Elf Ownership

I have to admit that I went into  elf ownership not too excited about it. I really felt like it was going to be just another thing to add to my already too long holiday task list. I went to a Christmas party recently where everyone was talking about it, and it seemed like too much work to me. I mean this girl was showing me pictures of her elf trying to walk out their door- freaky!  

I guess the power of marketing eventually got to me though. I saw the stupid thing everywhere! I heard about it everywhere! I couldn't escape it and I couldn't bear the thought of someone asking Riley what her elf's name was and what it had been up to and her wide expression as she told the person that she didn't have one. It seemed kind of cruel. Pathetic of me I'm sure. I mean we don't even have a pet so this is kind of the next best thing- right?

The first night after reading the elf story Riley was very excited about the concept. She excitedly ran through the house looking for a suitable location for our elf to begin being a part of our family during the holidays. Before bed though I had to reassure her that "Heart Sweet" as she named our girl elf, would not go into her room at night and bother her. It brought back memories of me being scared of E.T. after seeing the movie. Yeah he was cute in the movie, but put that thing in my room and I am going to freak out for sure! Even after reassuring her, Riley made an appearance in our room around 2am and needed to be put back to bed.   

The next day we watched the video which was cute. In the video it talked about how if you touched the elf it would lose its magic power and it would have a hard time making its nightly trip to the North Pole to check in with Santa. At that time our elf was sitting on a plate in the kitchen with a cookie on her lap. She has already "eaten" several cookies that day much to Riley's delight. Wanting to see how much of the cookie Heart Sweet had eaten, Riley pulled the plate closer to her and accidentally knocked off our elf. She immediately started crying and worried that Santa would be upset with her. I told her to write a letter to Santa saying that she was sorry hoping that the activity would help her to feel better. Instead, she obsessed about whether or not our elf would be able to fly to the North Pole and whether or not the note would actually get to Santa and who would help Heart Sweet in her journey home and how long she would have to stay in the hospital. Mercy, child! I think pet ownership would have been easier!

So now that it has been several days I think we are starting to get the hang of this elf thing. It has landed in our tree and turned on our tree lights ( I swear I turned them off when we left!), hung out on the top of a display cabinet, and most recently enjoyed drinking syrup because everyone knows elves love sugar, sugar, and more sugar! Her presence has actually brought a sense of company. Who knows,  maybe we will get that cat someday that Riley keeps asking for!