Meet Sal!

This year, we received our own Elf on the Shelf for the Smith family! 

 He arrived, with this letter from Santa, on December 2nd just after quiet time.  Santa said he noticed our pile of wrapped books under the tree, and he wanted to leave this special one for us to read.  He also explained that he left us our own elf to keep watch and report back to him!

 We immediately read the book Santa left and had to decide what to name our elf.  Jackson chose.  Meet Sal the Elf!

 We counted down the days to Christmas by unwrapping one book each night to read at bedtime.  These are books we already owned.  I just grabbed them out of the Christmas bins before Jackson had a chance to see them and wrapped them up!

Morning #1: Sal in Christmas tree!

Morning #2: Sal conducting storytime for Pez friends!

Morning #3: Sal hanging from mini-blind cord!

Morning #4: Sal hanging from Graham's ceiling fan!

Morning #5: Sal hanging out in Jackson's little Christmas tree!

Morning #6: Sal racing cars!

Morning #7: Sal hanging on to curtains in front room!  We had gone out of town for one night the day before, so Sal was looking to see when we came home :)

Morning #8: Sal in Josh's stocking!

Morning #9: Sal colored a picture in Jackson's coloring book!

Unfortunately, Sal was knocked over TWICE that day!  We felt bad, so we wrote him an apology note and left him a snack (Chex cereal with Nutella and sprinkles on it).

He ate some and crumpled up his note in the process...while we were reading stories before bed on the couch!

Morning #10: Sal taking a bath!  He had to clean up since he got messy the night before ;)

Morning #11: Sal in the fridge...AND he turned our milk into Christmas milk!!!

Morning #12: Sal playing Candy Land with his friends!

Morning #13: Sal peeking out of the cabinet!

During the day, Sal moved all around!  Jackson randomly asked why Sal didn't have a bell (NO idea where this came from!).  When Sal moved to the glass cabinet he had a bell!

Peeking out of a drawer!

Peeking out of another drawer...with a frog!

Sal hanging out on the pantry door!

Sal upside down from the drawer!

Morning #14: Sal watching a movie under the tree!  He hopped all around the day before, so he needed a little R&R :)

Morning #15: Sal in the drink cooler sipping air through a straw!

Morning #16: Sal doing puzzles in Jackson's room!  There was a little puzzle trail of pieces from Jackson's bed to where Sal was sitting :)

Morning #17: Sal on top of the clock!

Morning #18: No Sal!!!  Instead, Santa left a note (and some small snowglobes in Graham and Jackson's stockings) explaining that Sal reported we were heading to Mimi and Bampa's house.  He sent Sal ahead to wait for us!  

Morning #19: Sal in the Christmas tree at Mimi and Bampa's house!!!

Morning #20: Sal spelled his name out of holiday M&Ms!

Morning #21: Sal hanging from Mimi and Bampa's chandelier!

Christmas Eve: Sal snuck over to sit by the presents under the tree before Jackson went to bed :)

On Christmas morning, Santa left another note explaining that he knew Mimi had an accident and wasn't home.  He asked Jackson to help him out by taking her presents to her!  He also explained that Sal went home with him that night, but would come back to our family next Christmas season :)  Jackson had SO much fun with Sal, and I know he will be thrilled when he arrives again next year!