If you're bad, Santa brings you...

Last week a couple of the blogs I read on a daily basis talked about their "elf on a shelf". This is an elf that sits on a shelf, or anywhere you want to put it, and watches people to report back to Santa whether they've been good or bad. I thought this sounded like a good idea for our household, especially with Blythe at her age right now in which she believes EVERYTHING we tell her.

The problem is that we don't have an elf. I already had to buy a new Christmas tree this year, and any additional Christmas decorations were not in the budget. Fortunately, I have a mother who has more Christmas decorations than the White House, and she just happened to be getting rid of 3 large boxes of decorations. I sorted through the breakable stuff, the tacky stuff, and the "is that really a Christmas decoration?" stuff, and pulled out a few items I would like to keep. None of which was an elf.

But there was this snowman:

So he's now our version of the Elf on a Shelf. Except he's a snowman and he doesn't sit on a shelf. So far, we just call him "Mr. Snowman", though I guess he could also be referred to as "Santa's Snitch".

Mr. Snowman is working out well so far. I'm really loving using the "you better stop that or Santa won't bring any toys" routine. Wish I could threaten that all year long. I'll be sad in 2 weeks when I can't use it any more. Nowadays, we say "Mr. Snowman is watching you and he's going to tell Santa you're being bad". Blythe gets a temporary look of fear on her face, then tries to fight back the tears, then usually starts acting normal again. When Mr. Snowman isn't around, we reach for the phone. I have Santa on speed dial. There are 3 things Blythe wants from Santa: a baby, a yellow castle, and Legos. So I just use, "okay, I'm calling Santa and telling him not to bring a baby". Has been working quite well.

According to Blythe, Santa brings toys to good little girls and boys and bad children get....well, you see for yourself:

What did she say? Did she just say bad girls get....dicks? That may very well be true, but 2 year olds shouldn't be saying those things. We're trying to work with her on her "st" sounds...