The Many Adventures of Mickey the Elf

If you have kids, you have undoubtedly heard about the Elf on the Shelf by now. For those of you who do not know what this phenomenon is, let me break it down briefly. Every year your Elf on the Shelf, who Nicholas named Mickey, comes from the North Pole as a helper for Santa. He watches the kids' behavior all day and then flies back to the North Pole at night to report back to Santa. In the morning, the elf is always in a new place, so it's kind of a hide-and-seek routine.

Last year, our first year with Mickey, Nicholas had fun with the concept, but he really still didn't get it. This year, he is ALL ABOUT MICKEY! In fact, the Elf on the Shelf has become one of the Christmas highlights around the Daems house. With a little help from my new addiction, Pinterest, I have stepped up my game and made Mickey a bit more mischievous. Mickey usually comes back each night and does something funny, tricky, or silly while the kids are sleeping. My hope is to document Mickey's adventures each morning. Here's Mickey's first 5 mornings:

Day 1: His first morning back from the North Pole Mickey was found sitting at Nicholas' seat at the table. He was playing Nicholas' DS and had a note from Santa for Nicholas.

Mickey can only speak to adults, so Mickey told me that he had so much fun playing Nicholas' games all night long, and that his favorite game was Star Wars III, which, coincidentally, is also Nicholas' favorite game...go figure!

The previous evening Nicholas had a VERY hard time at dinner...like tantrums, time outs in his room, kicking and screaming, etc. It wasn't pretty. So, Mickey came back with a note from Santa. The basic gist of the letter was "shape up or it's the naughty list for you, sir." The letter really hit home with Nicholas. All week long he worked very hard to make sure Mickey knew he was behaving himself. He even made sure to remind me to talk to Mickey after he went to bed to tell Mickey that he had been trying harder. If only Mickey was around all year!

Day 2: Mickey decided to get cheeky! I totally stole this idea from Pinterest. Mickey raided Nicholas' underwear drawer and made a mess! This has, so far, been the talk of all Mickey's adventures.

The carnage from the top of Nicholas' bunk beds.

Mickey even threw some undies onto the fan blades. This was Nicholas' favorite part.

Peek-a-boo Mickey. Jeff thought it was a little weird that an elf would be in a child's underwear drawer, but I told him he was thinking too much like an adult. Kids just think it's hysterical. Nicholas rationalized it this way...the underwear drawer was the perfect sized bed for Mickey.

Noticing a theme in our Mickey adventures? Crazy bed head hair Lexi with a perma-grin. She also enjoys finding Mickey.

Day 3: Mommy wasn't feeling too creative. Mickey played peek-a-boo from the Christmas village.

Day 4: Second runner up on our favorite Mickey places, so far. Mickey was hanging from our dining room light...upside down...and he had gone into the cupboard, raided the candy cane box, and decorated the light. Big thumbs up from the kids!

That sneaky little guy!

Another smiley shot of Lexi

Day 5: Mickey told me he loves to listen to the kids' bedtime stories. So we found him on our couch the other morning...reading all Lexi's Christmas board books. Of course, he was reading Lexi's favorite, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Stay tuned for more adventures from Mickey! I think Santa might be getting ready to send Nicholas a more positive letter!