Elf on the Shelf

Elf on the Shelf.

I decided to go ahead and do Elf on the Shelf with the girls this year. But, I wanted to do a little something different with ours. I wanted to tie Jesus into it somehow. Since we are really working on Jesus's birth and the true reason for Christmas and what we should be celebrating, I figured it would just be best for us to tie this in with our Elf on the Shelf tradition!

So, I started with getting the book, the movie, and the little boy elf. (Just because he's my favorite one!) I had typed out a letter from Santa but due to a goofy printer and my lack of preparing before hand, I got to HANDWRITE the WHOLE thing in my disguised Santa handwriting. ;) LUCKY me. 

So, I put all of the items together, wrapped it up and put it in a package. Sienna is a very observant squirt, so I decided to suck it up and use real stamps to make it even more realistic. So, below is the elf before he went out on our front step to wait for the girls to find him.

In the morning, Sienna went to check our mail to see if we had any because we "forgot to check it" when we got back from Grandma and Grandpa's house (SILLY US!!).  

***WHOAH!!!*** 

She found something. With their names on it!!! It was from Santa Claus at the North Pole. She brought it into the kitchen for all of us to open and see what was inside!

Here is a copy of the letter that Santa Claus wrote to the girls. 

All of the things they woke up to this morning. Both are kind of excited. They have a lot of questions about it. We will read the book tonight and watch the movie some other time when we have a little more time on our hands to do it. 

Another thing I changed about our elf tradition, is we can play/talk to him during the day. 

The girls opening the package from S.Claus/St.Nicholas/"The Boss". 

Sienna holding our elf.

Isla holding him!

(She was pretty nervous about him after the letter. Even a little "scared", maybe??. She did warm up after the story and after we hung out with him tonight, though.)

Then, it was time to head to daycare and school for the day. SO, we discussed name possibilities all the way there. We thought about Zeke, Silly, Trouble, Oogle, Buddy, etc. None of those really rang for all three of us. The one name that we came up with that everybody seemed to like was....

MICK!

So, meet Mick.

Our Christmas Elf sent to us from the North Pole.

We can't wait to see what goes on in our house over the Christmas season!!

Mr. Mick

Our last page in the book!! Welcome, MICK.

Mick sat here doing this (watching over my hot cocoa) while I read the story about Elf on the Shelf to the girls. Loved all of their questions and comments.

"I'm glad we can play with our elf. I wonder if Santa made that rule before we got Mick."

"I hope Mick doesn't forget to come back tonight."

"Mick heard me say that, didn't he, Mom...... *sad face* .." (After Sienna talked back)

"So, will he go to the North Pole every night?"

" I might not sleep tonight. I want to see if I can watch him come alive."

---and OUT.

GOODNIGHT