Christmas Fun

The Giraldi family sent us an early Christmas present this year: The Elf on the Shelf.  I had heard of it before, but never knew much about it.  It turned out to be such a fun Christmas tradition that the kids will never forget!  The elf arrives in a box with a book and a movie.  As you read the book, you learn where the elf comes from (the North Pole) and each elf joins a different family.  The family must name the elf to allow his magic to begin.  The kids decided on the name DeeDee.  So then, DeeDee watches the kids every day.  He watches their actions and how they treat one another.  He flies back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa how the kids in "his family" have been.  By the next morning, he appears somewhere else in the house.  The kids would wake up every morning and search the house to find him.  Once he had climbed the Christmas tree and was at the very top.  Another morning he was peeking into the empty stockings.  One morning we caught him right in the act of opening pixie sticks candy out of the candy jar.  He was halfway leaning into the jar with a pixie stick opened and pixie dust candy spilled all over the counter!  One day we found him taking a marshmallow bath!  The one rule is that the kids may not touch him, or his magic might stop working.  The kids were very excited about him and it became such a fun tradition that we will repeat every year!  As long as he returns to our family next Christmas!

Cooper made a fun Gingerbread house at school that was just too cute!