Meet Emma

Wednesday night we had a visitor in our home. Emma the Elf on the Shelf joined our family for the Christmas season :) She's been here for 2 nights so far, and the kids are having a blast hunting her down and seeing what she's been up to in the night.

Emma herself. We thought we'd place her on the hearth - a good place for her to sit and listen to the goings-on around our house...

But one night here, and already she decided to change the place around! Thursday morning we found her in Princess' room with a brand-new nightlight that shines snowflakes on the ceiling...

We placed her back in her spot that day, but this morning we found that she had gathered up some of Princess's dolls for a party - complete with empty candy wrappers...

Saucy elf!

And in Emma's place? Another one of P's dolls!

 

I think my favorite part is all the places for her to hide, and the shenanigans she'll try. I'm also thankful for Pinterest, and my fellow elfing pals to bounce ideas off of ;) We're not using her as some are - I've read so many places where the elf is used as a ploy to help kids behave. Let's face it - I have a 4 year old and an 18-month-old. I'm 1) not withholding gifts if my children don't "behave" (I'm too excited to give them, and realistically while I expect a certain level of behavior, my children are mostly on par with that but punishing them at Christmas isn't going to help) and 2) we have a different view about Santa anyway... Which probably deserves it's own blog post. I have so many of those half-written in my cue right now...

Anyway, welcome to the family, Emma! We're excited to host you for the next 23 days!