25 Days of Christmas: Day 15 - PSA: Do NOT Touch The Elf!

The Elf.  It is a love/hate relationship with this little Christmas usher.  Have you seen this meme yet?  I was dying.  

Pinterest Moms are killing it with the elf.  This mom, however, is in pure SURVIVAL mode. Our elf's name is Trudy, and she isn't as creative or mischievous as some other elves, but the girls leap from bed each morning to see where she is and what she was up to the previous night.  Last night, she got into the stickers.  Silly Trudy.

Can we be real for a second?  Literally every night (except for maybe the first few), I am Pinteresting Elf on the Shelf ideas.  Thank you, Pinterest Moms, for these "last minute" ideas.  I scroll quickly through the ones that take prior preparation to one that I am not too tired to do.  My husband has had some cute ones this Christmas, and thank goodness he had my back the two nights I went to sleep before moving Trudy.  When I see the joy on my girls' faces and hear their little shrieks of excitement and delight, I get a little "Mom-Guilt" thinking about how I should be giving this tradition a bit more effort.  Then, I realize- they have joy on their faces and they're shrieking with delight...so like, whatever...I get the job done, and they enjoy the magic of Christmas...maybe I'm not #momfail-ing as much as I think.

Tonight, my brother (Nick) and his girlfriend (Lindsey) came over to watch our little ones.  They don't have children and neither of them are products of Elf on the Shelf families.  So, God bless them, they don't know the rules.  The girls were so excited to show Lindsey where Trudy was, and Lindsey fawned all over our little elf playing along.  Well, then she did it.  Sweet Lindsey.  She noticed one of Trudy's stickers was falling off, so she reached up and fixed it.  She touched.the.elf.  Olivia was in shock for about five seconds, before her meltdown ensued.  As elf mom's know, you CANNOT touch the Elf or he/she loses their magical powers that allow them to fly back to the North Pole each night to give Santa their reports.

My heart sank for both of them- Lindsey and Olivia.  Olivia was worried Trudy's magic was gone forever.  Kyle and I quickly jumped to the rescue.  I told Olivia I had remembered reading somewhere that a person who doesn't know about the elf's magic isn't able take the magic away, but I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on her just in case.

Poor Lindsey felt so awful.  How would she know that NOT touching the elf was a part of this elaborate ruse?  She handled it with grace though, and she learned the rule- Do NOT touch the Elf on the Shelf!  She even suggested I put this on the blog as a kind of PSA to non-Elfers.  You've been warned.