faith, family and a farm

December brings social media overload of Christmas trees, new family photos, Santa, church functions, and some Elf on the Shelf mixed in. It also brings about a various array of opinions on Santa, family tradition, and my favorite today…THE ELF.

Years ago, when I first heard about this ELF….I was working full time as a delivering midwife, and felt like I was on a carousel that didn’t take a break…I absolutely would not invite this insane creature into my house to create even more scrambling and turmoil…I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…I shouldn’t…then, I CAVED. I don’t remember all the reasons I caved except that Carson knew about an elf…Effie was probably close to three years old…a truly magical age when it comes to Christmas, and I thought…”what’s one more thing, really?” The first couple of years, there were times that “Roscoe” (our elf) wouldn’t move for a couple of days…I think he needed more Vitamin D and sunshine…he must’ve just been super tired. Then, nearing one Christmas season, the kids were over the moon about when Roscoe would come back, and at the time I had not really given a lot of thought to him, but their excitement was contagious. Pinterest was now on my resume…and I just decided that Roscoe could get pretty creative for 20+ days if it brought that much joy and excitement to their eyes and hearts. Let’s face it, nearly every single one of you have committed to a diet for that long or longer…and you didn’t start it to cheat, right? Well, for me, I just decided that I could do anything 100% for that short amount of time.

I won’t try and sell you on the Elf…Lord knows I’ve seen so many posts totally against it, and sometimes what feels like judgement for having an elf…it’s just what worked in our house. There’s one thing I’ve learned since stepping away from a crazy on-call work life, is that what’s right for my family, may not work for somebody else…and that’s ok on both sides of the opinion. I am, however, going to say something that may sting a little…so prepare yourself and hold on…for those of you who deny the Elf in your house because “it takes too much time”…I would bet that the majority of you have spent more time on social media today than Roscoe has spent this year setting up his tricks. Ouch! That does sting, doesn’t it. That doesn’t mean you should do it if you don’t want to, just don’t use excuses that don’t hold up.

I am that mom who’s had an elf with a homemade “The Voice” set of chairs…microphone included. There have been Lego statues of our elf that were created while we were all sleeping peacefully…there have been messes in my kitchen, and this year…an elf who (like little boys do) peed in teeny cups…but on my kitchen counter! How dare that little elf?! The kids love it when Roscoe makes me “mad”, then he usually does something sweet to win me back over:) Truth is…none of this is for me or Matt…it’s for the kids, but as the magical years have been very quickly slipping away, having Roscoe in our home means more to me than it did in the beginning.

So, there you have it…I’m not sorry. Roscoe doesn’t sometimes do fancy things in my house to make someone else’s elf look lazy…he’s just trying to squeeze as many pitter patters of little feet roaming the house to find where he’s hiding…because honestly, those pitter patters aren’t so teeny tiny anymore and we are over here soaking up every bit of magic we can!