We are Santa's Elves

Ho ho ho
Ho ho ho
We are Santa's elves.

We are Santa's elves
Filling Santa's shelves
With a toy
For each girl and boy.

I could recite the entire song for you maybe even when a little dance but I'll spare you the agony. If you're a parent of a 4 year old you know this song by heart. I'm referring to the soundtrack from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer...you know the claymation from 1964? What a classic. It's one of the many movies in our holiday collection.

Let's back up...so I must admit that I've begun a little obsession in our son. I'm not sure if it was when we elfed ourselves or if it was Pickles from Elf on the Shelf but something definitely started Nolan's love with elves this year. He kept telling me that he wanted to be an elf for Christmas but I just shrugged it off kind of when he said he wanted to be Wolverine for the Christmas pageant, but this time he wouldn't let it go. So I casually mentioned it to my mom. Well when it comes to costumes, nothing is casual in conversation with my mother. She loves any opportunity to work on a costume for the kids. I mean look at their costumes from the Christmas pageant! She ran all over town and pieced together this costume. Nolan went nuts for it and I mean literally he went a little crazy. So far we've worn it for 5 days straight. Don't worry, I got a washing in there somewhere when he spilled yogurt on it (with a little meltdown, of course). As soon as he put it on we were in the car and he started making DJ requests immediately for We are Santa's Elves and he was singing that and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas at the top of his lungs. It was really hard for me not to die laughing. He is #1 when it comes to having Christmas spirit.

He even wore it to church on Sunday after he swore he would be so good in it. Everyone asked if there was a Christmas program at church that morning. Nope, he just likes to dress up like an elf!

We went to visit Justin at lunch today and he said on the way, "I think Daddy's friends are going like my costume." Well they loved it. All these people at Alcon were stopping and taking his picture. It reminded me of the movie Elf when Will Ferrell visits his dad at work and he thinks he's there to give him a Christmas gram.

But the ultimate is when he said with such sincerity, "I've always wanted to be an elf for Christmas. I love Grandma." Now if we can only get him to put it away after Christmas...

Checking in with Pickles

Nolan had a bad day at school on Monday and there were some consequences. So he knew on Tuesday that it wasn't going to be pretty if he had another bad day. Thank goodness his teacher said he had a perfect day. He came home and I was in my room and overheard him talking to Pickles about his behavior.

Pickles

My best friend, Angi, told me about Elf on the Shelf last year and I knew it sounded like a tradition that I wanted to start with our family. It's an elf that appears after Thanksgiving and he's Santa's helper and reports to the North Pole each night to tell Santa how the children in that house behaved for the day. You get to name your elf and Nolan decided ours should be named Pickles.

Each night Pickles is in a new spot to get a good look on things. Nolan looks forward to finding him each morning. Well, with our rather stressful week this week, we've forgotten a couple of times to move Pickles. Oops! It's only happened twice but we're usually scrambling for an answer really quick. So far we've said, that he was really tired from his last trip and had to take a break. Ok, so it wasn't the best answer but it was the quickest thing I could think of! On Christmas Eve, Pickles jumps into Santa's bag to live the rest of the year to live with Santa. Note to self: DON'T FORGET TO PUT UP PICKLES, DON'T FORGET TO PUT UP PICKLES!

Let me tell you, this Pickles thing works! Anytime we're having behavior issues, I'll say, "Pickles, are you seeing this?" And he'll immediately say, "But I want to be good!" His teacher said that when she has to get on to him at school that he says, "Sorry Pickles!" Now before you think we're scarring him for life with Pickles, we always reassure him what a good boy he is and that Pickles is making a really good report to Santa on him each night.

Only two weeks ago before we got Pickles, he said that he didn't really like elves (they are a little scary looking). Then once we got Pickles he's decided he wants to be an elf for Halloween next year. He does get to go to the North Pole every night. Can you blame him?