Buddy

We jumped into the tradition that so many do this time of year and started the Elf on the Shelf! Dave and I were kind of excited. We read the book to her about a week before Thanksgiving and she immediately said, "He's not coming here." Awesome. Good start. 

We read it a few more times and I think she somehow thought a real elf, like life-size elf was going to come:) I decided we would start the Friday after Thanksgiving and packed him along. We then promptly forgot to put him out at night for the first three nights. Awesome. Why is it so hard to remember to do this?! 

Finally, once we were in Missouri, we decided to start and we had him appear on/near the Christmas tree. 

First night - can you spot him?

 

Meet Buddy!

She wasn't really looking for him and he was hidden pretty well, so Dave had to be rather obvious in getting her to look that direction. She immediately touched him (not supposed to do) and said he wasn't her elf, he wasn't going to Santa. She said that Gma put him there in one of the presents. Oops, okay, that is actually a plausible idea, but...no. Well, this is going great! The book says that you have to name the elf and we had quite the debate on that... I can't remember the silly names she came up with, but we landed on Buddy (she had watched the movie Elf not long before).

Dave trying to get Kate to see Buddy:)

After all of us going on and on about the elf and making a big show, she finally started to test the waters. She told him what she wanted.

Progress - telling Buddy what she wants for Christmas

The following day when he appeared in a new place, she started thinking it might be legit. I also told her that Waylon had an elf come to his house too and that seemed to carry some weight:) 

So, each night, we would mostly forget to move Buddy. I would think of it while up with Collin in the middle of the night. And it seems that Buddy likes to be up high so far. What with a 9 month old and two dogs around, it just seems smart:) 

I meant to grab pics of him in each place, but failed on that already. Here are a few from our place...

The best "reveal" of all was the morning after Buddy decided to hang upside down from underneath the top bunk of her bed...Dave came up with this one. I thought it might freak her out and the next morning, I heard a scream/squeal and was afraid that she was scared. But then I heard giggling and she was yelling, "Mom, Mom! Come and see Buddy!" 

We haven't done any of the crazy situations that I have seen on Pinterest and so on...I figure there may be many, many nights/years in our future of doing this and there is no need to go crazy so soon. Kate is just as thrilled to see him showing up in different rooms each morning. Speaking of, I need to go move him!