Sparkly Starkly

Sparkly Starkly is our Elf on the Shelf. For those that don't know, the Elf on the Shelf is a book that comes with this little elf. The book says that Santa sends these little elves to the houses of little boys and girls to watch over them to see if they have been naughty or nice. He flies back to the North Pole at night when everyone is sleeping to report to Santa, but he is back by morning and always in a new spot. You can't touch him because that might make his magic dissapear and he can't talk to you, but you can talk to him and he will tell Santa what you say.

As you can imagine Paxton takes this very seriously. Porter just falls in line with Pax, as usual, so he acts excited (although I don't believe he gives a rip!) The morning after we got Starkly Paxton was very prompt to tell Porter to be on his best behavior for fear Starkly would tell Santa.

We try and get creative with Starkly since Paxton is so into it this year. We have hung him from the curtain rods and put him at the top of the stairs. One time he took all the stockings off of the hooks and put them on the tree, and he replaced the stockings with a pair of everyone's underwear. They thought this one was exceptionally funny. One night when they were sleeping Scott and I drew a mustache on the boys face and positioned Starkly on the bathroom mirror with the marker in hand. On the mirror read HA HA HA!!! I was exceptionally proud of this one and thought they would love it. Both of the boys were not too impressed and wanted the mustache washed off pronto!

Although Paxton has asked more than once if Starkly is really an elf or if he is just a toy, he really is into it this year. From time to time I catch him whispering to him or giving him a glance when he knows he isn't have the most respectable behavior possible. I love the excitement in his eyes every morning when he spots him. And then he looks at me and says, "Do you want to help me find Starkly?" Like he doesn't know where he is. I think he wants everyone to have the excitement of spotting him for the first time.

This marks year one of Sparkly Starkly England. I am anxious to see how long we can keep up the charade of Starkly. I'm not going to lie, I like the threat of, "Starkly is watching and listening!" What kind of threats will I be able to use when he flies back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve?!?!