Jingle!

We have a new member to our family as of December 1st who deserves their own blog post!  Meet Jingle, our elf!!  Ahhh, the elf on the shelf!!  For the past few years I have thought about the elf on the shelf and just not sure if I wanted to go that route or not. I held the feeling that the whole thing would take away from the real reason of the season so was almost anti-elf until this season came upon us and our almost 7 year old started talking incessantly about the elf!  He came home right after Thanksgiving break sharing with us the stories that 1st graders would tell about the mischief that their elves were doing and asking why he was the one person at his table without an elf, getting to the point where he started asking for an elf for his birthday!  He was breaking me down!!!  After a conversation with a good friend about the elf just adding to the magic of the season, not taking anything away from it, I was on board and ready to welcome an elf into our home!  It was Thursday night, November 30th, and Joseph and Rich were at wrestling and I was almost giddy thinking about introducing the elf the following morning and was looking forward to telling Rich about it once Joseph went to bed and then I texted Laura about it.  I wanted to see if they had an elf and get her thoughts before I fully committed to it...we were texting back and forth and then she proceeded to tell me a story about Cole saying "nuts and balls" during their dinner conversation which he learned from Joseph and instantly my enthusiasm about the elf changed to "He's never going to get an elf...I can't believe he's teaching Cole these types of things...why is he talking about this already...what was I thinking about introducing an elf in the morning!!!"  Ha!  How fast things can change.  Well, after a conversation that night about teaching his younger cousin appropriate things and knowing when not to repeat things that he learns from the neighbors and a few tears and an apology note to Uncle Dave and Aunt Laura, I went back to my "pre private parts" conversation enthusiasm of allowing an elf into our home.  Rich of course had to add, "Well what else is he supposed to call them??" So, we were back on the elf train but decided not to let the elf come until the following evening.  

So, on December 1st, after watching "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" our doorbell rang and lo and behold there was an elf with his book at our doorstep!  And, oh the excitement that came next!!!  These kids are so much fun and my friend was right about the elf bringing so much more magic to our home!  We read the book (three times that night I think) and named our elf, Jingle.  Jingle immediately became a part of our family and got to work right away!  The next morning we found her playing with marshmallows in the kitchen and she kept busy all month long doing fun, creative and sometimes crazy antics. It was so much fun!!  

 Joseph was found like this many times on Saturday morning talking to Jingle or just staring at her.  He was beyond excited!!

 He made cards for Jingle, wrote books about Jingle, shared Jingle's antics with anyone who would listen and every morning was so excited to search for Jingle.  Julia and Ella were awesome, too, as every morning they'd come down and the first thing that they'd do was look for her and then talk about her constantly.  Even Charlotte caught on and would get so excited to find Jingle and then go up to her numerous times during the day and point and kind of grunt at her!  It was all just so awesome!    Even our neighbors would come into the house almost daily to see where Jingle had moved to.

 Here are some of Jingle's activities during the month that she was here:

 Hard to see but she is hanging on our blinds and had a "snowball" fight on the ground!

 Relaxing in a hammock in the bathroom.

Jingle honestly was such a great addition to the Christmas season this year and we were all a little sad to say goodbye to her.  When we left for Atlanta on the 23rd Jingle was in the Christmas tree and when we returned on the 29th she was gone but Santa did leave us a note saying that Jingle made it back to the North Pole and cant wait to join our family again next year so we are already looking forward to seeing her again.  I just want to bottle up the kids at these ages-this entire Christmas season was so special and magical and brought so much happiness and joy!