The Mommy Log Blogs: The First 15 Days of Elf on The Shelf

Ever since I was a child, there was an elf that always came to our house on Christmas Eve with Santa to help deliver toys. He would always get into mischief. This was WAY before Elf on The Shelf came to existence. We never knew what he looked like, or anything about him but he wrote poorly and always signed his name with Santa on the letters back to us. Sometimes he would put fingerprints on the wall with frosting, and sometimes he would fill dad's pewter cannon with gerbil seed and aim it at the gerbil cage.

When our daughter was born, the elf still showed up at our place with Santa pulling the same sort of mischievous things as he did when my brother and I were kids. Then, something happened...Elf on The Shelf came out in all the stores. My husband and I fought it thinking it undermined our elf, thinking it was a craze that we didn't want to buy into. But, then our daughter turned 5 and saw it. She wanted one and we thought about it but didn't get it. However, this year our daughter still wanted one. Ever since the beginning of November, all she wanted to talk about was her best friend and her elf Tickles.

We caved. We bought our daughter an Elf on The Shelf. Since this was our first year, we bought her on November 17th and we opened her on November 18th. We started her off that day because we 1. didn't know the "rule" about starting on Thanksgiving, and 2. didn't want to wait. I had been on Pinterest for weeks since we started talking about possibly buying the elf looking for fun things to do with it. So here is what I came up with:

Day 1: November 18th: Elf went through our Christmas dvds and blu-rays and got them out.

Day 2: November 19th: Fishing in the sink with goldfish crackers

Day 3: November 20th: Charlotte decided to go Shopkins shopping

Day 4: November 21st: Getting her morning caffeine fix:

Day 5: November 22nd: Our daughter told Charlotte that she had to go somewhere up high because we were hosting Thanksgiving and there would be a lot of people there. Charlotte decided to go atop the shelf in the kitchen and sample some dog biscuits.

Day 6: November 23rd: The Elf was caught eating Thin Mints and creating a wall and chair out of Jenga blocks.

Day 7: November 24th: The elf decided that she would sit in the Christmas tree that we put up today.

Day 8: November 25th: Today the tree fell down and Charlotte was still in it! She broke her leg and showed up with a cast. Since she fell, we had to pick her up. The rules state that if you touch the elf you need to apologize or sprinkle cinnamon near her so she can get her magic back or write her a note or even have the family sing Christmas carols. I apologized and I think she understood.

Day 9: November 26th: Today Charlotte thought it would be fun to feed the rubber duckies in the bathtub with some old bread

Day 10: November 27th: I think Charlotte thought that ELF brand makeup was made for Elves. She got into my makeup and took it into the spare bathroom to put it on.

Day 11: November 28th: Sleepover time!

Day 12: November 29th: Charlotte got ahold of the catalog we were looking at and decided to choose some things for herself!

Day 13: November 30th: The Elf decided to play the Rock Band drum kit and also thought it would be a great idea to fold our daughter's laundry for her. She left her a note all about it.