He sees you when youre sleeping....

Meet The Elf on the Shelf, ours is named.....Elf-E.  Mimi gave this to us a few years ago and he has become a big part of the family.  If you don't know the story, I will fill you in.  The Elf is given to us from Santa.  He helps Santa watch the family and every night when they sleep he flies back to the North Pole and reports back to the big man.  The next day when they wake up they are to try and find where he is hiding.  He can't talk back to the girls, only listen.  The most important rule is that if you touch him he loses all his power and cant go back to Santa.  He is sort of like a creepy Gizmo with all his rules.

Anyway, he actually really works.  The girls cant wait to see him at Christmastime and race to find him every morning.  He is such a part of the family that he makes occasional trips back to our house throughout the year to check in on the girls.  They "hope" he comes on their birthdays and he almost always does.  Even Baylor Grace loves Elf-E.  We have told the girls that he has his own family back at the North Pole and his job, watching us, requires him to be away from his family just like my job sometimes requires me to be gone.  Throughout the year he watches over us via a snow globe so he can see the girls progress.  It has sort of become like an affair.  Lies on top of lies to cover up the true story but in this case, it is okay.  As if the behavior wasn't instantly corrected by saying Santa will find out, Elf-E is the great disciplinarian around our house.  To the point where the girls even say "Elf-E will find out" or " I am going to tell Elf-E."

To us its all very cute and a microcosm of the magic of Christmas.  The girls buy into the fact that every night he flies back to the North Pole and then back here before the day starts.  Why not?  Makes sense doesn't it? It is magic.  Most of Christmas is based on magic but the excitement, the emotions, the cheer are all very real. That is what is so great about the season.  The girls now sing along with the music, decorate the cookies, and understand the idea of giving.  Christmas really is better when you have kids- aren't most things though?