Elf on the Shelf Saga...

Last year Molly received Elf on the Shelf from Mimi and Moe. She enjoyed finding him everyday, but was not really old enough to understand the concept. A year later...she has toooo many questions. Elf (Boingy) made his way to the Haarlow house the day after Thanksgiving. he has been "flying" around the house (except when he is too tired to fly-mommy and daddy forgot!) She wants to know how he flies and when he flies and did we see him fly and how does he get back to live with Santa and is he a boy, he has long eyelashes....the questions go on daily. We were in Barnes and Nobles last Friday, and there he was.....dozens of them!! Thanks Barnes and Nobles. "Mom!!!Why is the Elf here at the bookstore?" Oh no--what do I say? I devised a lengthy story about the Elves being sent by Santa to the stores so moms and dads and grandparents can buy them for kids. When Christmas is over he goes back to live with Santa until next Christmas. What are we doing, lying to our children like this? Then, Molly gets in the car today after school and says that one of her classmates brought an Elf on the Shelf to school in her book bag and wanted to know why she can't play with her elf. Well, I am trying to keep with the magic theme of the book and said if we touch our elf, his magic will go away. I tried to explain that some families have different rules. She then cried that she wanted an elf to play with. So off to Michael's we go in search of materials to "make" an elf. The "we" turned into "me"sewing by hand an elf doll. It rather looks like a voodoo doll, but it is kind of cute. Oh the magic of Christmas! I can see the memories we will have laughing about all of this when the kids are grown!