Playing With My Elf

If you are a parent or grandparent of small children, or, if you have a Pinterest account and are not blind; you have learned about the Elf on a Shelf phenomenon. The elf is supposed to be a messenger to Santa, updating him on the activities of all good (or bad) little girls and boys. He's a mandatory reporter for the North Pole.

He is also rumored to be quite ornery, himself; getting into mischief and pulling pranks around the house; pranks that all good little boys and girls instinctively know will earn them no love from Santa.

As we all know, my kids have outgrown the Santa myth, so, you may be wondering why I am telling you all of this.

Well, I sort of refuse to believe that we are past the point of fun holiday traditions, so...

...meet our elf, Dee Nyall.

Dee Nyall is a-somewhat lame- attempt on my part to keep the Christmas magic alive for my children (or, for myself, DO NOT JUDGE ME!). He only recently moved in, so, we haven't really gotten a chance to know him very well, but I am working on it.

Last night, I took great pains to create a happy little elf tableau for the Cub to discover this morning, and, I thought I was being quite clever...

That's the postman from the North Pole! Dee Nyall stole his mail truck! Chaos! Naughtiness! Fun!

Yeah.

The Man-Cub discovered the scene this morning and made a few tweaks of his own...

I'm afraid it is going to be a long holiday season for Dee Nyall.