Sam’s wearing me out

Sam’s wearing me out. We’ve been doing Elf on the Shelf for several years now, and I’m really looking forward to H. figuring out that the parents are moving the elf.

She’s so close to figuring it out, too. I downloaded a calendar of Elf suggestions off the Internet and had it folded up in my purse. H. was rummaging through and pulled it out and read it out loud. “Elf on the Shelf calendar. Mommy, why do you have this in your purse?”

The best defense is a good offense. "Aren’t you supposed to be doing something else? What are you doing in my purse?”

Attention diverted.

Then came “Mommy, if Santa Claus is dead (we tell the story of St. Nicholas and how we honor his memory today with Santa Claus), how are there elves like Sam?”

“What do you think?” I asked. (My favorite question ever.)

“Hmmmm…maybe his real elves had children and Sam is a great-great-great-great…..”

You get the idea.

T. got it last year and this year has been interesting. He has suggestions for what Sam needs to do, but then he likes the mystery of finding him every day. One day I asked T. if he wanted to be in charge of finding Sam something to do and he said, “No. I want it to be a surprise.”

He’s done a great job not ratting me out to his sister. I’m very proud of him.

But overall, I am tired of having to come up with something new for Sam to do. The one time I had a repeat from a previous year, H. called Sam out on it. “You did this last year!” she said, in a very disappointed voice.

Sigh.

Less than a week to go and I can put the elf back in a box. Where he belongs.

Update:

So H. figured it out this morning. She was looking at the chalkboard where “Sam” had written “I love H. and T.” and commented, “Huh, he draws hearts like you do, Mommy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Pause.

“Why do you think that is?” I asked.

“Because you’re Sam?” she replied.

“Huh, you think I’m Sam?”

“Yep. I’ve been thinking it all month.”

“Really? Does that change how you feel about Sam?”

“Ummm…..No. But I know Santa isn’t really in the North Pole and Sam couldn’t be a real elf.”

“You know, just like your imagination brings your dolls to life, your imagination brings Sam to life.”

“Yeah. I love Sam.”

“You want to take a turn at making him do something crazy?”

“YES! Can I do that tonight?”

I think she’s good with the discovery. LOL…

Merry Christmas.

Reace Smith is the mother of two.