Bergman's Bruisers: Elf on the Pain-in-the-Butt Shelf

Steve tends to be the guy who'd rather not deal with anything that causes the slightest hassle or inconvenience. I'm usually the one rallying the troops, trying to convince him that whatever idea I've come up with won't be a big deal. When it comes to excitement or a new experience for my kids, I am usually onboard--even in the most hassle-iest of situations. Sometimes, however, it's Steve who takes the "but-the-kids-will-love-it" reigns, and I'll be honest--I don't like a dose of my own medicine. Meet 'the Elf on the Shelf'. For all you parents who were spared this tedious task, count yourselves lucky. For the parents-to-be in my life, know that I will be buying this for you as a wonderful Christmas present (misery likes company!)

This elf, as the kids were told, watches their actions throughout the day and then uses Christmas magic to fly back to the North Pole each night to report to Santa Claus. A little creepy, right? Strange little elf with side-eyes taking note of your every move. But, as suspected, the kids thought it was great! Timmy, as we've named him, is a sneaky elf who likes to get into mischief before the kids wake each day. The kids loved waking up in the morning trying to find where that sneaky little elf was hiding.

I'll spare you the twenty-five pictures of where our elf ended up each day and only give a couple good high-lights. This being mostly because there were a couple days we forgot to move the dang elf--I don't know how many years I'll be able to get away with accusing Cannon of touching the elf and killing his Christmas magic! The few days the kids couldn't find the elf was a score for me because that meant I didn't have to move him then either!

One morning that elf dyed our milk green. It was special Christmas milk that the kids loved pouring over the cereal. I didn't take the picture of the elf a few days later having "pooped" (green icing) from all that magic milk he'd drank.

I loved this one! The kids did, too. Stupid elf didn't realize that permanent marker doesn't come off glass without a lot of effort.

This was probably my favorite! Gavin sleeps with a black light as a nightlight so ~~I took (~~I mean) the elf took a highlighter and wrote on them as they were sleeping. The elf then left them a riddle that read:

I left you a message in the darkest of night, that can only be read with the darkest of light.

Yeah, the riddle needed some parental guidance to make sense, but once they figured it out they LOVED reading their messages. Gavin even had his nose colored like Rudolph.