With the holiday season in full swing, we wanted to talk about that modern addition to Christmas tradition, the Elf on the Shelf. Where do we stand on that little spy? Catherine and Terri take a pass on shelf-elf wrangling (and really, house decorating of any sort short of the last minute), while Nicole's and Amanda's families have adapted the concept to their own creative purposes.
It's not like "toy elf mover" was ever part of any job description we expected to have in our lives. As we reminisced about old employment for our second topic, however, we found that our past employments have included such duties as crushing rocks, scooping ice cream, editing greeting cards, and memorized the names of every county in the state in alphabetical order. We're just happy to be able to add podcasting to all our resumes.
Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine mentioned an article on her site on healthy New Year fun; Amanda revealed the Facebook page for the Yeti on the Shelf, her family's elf-substitute; Nicole liked a Forbes article on preparing your teen for getting a summer job, which it is apparently not to early to get started on; and Terri suggested tweaking your traditions to tailor the holiday experience to your family's needs.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episodes and Kristen Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.