Zippy! the Elf on the Shelf..

Our Elf Zippy came back! It's weird to me how so many people are flippin' out and saying silly things like the elf is creepy and it's weird to have something you say is watching you, and blah, blah, blah...

Well, I for one am so glad we are doing this tradition with our kids! It makes the Christmas season that much more magical. And in a world like the one we are living in now; magic at Christmastime is needed!

So on the first of December we woke to a North Pole Breakfast and the familiar smiling face of Zippy our Elf!!! Rocco and ZZ were so so so super excited he came back! Daddy read the story while the kids ate their breakfast and then we watched the Elf on the Shelf movie...

Zippy wasn't found doing too many creative things this year because I was a little lazy or something. And unfortunately ALOT of the creative things we found him doing were never photographed! (I know! I know! I'm horrible!). But he did move to different spots throughout the house almost every time we left the room...

(Zippy reading stories to all of the little Christmas crafts Rocco and ZZ put together...)

(Zippy Van Goh)

(Zippy riding- and snacking on- on the Rocco and ZZ's Polar Express)

(Zippy brought the kids donuts a couple times! But one morning he had one there for himself too. Every time we left the room we came back to find he'd taken another bite until eventually he ate his entire donut ;-P)

(Zipppy parachuting with a pair of ZZ's princess panties and some helium balloons- Rocco really got a kick out of this one!)

Other things we found Zippy doing? One morning we found him and Rocco's monkey opening presents. Another morning they were riding around on the Batmobile.  Zippy made a candy-cane swing and was found swinging on multiple hanging lights throughout the house. Once we found Zippy locked in the lantern on the fireplace with Joker and Catwoman standing there (I forgot to move Zippy that night and Rocco just about had a heart attack when we found him in the same spot the next morning. Rocco was worried Zippy couldn't get out cuz it was locked, so he took Catwoman and Joker and locked them in his Batcave jail and then I unlocked the lantern. Then we went and brushed our teeth and when we came back Ziippy had moved to the top of the Christmas tree! lol...)

So if you don't know anything about the Elf on the Shelf, here's a quick rundown so my next Rocco story will make more sense--- The elf gets sent to your house by Santa. He watches you all day and then reports back to Santa each night to help determine if you should be on the naughty or nice list. The one rule with the elf on the shelf is that you CAN'T touch him ever or he will lose his magic and basically die. Both the book and the movie stress the importance of never toughing your elf.

So, when Rocco found Zippy parachuting in the underwear he gave Zippy a high 5! lol. Then he came to my room just in tears, like absolutely hysterical, crying his little eyes out! I thought he had knocked a bookcase over on top of ZZ or something he was screaming and crying so hysterically! Well, he was crying too hard to explain what had happened so I went tearing through the house trying to find the problem. Couldn't find a problem though (no worries! ZZ was just playing princess babies...). Go back, Seth and I calm him down, and then ask the big question: What happened?!. His answer? "I touched Zippy and now he's gonna die and i'm gonna be on the bad list!". It is hard to explain how difficult it was at that moment to not laugh. But we had to take this terrible horrible- kind of hilarious- heartbreak seriously. So we went "oh no!" and "oh my goodness!" and "what should we do?!" etc... Then Rocco explained to daddy how he had "accidentally" touched Zippy while I went to "check" on the elf. (I quickly hid him) and then told Rocco he had gone somewhere. We checked the house and couldn't find him, so we decided that meant he had gone back to the North Pole to get better. Zippy didn't come back for 2 days and not until after Rocco wrote and sent a letter to him saying he was SO SORRY for breaking the rule! The morning he came back we found him in Rocco's stocking with a note that said he made it back to the North Pole hospital on time this time, but don't touch him again or he wont be back... Too harsh? probably. But Rocco learned the important lesson of following the rules. yay! lol...

So the last time we saw Zippy this year was on Christmas Eve, he brought the kids a Christmas pop-up book (yet another fun tradition I am so glad we are doing!) and a little note saying he loved them and he'd see them next year. They were sad to see him go but really loved their new book!