In praise of play

Are you tired of me talking about elves yet?  The physical profile of the elf/elves?  I think there's going to be 3 are taking shape.  Sometime in the spring I bought 12 clear glass bottles for crafting use.  Small, classic bottle shape.  Thinking of using them because I like the idea of clear and therefore invisibility.  Also I can put tiny things in them.  The ninja bowling set I made last year used all sorts of cylinder food containers.  From oatmeal to lemonade packaging.  Covered in duck tape.  These ones I think I'm just going to do black felt hats.  Thinking each elf needs a personal Christmas symbol representing their own ninja power.  Gawn Gawn (T's babyhood word for candy) will bring sweetness.  Sometimes just sweets but other times challenge the boys to add sweetness to the lives of others.  Snippy, the scissors guy will cut things out.  Challenge the boys to cut out excess noise or arguing but also cut out the occasional rule.  Shiny and his star will encourage the boys to do something to shine brightly or bring shining moments, special events to the Christmas season.  Working on dossiers for them all.  Found Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle profiles on line that I can build from.  Also saw some great ideas filed under "spy parties."  What appealed to me about the whole elf on a shelf idea is that in some houses the don't just SIT on shelves, they PLAY.  They create all kinds of mischief.  I've seen elves fishing in a box of goldfish crackers, making snow angels from salt, riding in Barbie jeeps etc.  Well if you know me you know how quickly those ideas captured my imagination.  As I think of what my family needs this Christmas (which is very, very little.  In fact the lists of what we DON"T need are longer than what we do) I realized that we need more play!  We need to have more spontaneous fun!  I sit in MOPS classes and hear all about how kids need structure and routine.  Annnnnnnd I hear that.......  But I'm quite sure that what my family needs is more fun.  Maybe you can have fun and structure at the same time and I'm not talking about living in chaos for a whole month (well we always live in chaos but that's different)  but I do want more unstructured imagined magic.   Maybe it's just me realizing I need to let go of  control of stuff  and I'll talk about that tomorrow.  But for now we need fun.  Fortunately I grew up in a very fun house.  One of my dads many great qualities is that he knows how to play.  Growing us an an only child I don't think I was that lonely because I had a built in play mate.  My dad always engaged and encouraged my imagination.  The older I got the more he played.  Maybe it was a grief coping skill I don't know.  But I distinctly remember waking up in my mid 20s to find that every stuffed animal in the house had a poker party the night before.   You never knew where toys were going to pop up in our house and what they'd be doing next.  A stuffed bunny taped to a cutting board with the threat of dinner.  Notes, notes, notes.  Jokes on lunch bags.  Funny cartoons tucked into things.  Missing things showing up in odd places.   I remember photocopying teddy bear bums and titling it "a picture of our bear bums."  My  mom was in on that one (although I think one of her friends balked at it.)  I'm guessing it's my dads love of play that attracted my mom to him.  Honestly I don't think I've done enough of that type of stuff with my kids and I really regret it  It was a big part of my childhood and I had an incredible role model to show me how.   So onward with the elves!