little more positive reinforcement).  If it works wonders, I will let you all know!