Elf on the Shelf

I think one of the things my kids will always remember about Christmas is that I'm always starting new traditions and discarding ones I don't care for. I loved the advent calendar when we were growing up--my mom had two of them. One of them was a (fabric hanging) trail that Mary and Joseph would follow (with velcro dots) to a stable and the other was a fabric hanging that had a Christmas tree on it with pockets for each day holding a little ornament we'd put on the tree. The one on the 24th (which was the last day on that calendar) had this beautiful sparkling earring that would serve as the star on the top of the tree. I remember being excited when I was the one that had the star that year. I made a couple advent calendars as a mom but none of them measured up to that one. I've seen a gazillion at the stores, online, ...but still none of them make me happy. So I've dumped the advent calendar for this year and instead I'm doing the Elf on the Shelf. It's from a book I saw on Amazon but did not buy. I just read what the basic idea was and found a way cuter elf to use. Basically, I told the kids the elf is here to watch them every day in December and each night he goes to the North Pole to tell Santa if they were good, and then he comes back and hides and they have to find him every morning. It's been pretty fun (except when I forget to hide him). Rose has been dragging him around to places I didn't expect so he can watch her and see if she's being good. It's kind of awesome.