Elf on a Shelf....

Sooooo, my sister and I decided to get an "Elf on the Shelf" to start as a tradition with my kids (ages 5 & 7) and let's just say it was a complete and utter disaster from the start! We took the Elf out of the box, I lay in bed with the kids nestled on each side of me and read the book to them, then we discussed that the Elf comes alive at night and does mischievous things - I thought it was a great concept - except they were completely hung up on the fact this little stuffed Elf COULD come to life at night that it really freaked them out and they wanted nothing to do with their new Christmas friend! Alas, we finally came up with an alternate plan telling them the next day that we traded in the live Elf for just a plain stuffed one - which we pointed out had a tag attached to his side that said "Made in China" or something and that he couldn't come slice at night because he was just a stuffed Elf toy but that Mommy and Auntie were allowed to make him do funny things once the kids went to bed each night and they bought into the idea so here are a couple nights worth of Elf material - our 5 year old comes down in the morning, sees what the Elf is doing and yells "Good one Auntie!" and laughs and laughs ... Let me know what you think of his escapades so far - the Elf, not our 5 year old - LOL!