I have to admit it, the elves have been fun.  Granted, at times they have been a little stressful for various reasons, but for the most part, FUN.  When the elves arrived at our house, I was every bit as excited as the kids were for them to start playing around.  Over time, for me at least, the newness has worn off and I’m just not as excited every morning to burst out of bed around 5:30 AM to find them like I once was.  Having them around has been like an entire month of early rising to see what Santa brought.  But our kids?  They LOVE the elves with their entire beings.  Yesterday Gigi came up to me looking a little dour and blue.  I asked, “What’s wrong baby?”

“How many days till Christmas, Mommy?” she responded.

“Five days!  Just FIVE DAYS!  Isnt that exciting?”  At this point she burst into tears and laid her sweet little curls on my shoulder, “What’s wrong?  That’s exciting!”

“But when Christmas comes our elves are going to go home AND I’M GOING TO MISS SNOWFLAKE AND SNOWMAN!”  This last part was said in the hybrid bawling/hollering combo only reserved for the very upset.  And my girl was very upset.  It turns out that, yeah, she’s going to miss them.  She’s grown very fond of her Snowflake.  She was also VERY worried that once they left that they would not return EVER.  I told her that most likely they would be back next year, and for many years after that.  In fact, if I were a betting Mama, I would bet that these same elves would be elves for her own children.  Then Bradley offered up a little bit of Elf Magic by offering to ‘play’ elf every once in a while, to give her a surprise some morning when she is not expecting it.  This seemed to cheer her up, and along she went.

I turned to Bradley after this whole exchange and we acknowledged that this whole elf thing was pretty important to our kids.  Snowflake and Snowman were a big deal, they will be missed, and our house will be a little bit lonelier without them here.  Our kids will miss their magic, their love, the feeling that there is always a safe person in our house.  It seems silly, they look like just a couple of stuffed dolls, but the magic and wonder they brought into our house filled our kid’s up with love and happiness and imagination and hope and excitement…  I DO hope they return again.


Comments are closed.