A friend shared this post on Facebook right after Thanksgiving and it made me laugh so hard. The funny part is that I am so torn about how I feel about the whole thing. I have zero desire to have our sweet little elf create a mess that I’m required to clean up. I don’t want his antics to take any sort of significant amount of time or energy on my part to execute at night before bed. I didn’t want to feel bad when I inevitably forgot that he needed to travel home one night, because I was sure that it would happen and I would be forced to explain why he was hanging out in the same spot for another day. The other part of me knows how my children look forward to this. The first thing Ella says every morning in December is “Where is Scout? Have you seen him yet?!” I’m trying to create the best of both worlds here. If you think our elf is boring, I’m sorry. If you think I’m that mom who is an elfin overachiever, I’m sorry, too. I’m just having a good time with my girls for as long as they’ll let me and blowing up your Instagram feed so we have photos to look back on.
Now let’s see what he’s been up to so far this year.
Day 1: Scout showed up with a basket of Christmas books to share with the girls. I have wanted to do a “book a day” Christmas tradition for several years and finally executed it. Scout explained that these aren’t all new. Many were already ours, some were borrowed from grandparents and some were checked out from the library. They don’t seem to mind, they just love reading holiday stories before bed. I much prefer this to the advent calendar we had last year. The greedy little beggars asking for presents every day got on my nerves. I’d much rather share a pre-bedtime experience instead. Day 2: Scout was spotted riding a felt camel in our playroom nativity scene.
Day 3: Drinking Mommy’s DP in the kitchen. This is a no no. Even Sophie thought it was funny. Day 4: Easy, peasy hanging out in the Christmas tree. I slept late that day.
Day 5: Popping up out of a teapot in our living room. At least he could keep an eye on most of the girls drama in the evenings. Day 6: The girls thought it was pretty silly he could be found in their manicure supplies in the bathroom on Thursday morning. No nail-painting for them that day.
Day 7: I hung all of our Christmas cards from last year up in the kitchen until this season’s cards starting rolling in. I’ve enjoyed looking at them over the last several weeks. Apparently Scout liked them, too, because he was doing some sort of trapeze act in there on Friday morning. Day 8: In case you were unaware, Bama won the SEC Championship the weekend before and Scout thought he’d show Big Al a little love. Even elves love the Tide!
Day 9: Our Christmas decorations were finally done and Scout was hanging out on the dining room table enjoying the lights. It doesn’t seem to matter how mundane or boring his antics are, the girls are enamored and impressed! Day 10: Sophie could not get over him peering over her shoulder in bed. I hate I wasn’t there to see the look on her face when she woke up. Since my girls both have a bad habit of getting up to visit in the middle of the night, our friendly elf was keeping an eye on them and making sure everyone stayed tucked in their bed.
Day 11: We all know I’m notorious for letting laundry pile up around my house. Josh & I had several loads to fold on Monday night and had been putting it off for days. Imagine Ella’s surprise to find Scout in a basket of towels on Tuesday morning. Her response? “Aren’t you glad we have an elf to help you fold the laundry?!” Even she’s aware of my laundry disdain. Day 12: Well, well, well. I’m sure I’ll be criticized for being a little crass, but my children are kind of obsessed with potty humor right now. SD said they were pretty excited about finding him on the potty this morning. Even an elf needs a moment of privacy, right?
Join us in a few weeks for the second twelve days of Scouts adventures. Or don’t!
