Leo - Our Elf on the Shelf

Leo, the elf, joined our family this Christmas season for the first time.

Sigh.

I had intended to not do an Elf on the Shelf for a myriad of reasons, least of which was that I didn't want to have to find new places to move this creepy little doll around in my house every night.  More importantly, I didn't want to have to try to remember to move him around every.single.night.of.December.

But last year in his kindergarten class there was an elf on the shelf named Godzilla.  Tate loved going to school to see what new place he was in every day.  He totally believed that this elf traveled back to the North Pole every night to report on the behavior of the boys in the classroom.  He asked me this year if an elf would come to our house because otherwise how would Santa know he was being good.  There had to be an elf who wanted to help Santa take care of him.

So amazon.com here I come and I bought an elf.  A black elf.  He arrived on the very first day in an unintended compromising position.  He landed here because Tate loves loves loves this snowman and penguin 'act', and I thought it would be so cute to have the elf on the ladder helping put the star on the tree.

Needless to say, others saw this picture very differently....

But Tate was THRILLED to have an elf in the house!  He came running upstairs to tell me his elf had arrived!  We had read the book the night before, so he was expecting him!!  And he named him Leo.

Leo cleaned up his act the rest of his time here with us.  However, Leo didn't travel to anyone else's house, he didn't go with us to Dallas.  I forgot to move him three times...once around 1am and I got up and moved him (I'm so not so bright!), another time right after I'd gotten into bed, and I was PISSED and one time I forgot all together.  That time I just told Tate that Leo had left, but the spot was so comfortable he came back to it the next night.  He bought it hook, line and sinker.

So here's a smattering of our elf shenanigans...the ones I remembered to photograph!

After the snowman debacle we opted to stay away from other 'people' in the home for a while.  He just hung around.

Then Leo decided to ride all of our Christmas trains...what a wild ride!

Vinnie photobombed us...

I'm sure Vinnie had a hand in this.

Once his free rides were over Leo moved on to just hanging about the house.

He found more new friends...

There were a couple of times alcohol was involved...

There was even a race with Lightning McQueen.  Even cuter was the fact that when I put this together I had Leo winning the race with McQueen right behind him.  Tate moved McQueen into first place.  He risked touching the elf on accident to move Lightning!!  

We had the requisite 'snow' angel made of oatmeal...

The health professions were celebrated...

Leo ended his time with us tonight by joining one of our Nativitys...he even brought a gift for the newborn King.   

Tomorrow night Santa will pick Leo up when he stops by our house with Tate's presents!!  He and Leo will pick up all the other elves across the planet and return to the North Pole!!  Leo's going to leave him a little note.  Needless to say, Tate will be anxiously awaiting Leo's return next year!!