The Elf on our shelf

Have you heard of The Elf on the Shelf? I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but when I was home with Brody I was mostly unplugged from the internet world. (Probably because Brody likes to nurse and I barely had enough time to shower and get laundry done before he wanted to just hang out and nurse some more). Anyway, my BFF gave Noah an Elf on the Shelf for Christmas. We received him about 2 weeks prior. How it works is you read the story about how he comes to your house and then reports back to Santa each night and every morning he's in a new spot. You can talk to him, but he can't talk to you. And you can't touch him or all of his Christmas magic disappears. You have to name him and once you do - he's your elf and the fun begins.

So we read the story and Noah tells us that he has the "perfect" name for our Elf. His name will now be "Ho". You know, because Santa says "ho, ho, ho". Walt & I had to hide our amusement that we now had a ho living with us. Anyway, the first night at 4:30am I wake up in a panic and realize that we forgot to move Ho...so I stumble out of bed and find him a new spot. Thank goodness I did because Noah looked for him right away. And so it began. Every morning, first thing, Noah would search and search to find Ho. He talked to him and told him what was on his Christmas list. And we'd threaten that "Ho is watching" when he was being somewhat naughty.

The sad part was on Christmas Eve when I told him that Ho would be going back to the North Pole with Santa that night - and Noah burst in to tears. I mean, real, big crocodile tears. He was sad that Ho had to leave and he loved him and would miss him. It's January 18 and we STILL talk about Ho all of the time. In fact, Ho left Noah a letter and a shark book (Silly Santa forgot to leave it for Noah!) just the other night.

If you have a pre-schooler and dont have an Elf on the Shelf, I think you should think about getting one. It's a really fun tradition to start and it's amazing how much joy that Ho brought to our holidays!