Elf on a Bar

Cora with Jingly Mistletoe's Elf Cottage.  Jingly is sitting on her finger in the photo.

Confession:  I am one of the only mothers in the world, or at least the world we happen to live in, who did not feel compelled to buy an Elf on the Shelf.

Sure, seeing the pictures of wayward elves on Facebook and in my friends' homes is always cute and I enjoy getting a daily report on the shenanigans of the Elf, "Jingle", who lives in Cora's classroom.

I can't even really put into words just why I don't want to do the whole Elf on the Shelf thing because it seems completely fun and harmless but something has just been holding me back.

I anticipated endless demands for the Elf's presence in our house and wasn't sure how to tell the kids that I simply didn't want to get one and couldn't even tell them why.  I figured I would end up throwing in the towel in the spirit of choosing your battles and all of that.

Imagine my surprise when I didn't hear even one complaint about the whole matter from either kid.  So I concluded they must not feel too deprived after all. 

A few days ago, Cora came flying into our bedroom to tell me that "her Elf (named Jingly Mistletoe) had made her bed for her!" (behold a real Christmas miracle- it was indeed made, for the first time ever) and was on the way downstairs to "get the muffins ready for breakfast so Mama wouldn't have to do it!!"(the muffins did somehow find themselves on Cora and Allen's plates).

My understanding is that the Elves sold on amazon.com have a reputation for getting into mischief, something we have more than enough of around here.  So, I suppose I should count my lucky stars that this imaginary Elf is quite industrious and even willing to do family chores.  Maybe I should start leaving Jingly a honey-do list and giving Colin a break.

Although, I was somewhat disappointed when Jingly did not make Cora's bed this morning.  When I asked Cora about it, she said that "Jingly got mommy's cough germs and was spending the day in bed in her cottage". 

So what does Jingly look like?  According to Cora she has long golden hair "like Rapunzel" and and is "smaller than a grain of sand like my sister was when she was first in your tummy Mama", which explains why none of us can see her.  And "Santa flew all of the elves down from the North Pole on a tiny plane that dropped her in our house but the plane was a very quiet plane so that is why it didn't wake us up".  Jingly Misteltoe was getting cold though so Cora built her a gingerbread house to live in yesterday which she carefully placed on our bar of all places, right above the Malbec and Grey Goose, so our wayward dog wouldn't eat it.

I doubted myself for a second today when I was at a friend's house and their family Elf had delivered a letter written in green ink from Santa last night with a special message in it- it was so sweet and the kids seemed so touched by it.  And those amazon elves are so stinking cute and they do have a heirloom gift kind of look about them.

But, if I had ordered one, then we wouldn't have Jingly's presence in our lives this Christmas.  And, one of my greatest treasures is Cora's imagination and the magic it brings to our home.

I can't imagine the past couple of years without Jonathan (Cora's imaginary husband) or their 13 daughter's or Parlay and Blake (Cora's imaginary ladybug friends), ect.

Now if only I get get Jingly to finish wrapping the presents...or doing the ironing...

Jingly's home by Cora the gingerbread architect.

Playing with Jingly and the elf cottage this morning.  Cora has been sleeping in her dress-up gowns lately (which is perfectly fine with me in the spirit of choosing your battles)

Cora tried to make Allen her Elf last month but it only lasted a couple of days.