Our "New Family Tradition"

MB's kindergarten teacher introduced Elf on the Shelf to her class last year. It's a story book with a little elf who is supposedly Santa's scout. He appears in your house every morning in a new location, watches to make sure you're behaving, then flies back to the north pole at night to give Santa a report. Every day, I heard about "Zippy's" new location in the classroom. I almost went out and bought the kit for us, until I saw the price tag. Best price I could find was around $40. Hmmm...I figured I could find my own little vintage elf for a few dollars, and we already knew the story, so no need for the book. But, I was busy, and it never occurred to MB that we could have our own elf at home. Until this year...

I drive the morning carpool. This morning, our extra passenger said, "Where was YOUR elf this morning?" Then she proceeded to to tell us all about finding her elf in her house. MB listened to all of this, then said with the saddest tone you can imagine, "I want an elf at my house!"

"Oh, honey," I said. "Mama's already spent a lot of money this Christmas. I don't think I can buy that elf."

Our little friend had an answer for that. "Oh, you don't have to buy him! You just have to call Santa and ask him to send you one. All mommies and daddies have Santa's phone number!"

Oh...yeah.

A faux vintage elf and a new storybook appeared in our house today. Okay, I admit that it's really cute and MB loves it. But, they could have sold that elf with a pamphlet for $5.

Bah humbug.