Jinglers comes to stay / Thanksgiving photos

Did you hear? Because it's so hard for Santa to keep track of so many children, this year he's trying out a new system -- he's dispatching select elves into the homes of boys and girls who've been good. Each elf will report back to Santa to let them know how the child is behaving, and on Christmas Eve when Santa comes to visit, the elf will fly home to the North Pole with him. The elf is quiet during the day, and sometimes playful and mischievous at night ... sometimes he'll leave small gifts, and sometimes he'll leave big messes!

Yes, this is my take on the newly popular Elf on the Shelf concept. I'd always intended to make up my own "system," rather than buying the $30 Elf on the Shelf kit (comes with elf and a book explaining the concept ... slightly different than the story I invented). I bought a $12 elf at Marshall's several weeks ago and quickly started to worry that he was too creepy-looking. (Some friends to whom I emailed his photo agreed.) So then I bought the "real" Elf on the Shelf kit; the elf was cuter, and I planned to return Mr. Creepy for a refund. The plan was that today, while Bobby was buckling Maggie into her carseat to go to his family's for Thanksgiving dinner, I'd "forget" my purse and go inside to retrieve it. Inside, I would pose the elf on our mantle, along with the book that came with him, the Kindness Box mentioned below, and a letter with the following poem:


Dear Maggie,

Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray,
I've come to stay at your house today.
I'll stay until Christmas, if that's alright.
I'll watch you all day and I'll play when it's night.

My job is simple but also quite fun:
I report back to Santa to tell how you've done.
He wants you to listen to Mommy and Dad.
Be sure you obey and don't make them sad.
When you're done with your toys, please put them away .
Someone could fall and have a bad day.
Remember to always be nice to your friends,
Share toys, don't fight . the tantrums must end!

Since Christmas is all about caring and love
This Kindness Box is sent from above.
When you do a nice thing, like share or obey
Your Mommy will write it down for that day.
And on Christmas Day, long after I've gone,
You'll read from the box the good things you've done.

And if you are good and can do all these things,
Santa will come-and presents he'll bring!
When he comes to your house for Christmas so dear
I'll ride home with him and be back the next year.

So if you can live by the rules of my game,
Please sign in the book and give me a name.
Right now I'm just waiting here, up on this shelf,
I'm hoping that Maggie will make me her elf!

(Pretty cute, huh? In a surprising burst of creativity, I wrote it myself.)

So far, things aren't quite going according to plan. First, I hadn't really checked out the "official" Elf on the Shelf. I just bought the kit and left it in the box, hidden in our guestroom closet, until showtime. When I got him out of the box and took him downstairs, I quickly realized the flaw in the plan. This official elf, while being cuter in the face and more expensive overall, is very cheaply made. His body is flimsy flannel, and his head is hard plastic. He's very top-heavy, and quickly discovered I would be utterly unable to make him sit upright on our mantle, not to mention the other shenanigans I have planned for him. So I ended up using Mr. Creepy after all, praying that Maggie wouldn't notice the semi-weird expression painted onto his face.

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When I finally got everything set up, I got to the car and we left for the in-laws'. On the way there, as I tried to tell Bobby in code what had happened, I realized that my poem said "sign in the book" since the official Elf on the Shelf book has a little certificate page in the back. So when we got home, I had Bobby "play" with Maggie outside, while I ran in to make a minor modification to the poem. Now, instead of reading "sign in the book," it says "sign on this card." I created a little signature form for the back of the card: Maggie had to give him a name as well as sign her own.

Finally, we were ready for the big unveiling. Maggie came inside and immediately noticed him on the mantle. She was so excited that Santa had chosen her to receive one of the trial elves (and, no, she didn't seem to notice any creep factor about him ... she even said he looked cute). She named him Jinglers and seems to be taking the whole concept to heart--she even caught herself doing something she wasn't supposed to, and she said to Bobby, "Oops, don't tell Jinglers!" And she's already done two nice things that got written down for the Kindness Box.

I had anticipated how much work this might be during an already busy holiday season. I prepared for this by making a calendar--from Thanksgiving day until Christmas Eve, I have planned what Jinglers will do, or the small gifts/notes he'll leave for Maggie, and all necessary "supplies" have been purchased. What I didn't anticipate was the volume of questions that would accompany Jinglers' presence in our home.

