Time Travel, Elf Ears, and Pancakes

So since we were in Texarkana with my family over Thanksgiving, we prepared for Bell to arrive there, since a helper elf  also had a gift for Bell to give to the girls.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of how Bell arrived (my sister videoed it so maybe sometime I will post the vid.) but I will tell you.  Bell arrived tapped to the front door of the grandparents house, with TARDIS Christmas lights strung up around him.  For those who don't know my little (its bigger on the inside) obsession with Doctor Who (my children LOVE it as well) the TARDIS is the Doctor's time machine and "Bell" just happened to find Christmas lights of it for their Christmas tree.  Bell also found Elf ears and hat for my car (Thanks BeBe).  Bell showed up with a letter as well.  I got the letter from Only Little Once and tweaked it a little.  Here is a picture of it

 The girls were so excited about Bell coming back this year.  They have been trying to guess what he is going to do each morning.  This morning they came to wake us up and let us know Bell was drinking the maple syrup (part of the elves four main food groups)  He didn't have a kindness challenge today since we got in last night and mommy didn't print anything out.  But starting tomorrow there will be a challenge.  I'll post about that tomorrow afternoon.

Since Bell was drinking syrup this morning we had pancakes for breakfast this morning.  I found a recipe that I really like to use.  I've tweaked it just a bit, to add holiday flavors to it.

2 cups flour
⅓ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ Tablespoons. baking powder
1 egg
2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons butter (room temp, soft)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp cinnamon (this varies depending on how much your family loves cinnamon)
1/4 tsp nutmeg

First take all your dry ingredients and whisk together.  In a separate bowl mix all your wet ingredients together.  Slowly pour in wet ingredients to dry ingredients, whisking until completely mixed.  Heat your griddle or pan to medium heat.  Use a tablespoon to spoon out your batter.  Spoon out 2 tablespoons of batter.  Watch your pancakes, and after about 15 to 20 seconds flip it and cook on the other side for the same amount of time (If 20 seconds has passed and little "bubbles" aren't popping on the pancakes leave for another 30 seconds.)  And last, enjoy your pancakes with as much (or little)  syrup as you want.

Now go put on some Christmas music, start decorating if you haven't already, and get ready for the best time of year!