December 1: OMG, I just realized that I want to do Elf on a Shelf with the Princess Cupcake.
Panic called placed to Nan at The Vintage House. She – as always – saved me. She had one left – now officially reserved for the Cupcake.
I bee-lined it to her store and as I left that magical pink building where all perfect gifts reveal themselves, I was struck with HOW EXCITED I – yes I — was to have an Elf on a Shelf this year. The Cupcake had NO IDEA what tradition was about to begin.
That night I told the Cupcake that Santa wanted her to have something VERY SPECIAL before Christmas, and I presented a very wide-eyed little girl with the DVD. She was enthralled with the show, and at the end I told her that Santa had sent along something else too. Big eyes again.
And I unceremoniously pulled the box with story book from the shopping bag from the Pink House. Yes, I should have wrapped it. No, I did not have time.
If you listened close you could hear her say, “WOOOOWWWWW.”
Daddy – who was completely in the dark about Elf on the Shelf prior to the video — read the story to her but her mind was racing. She couldn’t focus. She really wanted to touch him. I mean, really wanted to.
If you are familiar, when you reach the end of the book, you have to name your Elf on a Shelf and that finally broke her fixation.
We bombarded her with, “What are you going to name your elf?”
First thing out of her mouth popped, “Chintz.”
Pregnant pause. Daddy and I looked at each other and said simultaneously, “Chintz?”
This time with conviction, “Chintz.”
Okay then. NO IDEA where that came from. Have never heard her say that word, but secretly, I’m really happy she didn’t name it her all-popular doll baby name of “Tuna.”
“Okay then. His name is Chintz. Hi Chintz!”
She was dying to take him out of the box. “How will he get out of the box, Mama?”
“Just like Stinky Pete in Toy Story, sweetie. He knows how. Don’t worry.”
I placed Chintz’s open box up on the mantle. Her little wheels were spinning madly.
“I want to show Chintz something.” She dashed upstairs and came back with a pair of leg warmers I had bought her earlier in the week to go with her uniform on cold days.
“Look Chintz! Look what I have!” She’s waving them wildly at the fireplace.
The hubs and I stared in disbelief. Really, the leg warmers? Of all things she’s proud of? She won’t even wear them.
After reaffirming again about how all this would go down tonight, I herded her upstairs. Post jammies and teeth routine, she proclaimed that she needed to show Chintz something else.
She grabbed her iPhone and went halfway down the stairs.
Through the banister she yelled, “Look Chintz! Look what I have! See my phone? Night NIGHT!”
And she ran back up the stairs, into her room and went to bed.
The mind of a 3 year old….
I had already decided that we would have a mischievous elf but I didn’t want to go too far on the first night. Besides, it was so new, I wasn’t sure she’d even remember him when she woke up.
She shuffled into our room early the next morning but my mind seemed to be the only one who’s was on Chintz. I asked if she’d seen him (the house was dark, she couldn’t have) and we set off to find him. By the way, she did NOT remember what she had named him…
(Sticking with Chintz) Chintz decided to break her in easy on the first night. Chintz had thrown one of her leg warmers on the floor of her room, and this is how she found him in the hallway:
Chintz is wearing the other leg warmer with her iPhone to his head (tucked into the leg warmer), and his feet propped up on her now retired because it had less memory iPod.
She caught sight of him, “Oh!” Then you could barely hear her whisper, “No way!” (Again, words I’ve never heard her say.)
She stared at him for a bit, wanting desperately to touch him but threatened with the taboo of taking his magic away.
As we gathered her things to leave for school, the Cupcake said, “Chintz is hungry. I need to take him some food.” So Chintz was offered a breakfast feast of a plastic lemon, a bagel, ½ a hamburger bun and a banana.
But when she came back down stairs she looked incredibly guilty. You know that look. She wasn’t telling me something and I suspected I knew exactly what had happened. I asked her what was wrong.
“I might have touched Chintz.” She really looked like she was about to burst into tears.
We ultimately decided that she might have just barely brushed the legwarmer while she was leaving him the food so he’d probably be okay if he had the day to recover.
And besides, I imagine after all those carbs he had, Chintz is going to be ready for a serious party tonight. I can’t wait to see what he does next. J
More Elf on a Shelf Mischief:
Hi there this is the first year I’m doing elf on the shelf for my daughter Sara now sadly I wasn’t able to get hold of the traditional elf on the shelf Stoll awaiting its arrival so bought a fill in one.
I’ve told her that her elf still has lots of chores to do n so santa has sent brown elf for now.
Reason for my comment is I’ve tried to google at the library printable masks n such like is there a direct link to where you can print these miniature items or a pack that you can buy that have such things a glasses masks hero capes card board slegs or patterns?
If not maybe this is something that you can introduce next year .
I’m not sure at the moment how mischievous our elf is going to be as didn’t think about getting one till other week.
But seems I’m not the only one as this year it’s really taken off and most places are sold out of the official elf n the shelf box
Than you for the time taken to read my comment n look forwards to receive a reply
How exciting you’re starting with your first elf! And I see that you’re in the UK. From what I understand, this is a fairly new thing there so I’m not surprised they are sold out already. I think if you jump onto Pinterest.com and search for free download elf on the shelf you’ll find more than you could need! Good luck!!!
That story is tooooo cute. I can tell who is going to have the most fun with this adventure. It is the perfect activity for you. Thanks for the great plug for The Pink House. We love you and little princess too.
Have fun with Chintz!!!
Too cute. I love your Toy Story reference to her. We are skipping it this year. Santa freaks him out enough, so the idea of an elf watching him really creeps him out. Maybe next year.
That’s so funny. She was afraid of Santa last year but CLAIMS to have warmed up to him this year. We’ll see, the photos will tell the truth.