Our Elf. Really he doesn't do much but hang out on the shelf. Really.

This is our Elf on the Shelf, Mr. Izzy McSkizzy, hanging out in the Christmas tree. Sitting around. That's basically all he does.

Despite this, for the past few days Zoran has been convinced the little elf cleans up our house every night after we all go to sleep. He has been convincing other small children this is clearly true. Zoran has heard stories about other elves. I haven't heard a lot about them cleaning, though I have been wishing for cleaning fairies for quite a lot of years.  I have heard other elf stories.  Other people's elves do all sorts of creative and exciting things when their humans go to sleep: decorate, eat Christmas treats, dress up, make s'mores, read books.  Ours mostly finds comfy places to relax.

He's so damn lazy, he only moves every couple days.

I don't think my children have ever noticed that the house magically gets cleaned nearly every night after they go to bed– regardless of the season.

I was having a hard enough time trying to convince them to clean up after themselves before they thought an elf would just magically do it for them. Mr. McSkizzy might be even more mischievous than I thought.