Holiday tidbits: Buddy the Elf

As I have mentioned on here before I love Christmas. I had such a fun time sharing all the wonderful holiday traditions I had growing up with my own little lady this year and we even added some new traditions. New to the list was the arrival of Buddy the elf. We have actually had Buddy since Avery was a baby but this was the first year she really noticed him and took part in his daily pranks and activities. For those of you who don't know about the Elf on the shelf , he or she is a little stuffed elf that arrives from the North Pole to watch over on your family before Christmas. He/she flies back to the North Pole each night and reports to Santa whether you have been naughty or nice.

Buddy arrived at our home a few days after Thanksgiving (once this momma could actual locate his whereabouts) and he made us a North Pole breakfast. I found the idea from a super crafty momma (found here) on Pinterest. Here are a few pics from our breakfast.

Daddy read Avery the note Buddy left explaining what he does each night and then we read the Elf on the Shelf book. 

Each morning when we awoke Buddy would be in a different spot in our house. It was Avery's job to go find him. Sometimes he played little pranks like tp'ing the Christmas tree. We also found him riding the reindeer, taking a bath in marshmallows and hanging from the chandelier. 

Avery really enjoyed looking for Buddy each day but she was not so keen on the idea of him watching her. I don't think the idea scared her, considering she thought it was completely fine for Santa to watch her, I just think there were too many things for her little brain to process. We dropped the whole "buddy is watching you" and just stuck to Santa himself watching Avery. All in all Buddy has been a great tradition added to our holiday season this year.