Another year of our mischievous Chester the Elf

It is clear that I have missed taking a few pictures of Chester's shenanigans. I only have 14 pictures and clearly I should have something like 24. (Truth be told...I think also missed moving him a few days.) But nonetheless, here they are...mostly because Lilian loves to go back and re-live the silliness that is our Elf on the Shelf.

To be honest...I kind of let the cat out of the bag this year in regards to Chester. To be clear, I'd never pushed the Elf in the way that was intended. I did not tell Lilian that Chester watched her throughout the day and reported back to Santa as to whether she was naughty or nice. My idea behind starting the Elf to begin with was just as a fun Christmas type game, a memorable tradition. But because many of her friends had Elves at their houses and did believe the whole shebang...I didn't want Lilian spilling the beans. So I didn't push the Elf is real story, but I also didn't deny it.

Back to my story...
Lilian and some friends from her class pooled their money (oh, who am I kidding...it was my money) to buy an Elf on the Shelf for their classroom at school. I wondered about this, but said nothing. One of the moms went to the store to buy said Elf, and then Lilian and friends spent much time coming up with creative way to hide and display him each day, talking about going to school early to make sure everything was in place before the rest of the class showed up, etc. So I just assumed that without talking to me about it, Lilian had realized that the Elf on the Shelf was not real. One day as she was mulling over ideas, I mentioned that pinterest was a good place to find inspiration and that I got a whole lot of my ideas there when hiding Chester in years past.

Oh. My.
Lilian was confused and dismayed and crying.
Very quickly I realized that she still thought Chester was very much real.
I was very confused and dismayed myself!
But she had bought an elf for her class, I told her. She was moving it around each morning, I said. And therefore touching the Elf...a big no-no in Elf on the Shelf world. How was she explaining that? Apparently she and her little friends were under the impression that if you didn't touch the elf, Santa would imbue his magic on the little guy and he would come to life. Because she and her friends were touching the Elf, theres was just a toy.
Oh. Facepalm.
She told me I had ruined Christmas forever and ran to her room in a huff.

It may not have quite the same excitement, but I still plan to hide our little Chester each Christmas season for as long as she'd like me to. She may know now that it's me. But I think she'd still enjoy the actual game of it now?

Hoarding the Santa hat kisses. Hanging out with our mini Sister Croft on the gallery wall. Doing gymnastics with the carolers. And making sprinkle angels in the kitchen.

Checking out the wonders of the universe with the telescope. Hiding in the poinsettia plant. Hovering over the kitchen table. And making snowmen out of powdered donuts and kisses.

 Atop a TP tower in the bathroom. Trying on Rebekah's missionary tag. Sporting new socks for Lilian. And hiding in the lantern. (It took Lilian a long while to find him that morning...)

Hanging from a candy cane chain in the living room. And hanging from the lamp in the front entry way.