Naughty or Nice? Silly or Serious?

Man do my kids LOVE their elf!

But, like most parents, Charley our elf is the bane of us – their parent’s, existence!

When our elf wakes up in the same place as the day before, the kids are devastated and for some reason, remembering to move this felted num-nut is unattainable!

Luckily, I figured out my husband and I are parental failures a long time ago!

This is when I decided Charley wasn’t going to show up like the other Elves on the Shelves the day after Thanksgiving.  No Charley was going to come by mail from the North Pole roughly every December 15th thus relieving the pressure on the poor Walsh parents who now only had to remember to move the elf ten days instead of 30!

Now this can be very disappointing to children as they hear stories from all of their friends about what their silly elves have been up to.  But you see, I thought of that too.  Our Elf comes with a note each year telling the kids why it always comes so late!

Ya know, if you are going to lie to your kids to keep up this “Magic of the Season” then you might as well go all the way ;)

So at first when they were younger, the letter’s from their elf would say “I am in charge of toy manufacturing and we have been really busy” or “I am in charge of the naughty and nice list and the list took longer than usual to fill out” you know, stuff like that.  But as they have gotten a little older I started getting a little more serious. Charley started leaving maps of New Orleans and the destruction from Hurricane Sandy. He might work at a homeless shelter or hospital helping people who needed it.  You have to remember, Charley the elf is one serious elf, he is like second in command to Santa. Charley isn’t sprinkling glitter in toilets or nibbling Christmas cookies, Charley is late to the Walsh house for VERY IMPORTANT REASONS!!!

Well, this year I may have gone too far.  Being an anti-consumer borderline hippie, I may have sat down to write the letter and thought a little too much about what’s going on in our world.

Yeah, this one may have went a little too far :) It sounds way more like their mom than their elf!

In hindsight, how could I have forgotten to have Charley stop in Paris for the environmental conventions?  I mean the North Pole is going to turn into a tropical island resort in the next few years  and I haven’t heard a peep from Santa or his elves. Republicans?  Hmm…

Oh well, ya gotta seize those teachable moments when you can!

If I get my kids to think about others for even a moment, it will have been worth this ridiculous masquerade!!!

And as for old Charley, he is hiding very well thank you.  We are on day three and no slip-ups thus far.  Let’s hope he keeps the magic until Christmas ;)