Elf on a Shelf

So Santa brought us a special gift early this year. One night, the first week of December, the front door bell rang and on the stoop was a package from Santa. Inside was our own Elf on a Shelf! Santa was on the fence I guess trying to decide if Matilda and Matteson should be on the naughty or nice list and sent us an elf to help make the decision!

According to the story that comes with the elf on the shelf, the elf flies back home to the North Pole every night before Christmas to report whether the children have been naughty or nice that day and to relay what they want for Christmas.

We gave ours the name of JT, as every elf needs a name you know? I hope the real JT, our friend from preschool class doesn’t mind that he has an elf named after him! When the elf returns the next day he is always in a different location.

For some reason the girls did not want him in their bedroom that night so we placed him in the stairwell on top of a picture where he could oversee everything. The first thing the girls did when they woke up the next day was to go and see if he had moved…as soon as they saw that he wasn’t in the spot anymore…Matilda said, “whoa, he is magic!” Every morning they would search the house until they found JT.

They talked to him and told him what they wanted for Christmas, and when they were naughty, all I had to do is say… “do you hear that JT? Make sure and tell Santa that the girls are being naughty tonight,” and the next thing you know they were apologizing to me and begging JT not to tell Santa that they were naughty! The hardest part about having the Elf on a Shelf was remembering to move the little sucker every night. Santa’s helper had to really stay on her toes, and was more than a little bit relieved when JT went back to the North Pole until the next holiday season! For those of you wondering where you can get your own little guy, Santa shops at Borders around here!

Here is a pic of JT in one of his locations:

and here he is in a different locale:

See you next year JT! Here are some of the teacher gifts I made this year….I made the cocoa kits for the main teachers and the candy bars for the assistants. I thought they turned out pretty cute although I am getting tired of drinking the frappucinos to get the bottles and packaging!

and here are the bars:

the poem on them is about how this is this year’s edition of homemade Christmas fudge! So true this year!

Hope your Christmas was wonderful and looking forward to a great 2010. Happy New Year everyone!

Ciao for now….Deidre