Elf on a Shelf

Above: Our elf, Clover.

Below: The book that introduced the girls to Clover.

Okay...so here I am wishing once again, "why didn't I think of that?" What is the most simple, family tradition has now made some mother/daughter millionaires. Really, why can't I do that?! Wait...allow me to back up.

For the last week or so, Emerson has been coming home from school talking about how so many of her friends have an elf that is in a different place every morning. This elf is chosen by Santa to come and watch the kids at their house, and then every night flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa as to whether they have been good or bad. On Monday, a couple of the girls' friends (who we happen to carpool with every once in awhile) told Emerson how they had one when they woke up that morning. The questions began..."why don't we have an elf, mom?" "have we not been good enough this year?" "why does Santa only pick some kids to have a special elf in their house?" The guilty mom side of me kicked in...and I called Drew to begin the hunt for this book.

$30 later he returned home after finding it at Hallmark. It really is a cute, cute book. Check it out when you have the chance. As I said, it was written by a mother and daughter who took a tradition they created in their house and made a book out of it. Each book comes with it's own elf. As mentioned above, he hides in a different place every morning upon returning from the North Pole. He stays with us until Christmas Eve, then returns to the North Pole with Santa and won't return until next year after Thanksgiving. You get to name your elf and everything. The girls named ours Clover...and they are loving him! It was pretty cute the way he came to our house...

The girls got these great Advent Calendars from Gramma Maynard at Sutton's birthday. They aren't the pre-filled ones, they are ones that have spots for the Christmas Fairy to fill. So, every night the Christmas Fairy fills the next calendar day with some sort of special candy. When the girls started hearing about the Elf on the Shelf, we decided we would leave the Christmas Fairy a note to see if she could ask Santa if we could have an elf at our house. She left a note for us, telling us she would talk it over with Santa, and the next morning we had Clover. Very fun...I'm actually considering asking Santa if he can stay with us all year long...it's amazing how the behavior changes when someone is "watching" them and reporting to Santa. :-)

Above: Sutton's Advent Calendar. Below: Emerson's Advent Calendar