We Had a Visitor Come over Thanksgiving While We Were Gone...

I had forgot to mention in the previous post that while we were away over Thanksgiving, Santa sent down one of his "most trusted elves" to watch over the kids until Christmas Eve. Translation: I caved into the hype, spent $30, and bought an Elf on the Shelf!  For those of you who have never heard of this...it really is a neat idea that I wish I would have thought of and marketed...haha!

When you purchase it, this is what you get:

It's a cute little elf that comes in various skin tones and eye colors to match your family and also has a beautiful hard-cover book that tells the story of your elf. In my own terms, the story explains that Santa relies on these elves to be his eyes and ears to let him know if you are being bad or good. You must immediately name him or her and this will give the elf its 'magical powers'. Every night, your elf leaves and visits the North Pole to give Santa a full report of how you acted that day. When you wake-up in the morning, your elf will be in a new place in the house and this is how you will know that he had left for awhile. He leaves Christmas Eve to return to the North Pole, then comes back to your family next year!

It's a really fun idea and the kids were thrilled to have 'finally' received one — some of their friends already had one, so they knew about it. In fact, within 2 minutes of walking into the house and seeing him sitting there, my almost 9 year old blurted out, "He's not magical, my friend said that her mom got theirs at a book store!" We immediately diverted the conversation and told her that there is NO WAY her friend's mom could have bought him in a store! Haha! On top of that, I had always told them that not everyone gets an elf at the same time and that you have to wait your turn until Santa has an elf available. (Boy...can I come-up with the stories or what?!!)

I told the girls to think of a funny name for him and the first thing that they shouted was, "Clifford" — as in the Big Red Dog — of course. So, I suggested "Cliff" for short and they liked that!

We have been having a lot fun with Cliff and so far, all 3 kids seem to really believe and cannot wait to wake-up in the morning to see where he is that day! Which comes another 'little lie' of mine...I had explained to the girls that Cliff will definitely tell Santa if they get out of bed too early to try to find him! Haha!

We have had Cliff for 4 nights now and I am having just as much fun trying to find places to put him — which I can see being very difficult after about another week. There are only so many places that the little elf is able to stay and be supported by something — so that he doesn't fall and scare the crap out of them! Here is where he was yesterday morning...chilling-out on a decorative star on the wall.

Isn't that hilarious?!! I even laugh myself every time I place him in a new spot! He just looks so funny! You know what's even funnier, though...all of the dust that I have to clean off of him every night when I take him down from one of my hard-to-reach decorations or fixtures!