I am so excited that Libby is old enough to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition. Several of my friends with older kids have been enjoying the tradition for years and I think it's such a fun idea.

If you don't know about this tradition, it goes like this: An elf comes to your house to keep an eye on your child(ren). He flies back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa. Then he finds a different hiding spot every day. Your child has to find him every morning. Children cannot touch him and he cannot talk. However they can talk to him about anything they'd like, even share their Christmas list with him. I love the idea and think it adds to the excitment of the Christmas season!

Also, the child gets to name the elf. When we got to that portion of the book we asked Libby, "What do you want to name the elf? You can pick any name." She fully understood and said, "Uhhh...Jesus!" We died laughing. I said, "You want to call him Jesus?" She said, "Uhhh...." then threw in some gibberish. We composed ourselves and asked her again. "What do you want to call the elf?" And she said loud and clear, "Chris! For Christmas." Drew and I said, "That's a great name! Do you want to call him 'Chris'?" She said, "Yes!"



So we welcome Chris Jesus Parkman the elf into our family tradition. (Nice name, huh? You can borrow it to name your own child if you'd like!)