Round One:
What does Jinglers eat? When he plays, will he be noisy? Will he wake me up? Will he talk to us? Is Santa his daddy? Is Santa's house special, and that's why he only talks to Santa? Such was the intensity of the questioning that it was keeping her awake -- instead of sleeping, she was lying there asking questions. I finally told her to stay in bed, that I'd go do some internet research and see if I could find the answers. (Silly me ... I hoped she'd fall asleep during my reconn mission.) A few minutes later, I returned to her room with the following email response from Santa:

From: Santa santa@northpole.com
To: LeeAnne me@earthlink.net
cc:
Subject: RE: Elf care questions


LeeAnne,

Thanks for asking those great questions about your elf. (I think Jinglers is a great name, by the way.) I can tell that I made a good choice in sending him to Maggie—she is going to take great care of him!

Here are the answers to your questions:

- Yes, I tell all the elves to play quietly. They are staying with children, and children need lots of sleep to grow healthy and strong. I promise he will play very quietly—you’ll never hear him.
- An elf’s diet consists of one small cup of water, two goldfish crackers, and one animal cracker. Please don’t give him any chocolate.
- No, I’m not the elves’ Daddy. They have elf mommies and daddies here in the North Pole. That’s one reason I collect all the elves on Christmas Eve. Their mommies and daddies miss them.
- The elves are not allowed to talk to their human friends. They must be very quiet in order to watch the children all the time. I am the only person who can talk to the elves. You can, however, write him notes, and he is allowed to write you back.
- My workshop is special because that’s where all the toys are made. Your house is special too, because it’s the perfect home for Jinglers.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. Thanks again for taking care of Jinglers!

Much love,
Santa


---Original Message---

>From: LeeAnne me@earthlink.net
>To: Santa santa@northpole.com
>cc:
>Subject: Elf care questions
>
>Dear Santa,
>
>Thank you so much for sending my daughter Maggie an elf! She is so excited and has named >him Jinglers. She has a few questions though: 1. Will he play loudly or quietly? 2. What does he >eat? 3. Are you his daddy? 4. Will he talk to us? 5. Is your house special?
>
>Thank you, Santa!
>LeeAnne

I thought these answers would fix things; on the contrary, they only led to more questions and concerns.

Round Two:

• "Why can't Jinglers have chocolate? Did Daddy hear you read Santa's email? He's downstairs with Jinglers ... does he know not to give him chocolate?"
• "What if Jasper (our dog) tries to eat Jinglers? Will Santa be sad if Jinglers is in Jasper's tummy?" I told her I'd hold Jinglers while Bobby gets Jasper into the garage at night, but that just made it worse. "What if Jinglers is scared when he sees Jasper?" I'll put him in the bathroom and close the door. "But then Jinglers will be scared in the bathroom by himself." We finally resolved the situation by saying I would STAY in the bathroom with Jinglers, with the door closed, while Bobby gets the dog in.
• "If I had to give Jinglers a name, does that mean that none of the other elves in the North Pole have names yet either"
• "What are Jinglers' mommy and daddy's names?"
• "Does anyone ever get Santa a gift?" ... "If we give him something, how will he know it's his?"
• "Why does Santa get to fly and I don't. That's not fair."
• "Is it safe for Santa to ride in a sleigh that doesn't have a roof? Does he ever fall out? Did he fall out when he was a little boy?"
• "Does Jinglers need a plate or a bowl?" I suggested putting his food in a bowl, just in case he's a messy eater, and Maggie said, "I don't want to have to clean up after him."
• "Did my other friends get chosen to get an elf? Did Meghan get one? Did Heidi?" (sorry moms ...)

That's not even all of the questions, but you get the picture. We put her to bed at 8:15 tonight, and she didn't fall asleep until 9:40 ... and yes, she was asking questions the whole time. I had no idea the Christmas elf concept would take so much quick-thinking! Luckily, I have the internet to use as my safety net. If I can't think of a clever answer quickly, I simply tell Maggie, "I don't know. We'll have to check the internet and see." Emailing Santa is always a good option too. Already I need to draft another email answering the rest of Maggie's questions, plus get out Jinglers' gift to Maggie for tomorrow. I'm trying to incorporate some religious gifts, especially here at the beginning of our elf journey, lest Maggie think Christmas is all about elves, Santa, and presents. Tomorrow, since we're putting up our tree and other decorations, she'll receive a star ornament ... to remind her that Christ is the real light of Christmas.

In addition to Jinglers' arrival, we had another little adventure today -- a chipmunk in the house. But this post is already super long, so I'll have to save story that for another day. Instead, I'll leave you with a few photos I tried to take this morning. I just wanted one cute Thanksgiving photo. Just one.

Apparently, that's just too much to ask.

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!