A Christmas Eve Scavenger Hunt

When Ron and I were discussing where we should go for our big, family trip of 2020, he kept on requesting that we go back to Hawaii.  Since our family has been there several times together, I was hoping to go somewhere new that was still an easy and convenient place to travel to with a little one since neither one of us are quite up a for a big, international trip at this point with Emmett still being so young.  However, after going back and forth for quite a few weeks, I eventually agreed to Ron's requests since he works so hard at his job and because he really the one that pays for our trips in the first place.  As a result, I purchased our plane tickets and rented our condo back in November and then started thinking about a fun way to tell the kids.  I decided to order a custom puzzle with a picture of our family from the last time that we were in Hawaii.  In addition, I put the sentence, "We are going back to Hawaii!" at the bottom of the puzzle.  After ordering it, I then came up with the idea of having our Elf on the Shelf give the children a scavenger hunt on Christmas Eve which is the last morning that he appears until next year.
The children woke up this morning to find Julius 'riding' our reindeer with a little, velum bag hanging around his neck with a few puzzle pieces in it and a note clipped to his hands that read, "Before I go, let's go on a scavenger hunt!"  Since our kids LOVE scavenger hunts, they immediately squealed with delight, opened up the bag with the puzzle pieces in it, read the clue, and headed off to find the next one.  After finding ten clues around the house, they ended back up in the living room where they found a miniature Elf on the Shelf (from Lia's new, American Girl Doll set) hanging on the Christmas tree with another note that said, "Put the puzzle together."  After working on the puzzle for several minutes, they were able to put the bottom part together and read the message.  Needless to say, they were all super excited and can't wait to head back to our favorite slice of paradise this coming year!

A picture of what Julius looked like this morning when the kids first found him.

The miniature elf and the final clue they found on our Christmas tree.

The kids working hard on putting the puzzle together.

Giving me a quick smile while working away.

The kids screaming after reading the message at the bottom of the puzzle.

What the puzzle looked like after the children were all done putting it together.