THE
ELFEN ELF
We all want our
children to stay innocent and believe in magic. Well, that’s certainly true for
me anyway. I believed in Santa until I was almost a teen, my mom kept the magic
alive. I have done the same for my kids, let them figure it out on their own
but always create the magic of Christmas. A few years back (3 or 4 now) another
mom from Nick’s school (he was in kindergarten) was telling me about this cool magic
elf that comes with a book for the kids, and you have to move this elf to a new
place each day, the silly photos were starting to show up on Facebook at the
time, and there were cute crazy things that the parents were doing with their
elfs, some of them were really hysterical. So, that sounded easy enough, just
move the elf after he goes to bed every night for a month. So, I bought the
book and the elf for my son and followed the instructions on how to introduce
the elf to him. We sat and read the book, the story of how he found Nick and
that he was there to see if Nick is good or bad and report back to Santa (hence
the new spot in the house every morning). Then it was time to name our elf,
Nick picked Bruce Wayne because he was obsessed with Batman. So, we welcomed
Bruce to the family. I was so excited to hide the elf the first night somewhere
clever (the idea is for the kids to come looking for the elf when they wake up
to see where he is sitting today). I had to hide him somewhere that Nick
couldn’t get a hold of him since the elfs lose their magic if you touch them. I
do not remember where I hid him that first time, it’s all such a blur to me
now.
It’s November and
I’m feeling the Christmas crunch already. There is so much to get done and it
all costs more money than I have. I will get it all done as I always do, but
that knowledge doesn’t ease the anxiety of it all. We just had Thanksgiving and
it’s time to decorate for the holidays. Time to get out the snowman for the
front door and the Christmas lights. Also, time to prepare creating the magic
of Christmas through giving the gifts to your children that creates that
reaction of joy and excitement! And we cannot forget it’s time for that elf. In
the past I have hidden him all over the house. Usually up high somewhere he
won’t be touched so he doesn’t lose his magic of course. I’d wait every night
to make sure Nick was sleeping and was not going to get out of bed anymore.
This has been fine as long as I get that second wind that kicks in when my
child goes to sleep and I can have a moment of “me time”. Around midnight I
would find a new spot for the elf. Sometimes on the ceiling fan (we wouldn’t
turn the fan on all day that day to avoid physical trauma to Bruce), in the
blinds in the bathroom (took a while for him to find him that time!). It became
fun to find a spot he wouldn’t find the second he came down the stairs. Some
nights I would fall asleep with Nick and wake in the middle of the night in
sheer panic realizing I had forgotten to hide that darn elf! I would find any
place for him so I could get back to sleep. One time in my sleepy haze I
decided to hide him on the curtain rack for the shower….no one showered that
day…doh!
Then came the
night I DIDN’T wake up to move the elf! I woke up and Nick was heading down the
stairs to find Bruce!!! I quickly googled “what to do when you forget to move
the elf”, I found that a lot of moms had used the excuse that the elf was too
tired that night to get back to the North Pole. Just goes to show I wasn’t
alone, other moms were going through elf hell too! So, I explained to Nick that
the elf had been too tired to move, he seemed to accept that. I then went
directly into my alarm on my phone and created on for 3am that was labeled
“ELF!!!!!!” to ensure that I would always get to elf before Nick from that day
forward.
It was so cute to
see Nick so excited about something so full of Christmas magic! The joy of
hearing him find the elf as soon as he ran down the stairs every morning, it
was almost like Christmas for the whole month of December. Our elf comes on
December 1st, I’m pretty sure the book says the day after
Thanksgiving or that’s what a lot of families do anyway. I’m not even sure if
that’s what I did at first, but after a couple years of elf hell I say eff
that, I’ll do 24 days and no more.
I have lived with
elf anxiety every December for the last few years now. I do have to say, I am
seriously wishing I could reconsider this decision to invite that damn elf into
our home for an uncertain length of time. I can’t quit now while Nick still
believes, so November 30th I will set that effen alarm, Bruce will
show up Dec 1st and I will get back to the extra stress at such a
time as this and get back to waking up in a panic every night for almost a
month.
So, moms who are creating great elfen memories for our children with their elfen elfs!are
with me in elfen elf hell, I ask you, could we just get together on something?
Could we all agree to send the elfs to the North Pole for good? I would love to
start that movement! But we won’t, we will continue to cre
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