Elf induced stress.....

This year, we gave in. We are now one of the 99.95% of American homes with kids under the age of 17.5 that have an Elf on The Shelf. His name is Timmy....named in honor of Rs first little boyfriend up in Oregon. He is tiny and cute....much like his namesake. You know the mug I am talking about. Chances are you have one creepily perched some place in your home as we speak...an Elf....not the real Timmy.

We are only just wrapping up the first 24 hours of the Elf visiting our home (I know, I know....all the super mamas in the world make sure the Elf arrives on Thanksgiving....) so the jury is still out over whether or not this clever little consumer product is worth its weight in gold as so many say it is. I gotta say, I have my doubts. Oh sure, so far my 3 1/2 year old seems to be under his spell. She apologized when she "patted her brother on the back" (read: hit her brother in an altercation over a weeble wobble) and she actually ate a few crumbs of her lunch when I asked her too. But I am a little concerned that I may be causing some emotional damage by introducing this tiny stalker into our home.  Both she and her sweet B (only 16 months old) are both sort of looking over their shoulders all day....glancing suspiciously around for Timmy the Elf.  Paranoid much? My kiddos are clearly headed that way.....but at least they will be well-behaved little paranoids.

And then there is me. It is 3:45 in the afternoon and I am already stressing out about where the Elf will land tonight when comes back from the North Pole. Thanks to social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook, there is some SERIOUS pressure and competition out there for who can be the best Elf poser....and ladies and gentlemen, some people are Elffin Crazy about this whole deal. While I not-so-secretly admire those of your that pose the Elf in a recreation of The Last Supper or amid a flash-mob consisting of Barbies, Lalaloopsies and My Little Ponies....I fear I don't have it in me.

Thus, my Elf is perched quite literally, on the shelf. I am a rule follower, what can I say.

Ok, so I am officially an Elf on the Shelf underachiever. The good news? My kiddos have no idea how to log onto Pinterest...yet. So, until they do, Timmy is still magical.....even though his nightly return does not involve his making baked goods in our home, decorating the bathroom mirror with lipstick, or crafting elaborate snowflakes with tiny elf sized scissors....

So now back to the question at hand.... Where the Elf will Timmy land tonight?

I have a lot of shelves....the possibilities are endless.