Julie and Andrew sent the boys the popular “Elf on the Shelf” as part of their Christmas presents this year.  We put it in use as soon as it arrived (over a week ago), and we named him Elfie.  We read the book with the boys initially so they would understand what the Elf is and that it will watch them to see if they are being naughty or nice.  The elf will fly home and report to Santa each night, and will return and land at a different spot every morning.  The boys also learned not to touch the elf so that he will not lose his magic and not able to fly back to Santa.  Every night, Stuart and I will have to move Elfie to a different spot, and in the morning, the boys will look for him which they get very excited.  Logan prefers to find him first before Connor does.  Connor has a good memory; once he finds him, he will point to the new spot and then to the spot where he was yesterday.  The third morning since Elfie arrived, I realized we forgot to move him, so I just moved him while carrying Connor, Connor was very shocked staring at what I was doing.  I guess I should not have underestimated how much Connor understands.

     Stuart and I occasionally use Elfie to encourage Logan to do the right things, and it usually works quite well.  Logan has been asking for one specific thing repeatedly lately, so we suggested for him to write a letter to Santa to ask for it.  Logan and I wrote the letter together, folded it up and asked Elfie to bring the letter back to Santa.  The next morning after Logan found Elfie in the new spot, he remembered and told me that “the mail is gone”.  We will now see if Logan has been naughty or nice by the time Christmas arrives.