Elf on the Shelf

Okay, so I had these wonderful visions of a new family tradition involving our new elf. That was my first mistake. I've been excited about introducing this concept to our family for a year now.
Being in the hospital wasn't going to stop me either. Mom picked up the book and elf for me; I hid it in the room for a few days and wanted to introduce it on Dec. 1. Of course it was a horribly dreary, cold, rainy day. Mom picked Riley up from school, brought him to the hospital, and met Russ under the covered drive so they could pass him off, and Russ brought him up.

I'd placed our new friend and his book on the x-ray machine in the room and initially, Riley didn't notice. I finally started telling him to look around. He spotted the elf and the book and said, "What's Pinocchio doing in here?" I laughed and thought, "Oh no, don't confuse these two stories!" He immediately wanted to touch it. Well, part of the story is that you can't touch the elf or it loses it's magic. Riley was going to obsess over touching the elf, I could tell. This wasn't what my "vision" looked like. Ugh!

We sat on the couch in my room, but heaven forbid he get close enough to take a picture (or cooperative enough for a family photo with our new tradition), and read the book. Many parts had to be translated by Russ and I, especially the part about the elf keeping an eye on Riley and reporting back to Santa. I told Riley the elf would tell Santa whether he was being naughty or nice and fly to the North Pole to update Santa each night while he was sleeping.

Riley cocked his head back and said "WHUUUT? No way...." I giggled (while crying inside that this wasn't how it was supposed to go) and Russ looked at me and said, "He's too smart for this."

Then Riley got to thinking and asked, "How did he get in here? The door is closed, the windows are locked." "Christmas Magic" wasn't the answer he was looking for.

We finished the book, he STILL wanted to touch the elf, so we re-read the part about not touching him or he loses his magic, and started working on a name. Pinocchio wasn't going to cut it for me. We asked Riley several times what we were going to name our elf and "I don't know" was the answer every time. I asked again, "What are we going to name our elf?" and he went into the chorus of "Jingle Bells, " so I asked, "Is his name Jingle?" Yes! A name that we all agreed upon.

Then we explain that Jingle will be going home to our house so he can keep an eye on Riley and he could show up anywhere in the house and he would have to find him when he woke up in the morning. "I don't want him in my house! I don't need any toys, I already have toys!"

Is the nightmare over yet?

Russ, Riley, and Jingle headed home. I worried about traumatizing my son all night and when Russ called that night to give me an overview of the evening, he calmed my fears by saying that Riley told Nunny about Jingle. I took that as a sign of acceptance. Whew!

The next morning Riley was thrilled to find Jingle! Now we're talkin'...