I have been telling Zoe about the Elf on the Shelf for ages and yesterday eventually he arrived. I explained to her that Father Christmas had rung me a few days ago, to tell me that seeing as Zoe had been so good and had worked so hard at school this year, that he didn't need to watch her and so instead he was sending her an elf to watch over her.
I explained that the elf comes and she needs to name him and then he becomes magical. He watches her during the day and then once she has gone to sleep, he whizzes back to the North Pole to tell Father Christmas whether she has been naughty or nice. Then in the morning, he will be hiding from her and she needs to find him. However, she must not touch him or else he could lose his magic.
On Christmas Eve he will fly back to the North Pole where he will stay with Santa until next December and then he will come back to Zoe again.
This is Zoe and the elf before she named him
We then gave him the name of Alfie and registered him. We then got a Certificate of Adoption.
Zoe went to bed with Alfie sat on the wardrobe watching over her. She went to bed very quickly - which was a good thing as I wasn't very well.
When she woke up in the morning, Alfie was no longer on the wardrobe - he was downstairs hiding in Zoe's book bag.
Then when no-one was in the kitchen, he magically zoomed into the lounge and was wearing Zoe's school cardigan!
I wonder where he will be tomorrow morning. He has a lot to tell Santa as Zoe has been very good today and ended up taking over the second narrator as well as her own narrating part in the school play!