The Elf on the Shelf...

This is the CUTEST thing ever!!

This is a tradition we started this year, and we are so glad we did! The book explains that this little elf has come to our house from the North Pole as Santa's helper. His job is to watch Mallory's behavior and report to Santa each night while she is sleeping. Each morning when Mallory wakes up, she will find that the elf has returned from the North Pole and is sitting in a new place in our house for her to find...

The first night we got the book and the elf, we read the story as Mallory stared at the elf more than the book. The book explains that we must choose a name for our elf, so Mommy and Daddy asked Mallory what she wanted to name him. She said, "Baseball Head." We laughed and told her she needed to pick a real name. She said, "Snowman Head." Again, we said no. She said, "Christmas tree Head." Mommy said we would continue reading and she could thinking about the name. The next page said something about the elf reporting to Saint Nick. Mallory said, "How about we call him Nick?" So, Nick it was!

As we continued to read the book about Nick flying to the North Pole every night and coming back before Mallory wakes up, Mallory was really thinking about it, she said, "Is Nick just pretend?" Daddy explained that when she goes to sleep Nick comes to life and talks to Santa, but when he is at our house, he quietly watches her.

When it was time for bed, Mallory had a hard time falling asleep. She said she was afraid of Nick. We weren't sure if she was afraid of the elf itself or the fact that he tells Santa all about her :o) But after a good night's sleep, she came to love Nick and was excited every morning to find him. The first thing out of her mouth each morning was, "We need to find Nick." She would look and look until she saw him, and then she would laugh at him. She would sometimes say, "Nick is so silly!"

Here are some of the places she found him...

This was probably her favorite spot!!!





Mallory would come home from Ms. Sharon's and tell us that she didn't have to go to time-out today. So, we would say,"Nick did you hear that?" If Mallory was misbehaving all Mommy or Daddy had to do was remind her that Nick was watching...she would shape up! Also, if Mommy or Daddy saw Mallory being good or when she used good manners, we would tell Nick...she loved when we did that.