An Elf on a Shelf

Have you heard of the "Elf on a Shelf"?  Well, I first heard about it this year, and I think the idea is brilliant.  Basically, it's a little toy elf that you get out every year when you get your Christmas decorations out and you put him somewhere up high where he can be Santa's eyes and ears.  You tell the children that he is watching them to make sure that they are good, and he reports all that he sees back to Santa.  Every night he pops into a new spot and the children look for him every morning.  But he must be high enough that they can't reach him, because if he is touched he loses his magic.  Then on Christmas Eve , he pops back to the North Pole to report his findings to Santa. 

I loved this idea, so I decided to buy one for Addy and one for our nephew Luca.  I just wanted to start the tradition with their first Christmas, fully expecting that they wouldn't care about it one way or another this year.  Well, Addy LOVES him!

 I didn't buy the actual "Elf on a Shelf" because I thought he was creepy looking in a scary doll kind of way.   See below:

But on Amazon I found Christopher Pop-In-Kins, and he is so cute!  Plus he was cheaper, so I went with that!  And upon further research, I discovered that Christopher Pop-In-Kins is the original elf.  He first came out in 1984, and the "Elf on a Shelf" didn't come out until 2004.  The "Elf on a Shelf" was designed to look older and more classic than he actually is.  For some reason it makes me feel better to know that I bought the original, and not the copycat version.

See, doesn't he look much more playful and fun than the "Elf on a Shelf"?

Our pal Christopher :)

Notice how he has one ear outside of his hat?  That is so he can hear everything that goes on :)  And his arms and legs are bendy, so you can be creative with where you put him. 

Here we are standing next to him.  Look at how I was holding Addy's left arm so that she wouldn't touch Christopher.  We don't want him to lose his magic ;)

And this is Addy grinning up at him!

I am not kidding.... she loves Christopher!  Ask Mike, or my dad, or my step mom.  They all witnessed it.  She even knows his name!  We ask "Where's Christopher?" and Addy twists her little head around and her eyes go a mile a minute looking for him.  And once she knows where he is she will look right at him and wave when we ask her where he is.  No joke.  We have a smart cookie.  Waving is Addy's new thing.  She's been waving for a few weeks but recently she started waving at everyone.  It's so cute!  And she doesn't leave Christopher out.

See him up on the light?  And there's Addy waving to him :)

Close-up

And I managed to get one video.  It even sounds like Addy says the word "hi", which would be the first time she did that!

So that's the story of our new Christmas pal.  We all love him already and I know he will bring so much fun and joy to our home as the years go on.  Merry Christmas!