The Elf on Our Shelf

I have recently discovered that when I decide I can’t post until I cover things I’ve missed (last Christmas, Hawaii, the Little One’s second birthday) that I never post, because I’m NEVER caught up.  I’m taking some liberty with the calendar around here, and we’re moving forward.  If I get to those other things, great, but I don’t want to miss current things because I can’t stay organized.  Also?  I’ll be blogging here more to get into practice so I blog more at work.  You know, the place that pays me?  I’ve not been writing nearly enough lately, and I want to start focusing on writing at least four days a week.  Mostly there, but some here too.  I digress…

The Elf.  Now that our little bundle of joy has gotten a bit bigger, she TOTALLY understands the holidays.  I started explaining Christmas on Halloween, that didn’t mess her up at all.  She asked if Santa could take her trick or treating, but really, that’s just efficiency.  We only get to see the guy once a year, she was hoping we could make him a bit more relevant.

There I go tangenting again.  Back to the Elf.  We started talking about being an extra good girl, so that she can partake in the holiday festivities.  She LOVES the idea that she gets presents for someone else’s birthday.  That Jesus, he’s a pretty cool dude.  Hopefully later on, she’ll like him for more than his ability to share his birthday, but for now, it works.  We ordered a cute little elf to assist us in the “you better watch out” part of the giving season.  (hey, parents should get something out of all this.  Any opportunity to con my child into better behavior, I’m on top of.  Even if it does involve a creepy doll elf that reports to the Big Guy up at the North Pole.  Totally Christian.) 

Back to the point.  (I didn’t get that award for having the most random thoughts in all of the dorm building for nothing, people.  I am a MASTER at veering off topic)  We got our elf, she arrived in the mail this week.  Now Prince Charming and I are having all kinds of fun planning the hi-jinks that she will get into.  For those of you who don’t know, you’re supposed to move your elf every night while your child is sleeping to give the appearance that they’ve skedaddled up to the North Pole to have a chat with Santa about their household’s behavior.  Every morning when the kiddos wake up, they get to have some fun finding where the elf has moved to.  Some parents decided to take this to the next level, and there’s a big trend right now encouraging already busy parents to come up with elaborate scenarios and mischief for their elf to get into.  The humor is totally for our benefit this year, but I think as she gets older, we will all have a lot of fun with this.    Here are some of our favorite ideas so far:

We’ll post some of ours if they’re great.  Do you have an elf on your shelf?  What are your favorite family traditions?