Our little elf has brought quite a bit of joy to my little guy. Who would have thought kids would so look forward to finding a little toy ornament throughout the house. Every morning when Grant wakes up he immediately starts looking for his elf. Somehow he misunderstood Santa's letter and thinks that every time he goes to sleep for a nap or at bedtime his elf flies around, rather than just at night when everyone's asleep. I tried to explain this a few times until I finally decided it wasn't a big deal for me to find places for the elf to sit twice a day.
My intent was for this elf to leave little messages for Grant and the occasional few pieces of candy. However I find that Grant really isn't interested in the notes so I gave up on them. My husband was so sweet and bought a Christmas hot chocolate set (my son loves sharing hot chocolate with me and asks at least every day, sometimes twice a day) and set it under the tree with a note from Eli the elf. Grant was so elated when he woke up and saw something under the tree, his first words were, "Mama I open it?". He has just started drinking his hot chocolate out of mugs instead of his sippy cup so he immediately "needed" hot chocolate in his new snowman mug. He talked about this for days afterward and told everyone he could about his elf bringing him a new hot chocolate mug.
The next day Eli the elf left him 3 Smarties candies and the only problem I encountered with this was after he finished the 3 he wanted more and wouldn't hardly accept my telling him there were no more, and he would have to be extra good and maybe Eli would bring them again another day.
It has amazed me over the last couple weeks how excited Grant gets over his Elf and the simplicity of it all. I'm definitely not an over achieving mama when it comes to our elf, and we don't follow the same rules as other houses. Grant gets his elf down from wherever he finds it every day and would be thoroughly upset if we told him he couldn't have him. He takes him to bed with him every night and won't go to sleep without him. Where he found the elf that day is the first thing he tells his dad in the morning and after his nap. It's cute watching his face as he looks around and then finds where Eli is sitting, and it's a challenge at times finding different places for Eli to sit in our small apartment but I know how thrilled Grant will be when he wakes up and that makes it all worth it.
I'm so glad we started this tradition this year and I'm hoping maybe next year we will be able to follow the no touching rule, especially with a new baby crawling around, and maybe our elf will be a little more active since Grant will be 4 and understand things better.
You can go here to find the Elf Arrival letter I used.
Here to see the book I made to go with Grant's Elf.
And here to see it all put together.
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