The Elf on the Shelf’s Revenge

This past Christmas was the first year that we did the Elf on the Shelf.  I heard about it the year before, but didn’t get out to the store in time to actually pick one up.  And good luck finding one on clearance the day after Christmas…just in case you were wondering, that doesn’t happen.  Trust me, I was the girl out looking for one on December 26, 2011.  The best I found was 30% off at a luggage store that had it marked up to begin with.  Anyway, this past year I picked on one up on Black Friday and promptly put her (Yes, ours was a female.  I had no idea they even made them in boy/girl versions.  It’s all in the earrings.) in a place where the girls were sure to find her.  It took a few days for them to catch on, but eventually the got the hang of it and would wake up ready to hunt for the elf’s new location, pointing and squealing when it was eventually found.

Simply known as “Elf” that creepy, no footed creature was my #2.  My backup.  If I couldn’t get Greenleigh to behave, mere mention of the elf could.  Sometimes all it took was pointing in her general direction.  One time Greenleigh was misbehaving in a restaurant and I was actually able to convince her that the elf was there, and everyone could see her except Greenleigh.  She straightened right up.  It was priceless.  There wasn’t a single time the elf let me down.  And for that reason, I used and abused the elf, right up until we left for Christmas Eve mass and she had to make her swift departure back to the North Pole.

As I packed Elf away for the year [Read: Stuffed her in the back of my sock drawer because it’s the only place my kids won’t look.], I thought about how much fun the whole Elf on the Shelf thing was.  My placement of our elf was far from Pinterest-worthy, but I was proud that I had found a new and somewhat creative location each day.  Hell, I was proud that I had remembered to move her each day.  Or that my husband had remembered on the days I didn’t.  I had planned to write a post about all the places our elf had been, but the holidays got the better of me and that didn’t happen, so this will have to do:Popcorn baths, drinking juice boxes in our fridge, and driving the girls brand new power wheels into our living room, our elf really got around.  She was always front and center in our house, and when we traveled, she came with us.  I even dared to put her in Greenleigh’s room one night, at the top of her book-case.

I deemed our Elf on the Shelf experience a total success.

Until last Tuesday night when Greenleigh insisted that I check her room for elves before turning out the lights…then calling me back for a second inspection 20 minutes later…and a third inspection about an hour after that.  And Thursday at 3:37am, when I heard Greenleigh screaming, only to find her haulin’ it down the stairs (white blanket and lovey bunny in tow) insisting that she didn’t want an elf in her room.  And on Sunday at 6am when Greenleigh swore there was an elf in the room and refused to go back to bed.  At 6am.  On a Sunday morning.

This whole elf thing really turned on me.  And I’m pretty sure I heard laughing coming from my sock drawer.