Meet Ernie

Last year one of the kid's Christmas presents from Great Grandma Aprahamian was the Elf on the Shelf. Her dad always had an elf out at Christmas so she was passing along the tradition to us. When we got the decorations out the other weekend we decided it was the perfect time to get our elf out. Carter loves the book that comes along with it and decided to name him Ernie. For those of you not familiar with the story, Ernie sits out all day watching the kids. At night, he goes back to the North Pole and reports to Santa if they've been naughty or nice. We've been having Ernie return in different spots every morning. Carter loves to find where he is for the day. In this picture Ernie was in Carter's little Christmas tree. It's amazing how effective a little reminder that Ernie is watching does for the choices Carter makes throughout the day. If he's about to whine or make a bad decision all we have to say is, "Ernie's watching" or "Sorry you had to see that Ernie." We may have to keep him hanging out year round :) Thanks Great Grandma for such a fun Christmas tradition.