Snoopy's Watchin' You!

One of my friends blogged about her latest Christmas Tradition, The Elf on the Shelf. If you have kiddos who tend to be naughty (like my oldest), this is a great motivator for good behavior. I realize the fix is temporary, but times are desperate around here...you can only ground a kid from so many things (DS, TV, Wii, computer, noticing a pattern here?). So, here's the idea, your elf shows up with a book, you read the story and learn that the elf is a special reporter for Santa. At night, your elf flies away to the North Pole to report his findings, returning the next day to continue to monitor things around your house. Each day, the elf finds some new spot from which to observe the daily happenings. You must name your elf, and you can go online and register your elf as well. Our elf is appropriately named Snoopy. He came from Learning Express and was a great investment on our part (Thanks, Daddy Dearest). The first day, Snoopy rested on the mantle. The next day, he was hanging over the lamp in the fan. This morning, we found him perched in the Christmas tree. I'm not sure where he'll be tomorrow. The hard part is going to be be remembering to move him each day so that we can keep this going! My friend and I joked that we need to have some type of alarm so that we can all remember!
Turkey Butt is all into this! He races downstairs to see where Snoopy is hiding each morning! If he starts to act up, I just remind him that someone is taking note of his behavior, works like a charm...

Now, if only Sweet Pea would catch on... the ornaments on the tree have been hauled all over the house. She walks up the the tree and says " oooohwee" and grabs one and runs... The presents barely made it 20 minutes before they had to be put in the closet. The paper and bows won't make it for 24 more days at this rate. Every stuffed 'thing' that we have that plays music or tells the story of The Night Before Christmas has been played AT LEAST a million times (especially that damn snowman that sings Jingle Bells, thanks Memaw). I have managed to locate all the off switches and this does not make the princess happy! She walk around with whatever stuffed noisemaker she can find, grunting until she finds someone to turn it on....usually Daddy Dearest.
Gotta love the holidays, right??