The story of our elf Evie . . . the second

     3 Christmases ago when we first had an elf visit our house, she was not received very well. I went out to buy a boy elf not knowing there was girl elves and all the boy elves in my area were sold out so I had to get a girl elf. At that time we only had Ace, he was an only child and was 3.5 years old. We read the elf on the shelf book, we named our girl elf Evie and Evie moved around the house for 24 days like every normal elf loving family does. Only our first elf Evie her story is has a bit of a twist. By day 2 Ace had definitely had enough of the "tattling elf" as he called her. Ace had been acting out that morning so using the elf like any parent would I told him "Evie is going to report back to Santa that you were being naughty today, so you better start making better choices and be good." and like every child Ace stomped off.

      Later that day from the corner of my eye I noticed Ace pulling up his stool to the tree where Evie the elf was resting for the day. Quietly I walked over so he wouldn't notice. Ace got as close as he could to Evie, quietly said in a stern voice all while shaking his finger at her "You stop tattling on me or I'm going to knock you out and throw you in the garbage!" I did everything in my power not to laugh and make my presence known. Ace continued with several "Are you listening Evie, no more tattling it not nice!" as I backed out of the room and then watched Ace pick up his stool and bring it back to its spot. I later asked Ace if he wanted to write a letter to Santa and have Evie bring it to Santa. Ace thought that was a great idea so we wrote to Santa and I took this picture of Ace with Evie and his letter to Santa that day.

      We continued on for all the days before Christmas having Evie move around and do a few silly things, but not many as we have quite a lazy Elf ;p! On Christmas Eve my Hubby dressed up as Santa and we staged a photo shoot of Santa leaving presents and picking up our dear little Evie. Then I put Evie in the box away in my closet, my dark walk in closet that Ace would never go into.

        In the morning we showed Ace the picture of Santa visiting our house and picking up our elf Evie. We read Ace the goodbye letter Evie left him and he seemed happy she was gone. Christmas day was fun and crazy and gone in a flash. I was 8 months pregnant with Terror but I know I put the elf away in the dark closet . . .

         A few days after Christmas I brought up Evie, ask Ace if he missed her and wasn't it fun having an elf in the house. Ace looked at me like I was crazy for bringing up the elf and said "No I didn't like it." I told him that maybe next year when she comes back to visit he will like it better. In a calm quiet voice while not making eye contact he said "oh she won't be coming back to our house ever . . . " The way Ace said it with such confidence made me want to run to go check on the elf, but I waited until he went down for a nap. I checked everywhere in the closet. The box, the book and the elf were gone! I searched for a few hours before giving up and realizing that maybe this Elf on the shelf thing was just not something we would be part of.

      A year passed, Ace was in kindergarten, Terror was 8 months old and I brought up the elf in mid November. I told Ace that if we wanted to have another elf come Santa said he would send us a different elf, a boy elf named Jingle. Ace had a melt down . . . not the reaction I was expecting at all! Ace was so upset and wanted Evie to come back and didn't want a new elf and Ace said he wanted to say sorry for being mean to her last year. So I spent HOURS while he was at school opening boxes cleaning the closet searching the basement for our Evie the elf. I finally gave up about a week before December 1st and went out to buy a new "Evie". My area was sold out of girl elves they only had boys this time and I needed a girl. I found one 3 hours away from my house and drove all the way to get a new girl elf. I grabbed the girl elf box spent another $39.95 and drove home. When I got home and opened the box I noticed the elves now looked different in the face. Ace is insanely observant and I knew he would notice the difference.

       So December 1st 2013 last Christmas our elf "Evie 2.0" as my husband and I call her arrived via
paper airplane with a letter for Ace and Terror saying she was back and was excited to be here and was a year older so she had a more chubby face cause she got older. It was the only way I could think of to explain it. Ace came down and was so excited to see her, he said sorry right away and then asked what happened to her face. I read the letter and the explanation satisfied Ace's 4.5 year old mind. So last Christmas even though our elf Evie was pretty lazy and just moved around the house from spot to spot she was a hit and Ace and Terror both enjoyed her. He enjoyed being able to go to school and share with his classmates what "his elf" was doing each day.  Ace was sad to see her go and even drew her a map of how to get back to our house next year so she wouldn't forget.

       To this day I have no idea what happened to our first elf Evie. I doubt I will ever know. This Christmas 2014 Ace was counting down the days until Evie the elf returned. So Evie 2.0 decided to arrived in grand style this Christmas by throwing our kids a North Pole Breakfast full of fun, but I will post about that another day!