Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf movement? As a
primary teacher, I have the advantage of hearing about fads from the mouths of
babes every year. Otherwise, I would probably be completely out of the
loop. For a few years now, elves have been invading children's homes,
causing chaos and mess at the beginning of December until Christmas Day.
It doesn't seem to be a fad that is fading, but rather growing to the point
where most of the children in my class have two (or three!) elves who each create
their own forms of devious destruction every night of Advent.
I still don't understand why
the Elves on the Shelves need to create problems since I thought the original
reason for their visit was to be a spy for Santa Claus and report back to him
if the children in the home were misbehaving. None of my students have
been able to explain this conundrum, either. (Looking back on it now, his name is misleading because he is rarely ever on a shelf.)
This fairly new holiday trend
could possibly become a permanent tradition, but could also be a major
inconvenience. I think we might have two or three more years until an elf
may have to visit our house. (But I guess if we have a perfectly behaved
child, then we don't need anyone to spy and report back to Santa.
Right?) Before we had Jackson, I decided that the Elf would not visit our
house; but, when every student in my class has one, imagining Jackson being
the only one who has no elf story to share with his friends
made me have a change of heart. Our elf might change his method of spying
and cause a little less carnage which will take less time to commit and
clean-up for the Elf during the day. I think the modified Elf may just be
hiding in a new look-out post and the new game can be to find his new hiding spot every day of
December.
Like other magical fads that
began at one point and never went away, I hope this doesn't become a new way of
spoiling. For instance, my Tooth Fairy used to bring me 25 or 50 cents
per tooth, but now she is much more generous, giving an average of £5 or even
toys under the pillows of the toothless. I don't know if or how the
magical traditions can be brought back to their humble beginnings, but I guess
it depends on not giving into what other elves or tooth fairies are doing, and
hoping that the ones that visit our house stay true to their modest
origins. Keeping the magic alive in our house for as long as possible
will be our goal for Jackson and if an elf will help with that, then we can
roll with it.
A relaxing Friday night in with Daddy during my work Christmas party
Making reindeer food at nursery
Excavating a Christmas dig with his friends on Christmas Sweater (Jumper, U.K.) Day
Developmental updates:
Jackson's new phrases were "open it"; "Yee haw!"; "Get
out of here, guys!"; "kick the ball"; and "Oh my
gosh!" He also started calling Santa "Ho Ho."
Coincidentally, this is what I called Santa when I was two-years-old, but
Jackson chose the same nickname for Mr. Claus without any coaching at
all. Yesterday, we thought Jackson was playing with his cars, but after a
few minutes, we realised that he had cleared the ornaments off of the bottom
half of the Christmas tree and lined them up on the floor in a fairly organised
manner. (We put the fragile ornaments at the top of the tree in the off-chance
that this would happen.) Jackson also started telling us important things in
the form of multi-sentence speeches and ending each paragraph of his speech with,
"Okay?" or "All right?" If we don't agree to his
statements, he waits until we do or repeats himself to gain our confirmation,
then he continues with his lecture.
If you see Sammie Miles Davis,
Jr. and Bella, give them my love.
