Did any one else participate in the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon?  Normally I wouldn't have even know/given a second thought to something like this, but when a friend gave us our elf, I knew that I had to try and make an effort with him.  Thank goodness for a little bit of creativity and a healthy access to Pinterest.

Our first task was to name him.  That proved to be a fatal error on my part.  So, our elf very nicely told us his name after the first night.  So, this is Charlie and it was very fun to have him in our house.  Charlie was a pretty tame elf compared to some of the others that I saw, but I'm sure he'll pull some pranks next year.



When Charlie had managed to get used to the house, and its surroundings, he did manage to find a dragon, a sword and what is missing is actually the dragon book he was reading when the kids found him the next day.




Charlie was kind enough to help me decorate the tree, leaving enough for the kids to do, of course. He was also smart enough to make sure all of my nice decorations were the ones he put up.  He's very considerate that way.






Charlie took a try at being a lion tamer.  They all responded very well, don't you think?

Charlie's last night (which actually made Caleb extremly sad and mopy for a good part of the day.  He took a lot of pictures of Charlie so he could remember him.  It was really cute.)  Charlie decided to have a snow ball fight - with cotton balls.  He even recruited some toys to fight for him....

... and against him.  If you look closely enough, some of them have actually been knocked down by the 'snowballs.'

We put the kids in one room so that Charlie wasn't playing favorite.  He also managed to paint their noses red, just like Rudolph.