St Nick's Day

This year we were on top of the St Nick's day thing (if you remember last year, he came a day late at our house. Woops.) Anyway, the boys were prepared for what he might leave (rocks/coal/ etc.) since they've been leaning toward the naughty side a bit. We don't sugar coat things around here, so St Nick really did think about leaving some coal, but couldn't find any.

Never the less,  he did leave a hefty warning about Christmas behavior. This year there were two pairs of boots ready and waiting. Owen's (the black ones) had three packs of fruit snacks, while Collin's the red ones had two (because he's been a bit more naughty). Collin noticed this, but didn't seem to care too much, after all, he did get some fruit snacks.

But, St Nick also left behind this blue box with a note for the boys. Collin was anxious to open it and see what Santa had written to him.

Inside there was our new friend, the Elf on a Shelf , the book that tells you all about him, and a note from Santa that warned the boys about good behavior.  Santa wrote that he had been watching the boys and knew there was some mischief going on. A few too many time outs and and handful of instances where listening ears were nowhere to be found ( As a side note: Why does no one ever talk about how hard the third year is?!?! Three is DIFFICULT. Terrible twos have nothing on this year. Sheesh). Since this had been happening at our house, Santa sent this very special elf to keep watch and report back to him every night.

The boys sort of oohed and ahhed over the magic of the elf. First, they had to think of a name (they decided on "Buttons the Christmas Elf") and then they asked every possible question imaginable about how the Christmas magic happens.

How does he watch us? He's not alive!

How does he fly to the north pole and come back?

How will he get out of the box?

How does he talk to Santa if he can't talk to me?

How does the Christmas Magic work?

Owen's Question: "Where Ho Ho???" (meaning Santa)

and the list goes on.

Its unfortunate that St Nick didn't send a parental user guide for explaining the Elf, but somehow we managed to muddle through.

Anyhow, now Buttons flies off to the North Pole every night and reports to Santa and flies back to find a new hiding place for the next day (today he is perched on a ceiling fan blade in our kitchen).

We're not exactly sure if he's having the intended effect but the boys sure do think its fun to find him every morning when they wake up.

So this year for St Nick's day we took "he sees you when you are sleeping, he knows when you are awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake" to a whole new level.

We hope it works!
Happy St Nick's day!