Post Christmas Elf Update

This year was our first year with a visit from The Elf on the Shelf.  We named him Evan.  I found a vintage elf on Etsy and a sweet friend sent us the book so it came from Evan.  Kind of a popular tradition at Christmas time these days and I finally got the energy to make it happen, even though we "don't do Santa".  Our Elf was visiting because he heard that the Mule kids were really good at showing love to each other and he wanted to learn how to show more love to his friends.  So, he would take notes while the kids were eating or practicing piano or doing homework to see how they showed love to their brother and sisters.  And if he ever got into mischief they had to show love to him by helping clean up the mess.  

Mail from Evan - he sent it from the North Pole before he left :)

Evan had a movie night with popcorn.  Maria joined him in the morning.

He slept with Ahren's stuffed animals in the bunk bed

He zip-lined in our dining room

TP-ing the tree.  Maria was pretty disgusted when she saw this!

He found Lydia's bunny and slept with it all night

He drew faces on the picture in the hallway

He used the drapes as a slide

He changed the color of our milk to green

He snuck into the leftover halloween candy when he should have had the fruit right behind him

He really has a sweet tooth

He made snowmen out of marshmallows

One night he left the kids new ornaments - a kind act because he was learning to show love

He decorated the tree with underwear

He played Jingle Bells on the piano

I kind of dropped the ball and didn't have Evan say goodbye to the kids.  He didn't leave a note or anything!  More bad manners, I suppose.  The kids asked about him for a few days, but I just diverted their attention to something else.  Maybe next year he'll show up with an apology for leaving without saying goodbye!