introducing Leon...

Last Christmas I was introduced to a lovely tradition called 'Elf on the shelf'.

Father Christmas sends an elf to keep an eye on the children and help him write his naughty or nice list.

The elf stays in your house during the day, watching everything you are doing and then goes back to Father Christmas at night to report back.

The next day, the kids get up and run round the house to see if he returned and where he will be spending the day.

On his first visit, he brings presents for the kids - this year our elf, called Leon, brought our kids Christmas pyjamas and a DVD. He arrived on Thanksgiving morning and was hiding on the toy shelf in the basement. The kids squealed with delight when they spotted him. I saw Charlotte just staring at him as if remembering what it meant for him to be here, her little mind going as she figured it out.

Walking round the shops, you have to be careful to avoid the boxes which contain the elves and a story book of explanation... You don't want too many questions from beady eyes.

You can read more about the elves here.

Charlotte is totally drawn in by it. Last night I reminded her to go and say goodnight to him. She came back up to tell me she'd been to see him and had shown him that she was wearing the nightdress he gave her. Bless her!

And so begins a month of remembering to move him each night and coming up with genius ideas on where to put him. So far he has been found on the cooker hood, the bookshelves and swinging from the chandelier. And this morning, as the kids went to choose their favourite breakfast cereal, he was found in the pantry munching on the kids' cookies!! They thought it was hilarious!