Meet Parker

Meet our new elf, Parker.  Parker was sent here by Santa to watch over the kids, and each night he goes off to the North Pole to give Santa a report.

Brian and I really debated getting an Elf on the Shelf.  We thought it might be a good, fun tradition.  But we were also worried because Wyatt isn't dumb.  We thought there was a slim chance that this guy would tip Wyatt off to something "funny."  We agreed that if anything started to go awry we would abandon Santa's little helper.

When we first introduced the elf and read his book, they were both very excited.  The process of naming him went a little like this:

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Me: "Guys, we have to come to a consensus about what our elf's name should be.  That means we all need to agree."
Wyatt: "I have an idea Reesie.  We could name him Caillou."
Reese: "No, Bringer."
Wyatt: "How about Spiderman?"
Reese: "No, Brownger."
Brian: "I have an idea.  Wyatt suggested Spiderman.  Why don't we name him Parker like Peter Parker?"
Wyatt and Reese: "Yes!"

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After this interaction, Wyatt started to ask questions.  How does Parker get to the North Pole?  How does he fly?  What does he tell Santa?

Brian explained that Parker is like Buzz and Woody in Toy Story, and that when we leave the room he comes to life, and that's when he visits Santa.  Then we told him that Parker would see everything he did that was good (like cleaning up his toys), and everything he did that was naughty (like basically everything else).

Wyatt jumped out of bed this morning to find Parker in the tree, and then he really bought into it!  Of course, he also ended up basically sharing confession with our little elf after he returned home from Mimi and Baba's today, so I guess we'll have to see how this all works out!