Last Christmas I was 20 weeks pregnant when Marshall gave me the “Elf on the Shelf” as a gift. The elf is a way of helping Santa know who to put on the naughty list and who to put on the nice list. We thought it would be a neat tradition to start in our house once Zoë was born. Although Zoë’s a bit young to be making bad decisions, we know she’s on the nice list (and we hope, will always be!). Each day the elf pops up somewhere around the house and keeps up with everything that the Joneses are doing. So far, Buddy (so affectionately named in tribute to Will Ferrell), has hidden in the Christmas tree, the stockings by the fireplace, and even on the shelf in Zoë’s nursery keeping watch over her while she’s asleep. It’s like Buddy takes the night duty from Cady of watching over Zoë so that Cady can rest too.

Meet Buddy…he’s the cutest!