It started on Saturday when Santa dropped in at the gingerbread house building event we hold each year for the community.
Somehow I forgot that Bella loses her ever-lovin' mind when Santa escapes without letting her see his sleigh (as has happened every year since she was born). It's hard to remember how much she loves Santa because -- even at age nearly 11 -- Javi still refuses to be near Ol' Saint Nick. But Bella? Bella is a fan of the highest order.
This year, however, in the middle of Bella's epic meltdown when Santa left (which included clawing at me to let her chase him out the door), her little friend came up with the perfect solution (for 4- and 5-year-olds). "Don't worry, Bella, I'll tell my elf Robin to tell Santa to send you an elf so you can talk to him all the time!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
That's all it took. Bella's eyes got wide and she spent the rest of our time there conferring with her buddy on this whole elf situation. When we didn't hear anything else about elves that night, we completely forgot about it.
But Bella didn't. She woke up the next morning heartbroken that Santa didn't send her an elf of her very own. Then throughout the day she kept hearing things that she just knew were elf sounds (which Javi, of course, played up). As the day wore on and no elf appeared, my Meanie Weenie seemed more and more dejected.
So what else was I gonna do? Like any wimp mom, I sped over to buy the cutest little girl elf I could find. Only they don't make little girl elves. And there were no special kits for turning a boy elf into a girl one. So I came home with your standard Elf on a Shelf and planted him on our mantle. The book went under the tree.
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| Like our Christmas Story stocking? My mama bought that for the Mountain Man for my birthday. Where's the justice in that?! |
The kids were all over it. Javi read the story as Bella sat beside him listening for all the fine details of this special elf deal. She went from excitement that her elf is finally here, to worry that he knew all the bad things she's already done today (which Javi enumerated), to disappointment that her elf is a boy. Luckily, the line of communication straight to Santa won out and both kids became enamored with our new addition.
After a complicated and somewhat heated naming process where the names Jingle Jangle, Jolly, Snowball, Scout, Roger, Elvin, and Tiki were ruled out, we are now the proud family of an elf named:
Murray Grace
Listen, he wouldn't be our elf if he didn't bend gender at least a little. We do have a chicken named Here's Your One Chance Fancy Don't Let Me Down, you know. (But don't be surprised if Murray Grace shows up in a skirt some day soon.)
In the meantime, I'll be sure to work the Murray Grace can hear/see you angle for all its worth.
Do you have an elf on your shelf? How's it working for you? Did you hold out as long as we did?
I so wish this elf thing had been around when my kids were little! My DH would have had a blast finding new hiding places every night and the whole "watching you" thing - priceless! We don't have an elf... but only because all my "kids" are actually young adults.
I do wish we'd started it back when the Elf of the Shelf first became popular. I had no idea my kids would be so excited by it. (Although Bella cried the second night because she didn't like the idea of Murray Grace "watching her" in her sleep.)
I relented and acquired one this year. My baby is 7 so I figured this may be the last believing year and she loves her elf.
The elves are scary to me. And knowing Dylan, he'd probably wonder where the elf was all those other years.
It's funny because DH has always been big about saying the elves are watching, but for me growing up it was all Santa - the elves just made toys.