Christmas Elf

We have had a little visitor in our house this month. The kids love our Elf on the Shelf and look forward to seeing where he's hiding every morning. The first morning he came, you would have thought hell froze over by how good the kids acted and how smoothly we got off to school. Of course they quickly acclimated to having the elf around and things have gone back to half-crazy in the morning, but it was nice while it lasted!

Here's some of the fun things the elf has done:

Drew funny faces on the kids' pictures with dry-erase marker (they thought this was hilarious):

The first night we told the kids about the elf, Jack predictably freaked out a little bit because he didn't want the elf sneaking around while he slept. I told Jeff it would be funny if the elf decided to hide under the top bunk and be staring at Jack when he woke up. The elf was nice and didn't do it that night - he waited until he and Jack had become friends:
Making a "sugar" angel:
Oh look, I found my own little elf hiding in the cupboards!
Diving into a Christmas present:
Ziplining in Makele's room:
Some other fun places we've found him include in the shower with a towel wrapped around his body and head, in the fridge drinking a soda pop and sitting in the Christmas tree. One morning he was even having a "snowball" fight with one of the kids' toys. He had set up legos as forts to hide behind and mini marshmallows were thrown everywhere. The marshmallows mysteriously disappeared throughout the day as Aiden went in the living room to see the elf. ;)

I have been surprised at how good the kids have been about not touching him, even Aiden. He just laughs and says, "elf, funny!" This is the first year we have had the elf visit, and it's been such a fun little addition to the Christmas season!