That Damned Elf

Okay, in theory, this Elf on a Shelf thing seemed like a great idea. Oh ya, we will have so much fun getting this elf to do different things each night and the boys will love it. Let me be the first to say that I completely understand why elves come down with a bad flu or break a leg and can’t move for a week or just completely disappear because the parents have had enough of the stupid thing.

Once you start though, you can’t stop. It’s like a trap. When you buy the elf the cashiers are full of smiles and tell you how much fun you will have moving the elf each night and how there are so many neat ideas out in there for your elf to do, meanwhile, they are secretly laughing at you and what they really want to say is “do you know what you are getting yourself into?” Well, no, I didn’t, but because the stupid elf puts a smile on my kids’ faces I will continue to move the damned elf each night.

This one was a rather clever one. The night before Joshua was refusing to eat his dinner. Didn’t want, it wasn’t any good, didn’t like it. So after bath we told him it was bedtime because he didn’t eat. Well, let me tell you how appealing dinner was at that point. He cleared his plate and all was well again in our house. But Santa saw that our struggle was real and left a note for him, and Grayson, the next morning.

We were so over the elf this night lost our creativity and Ralphie just drew funny faces on our fruit. And to my surprise, it was a big hit with Joshua.

Joshua also thought it was funny when he discovered Ralphie hanging upside down in the laundry with some of Grayson’s diapers. He was pretty happy that Ralphie was helping me with the laundry.

Raphie didn’t make breakfast this morning, but he did grab a quick snack for the boys to have…close enough.

Ralphie surprised the boys the next morning with letters from Santa. Joshua loved his letter and is thrilled that he is on the nice list for now. On second thought, maybe Ralphie should have waited until right before Christmas to bring those letters.

Next, Ralphie ended up in the stocking. I had a ladies’ evening out and was home late so this was as good as it was getting.

Here, Ralphie has made a zip line and swinging along on an ornament.

And finally, Ralphie decided to take it easy and help me with my crocheting. He sure made a mess of my ball of yarn, but I can’t complain because Joshua was delighted when he saw Ralphie helping me finish part of Grandma’s gift.