Pete the Elf!

We jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon this year during Christmas and Katie loved it. He arrived a little too early - Black Friday to be exact - so we had to get really creative closer to Christmas to find new spots for him everyday. Pete did a few relatively funny things like ride on Bullseye or make a pallet on the dining room table with napkins, but most of the time he was just hanging out in a different, hard to reach spot.

 

She woke up every morning wanting to see where Pete was hiding. If it ever took longer than 30 seconds to find him, the tears would start pretty quickly as she was worried he'd gotten lost on his way back from the North Pole. She started to get really attached to him and we worried what it would be like when Pete had to get picked up by Santa and wouldn't return for a year. So we devised a plan to let her hold him on Christmas Eve since in our eyes, he didn't need his magic anymore. Pete wrote her a poem and was hanging on her door knob on Christmas Eve morning.

She was thrilled she got to hold him and carried him around everywhere that day. That night, she boxed him back up and put him under the tree exactly like his letter told her. She said bye to him and then ran upstairs for bed. As we put her to bed, she politely asked us to ask Santa to let Pete stay with her instead of going back with him. It broke my heart. Then, on Christmas morning, she walked all around the Christmas tree searching for his box smiling the whole time saying "I think he's just hiding." We quickly diverted her attention to other things to get her mind off of her missing elf. She didn't mention him again for a few days but then she started wanting to know when Christmas was going to be here so Pete could come back. I'm sure I'm scarring her for life with this shenanigan, but it was fun for the time he was here!