Elf on the Shelf

This past week a new tradition was added to our family.  My Aunt Corinne sent an Elf on the Shelf elf and book to our kids as an early Christmas gift and we have been having fun with that silly elf ever since.

If you are not familiar with Elf on the Shelf, it is apparently a Christmas tradition from years ago.  An elf who has been adopted and named by a family lives with the family in the weeks prior to Christmas.  Every night the elf flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa on the children's behavior and then returns to the home and finds a place to hide or sometimes makes a little mischief.  He doesn't talk but he listens, so the kids can talk to him and tell him things he should pass on to Santa.  People aren't supposed to touch him, or he loses his magic.

Our elf was named Rudy Elvis (Rudy, like Rudolph, and Elvis, from the word "elf") and he's a pretty silly elf.  Every morning we find him in a new place in our house and we have gotten a good laugh on most mornings.

Here we are reading the book on the morning we opened him (this was before we read the thing about not touching him).

 The kids brainstormed names:

 Rudy hung out on our windowsill that first day.

 When a name was decided upon, it was written in the book.

The first morning after his arrival, Rudy was found at the top of our Christmas tree, riding a bicycle ornament (Eric and I bought the ornament years ago when we visited my Grandma's hometown of Sparta, Wisconsin, also called the "Bicycle Capital of America", thus the bicycle ornament).  There were lots of giggles about this spot.

 On the second morning, Rudy was found in the kitchen decorating gingerbread cookies.

 On the third morning he was in my stocking.

On the fourth morning he was caught drinking syrup right from the bottle.  We knew from watching the movie Elf that elves love syrup.

 On the fifth morning, Rudy was found holding baby Jesus in one of our nativity scenes.  So sweet!

 On the sixth morning he was hanging from the top of a lamp shade in the living room.  That shade turns so we bet he was spinning around during the night.

On the seventh morning he was in the kids' bathroom.  He had used a candy cane and string to make a fishing pole and was fishing for goldfish crackers in the toilet. 

On day 8 he was hanging in the Santa's clothes garland that hangs between the dining room and family room.  The pants looked a little high water on him.  Hilarious!

This morning, our final morning with him, we found him redecorating the little Christmas tree decoration in Eric and my bathroom.

We're going to miss Rudy (even though we will see him again next year).  He's a funny guy and it was nice to know that he was reporting to Santa every night.