Last night we had a naming ceremony for our elf "Keith."
It resembled the scene in Nemo where they give the little fish the nickname "Shark bait" and he has to swim through the ring of fire. It also kind of looked like what I imagine was going on in some of those sororities back in college--candles, chanting, giggling.
Last week, JT looked at me with his big blue eyes and asked "Mommy can we have an elf on our shelf?"
Supposedly all the kids in his class have very good moms who all had elves on their shelves already. I looked at JT and wanted to say "Sweetie, that elf sure does sound like a lot of work and consistency and well, um, have you met me?" Followed up with a hearty laugh while shaking my head as in "absolutely no to the elf, sorry kid."
But when I looked at sweet little JT it didn't quite go that way. He's like the Tiny Tim character of our family--he's the kid that's a little smaller than the others, always seems to get a little sicker, has to work a little harder and just wants everyone to be together. Those blue eyes, that face, the voice...I knew we were going to get an elf on our shelf.
We had a lot going on this past weekend. It was jam packed as the official kick off to the holiday party season began, with a few fun birthday parties thrown in the mix. Seeing how I am the parent that usually gets the gifts for the parties on the way to the parties, it's not surprising that I didn't find time to pick up an elf for our shelf.
No elf for our shelf, what were we going to do? Well, my husband, Tim, and I found the perfect elf fill in...a WWE wrestling action figure, of course.
When we showed the kids, they were a little confused but actually on board with our elf. In a quirky, Amish-like move, two of my children stayed up late on Saturday night sewing clothes for the little WWE elf by hand.
While my kids were busy sewing late into the night, Tim was on the couch nursing his (still) sore shoulder from rotator cuff surgery last month and I was knocking back a few at our adult Sunday school holiday party.
"Do you elf?," I asked the rowdy, somewhat drunk gang from church.
After what you can imagine are some inappropriate, yet hilarious, adult elfing jokes, the gang really came through with some great elf on the shelf ideas.
So, last night at dinner we discussed the elf rules as we understand them--the elf is magic after he/she receives a name, he will report back to Santa any crap they try to pull and nobody, I mean nobody, can touch the damn elf. Then we brainstormed names and all voted for Keith.
Once dinner was done and the dishes were cleared, the ceremony began. We lit as many Christmas candles as we could find. Everyone grabbed jingle bells and we started ringing and chanting: "Jingle, jingle bells. Jingle, jingle bells."
Tim with his booming voice proclaimed: "I hereby declare that this elf will be called Keith Babu and he now has the magic and the power to report back to the North Pole directly to Santa." (I forgot to mention Keith has a middle name which the kids also picked--Babu.)
The kids squealed with delight and now our very own elf on the shelf fun is about to begin. Sure our elf may look a little different from the other first graders' elves, but JT is really excited and happy. And that makes all of us happy. (Plus the fact that he didn't cost anything makes me even happier.)
As we said good night to the kids, we added, "Be good, Keith is watching."
The naming ceremony went something like this shark bait scene from Nemo:
This is the movie that inspired the kids to name the elf Keith, Hoodwinked. We love this movie and especially this part:
It resembled the scene in Nemo where they give the little fish the nickname "Shark bait" and he has to swim through the ring of fire. It also kind of looked like what I imagine was going on in some of those sororities back in college--candles, chanting, giggling.
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| What? Your elf looks different than ours? |
Last week, JT looked at me with his big blue eyes and asked "Mommy can we have an elf on our shelf?"
Supposedly all the kids in his class have very good moms who all had elves on their shelves already. I looked at JT and wanted to say "Sweetie, that elf sure does sound like a lot of work and consistency and well, um, have you met me?" Followed up with a hearty laugh while shaking my head as in "absolutely no to the elf, sorry kid."
But when I looked at sweet little JT it didn't quite go that way. He's like the Tiny Tim character of our family--he's the kid that's a little smaller than the others, always seems to get a little sicker, has to work a little harder and just wants everyone to be together. Those blue eyes, that face, the voice...I knew we were going to get an elf on our shelf.
We had a lot going on this past weekend. It was jam packed as the official kick off to the holiday party season began, with a few fun birthday parties thrown in the mix. Seeing how I am the parent that usually gets the gifts for the parties on the way to the parties, it's not surprising that I didn't find time to pick up an elf for our shelf.
No elf for our shelf, what were we going to do? Well, my husband, Tim, and I found the perfect elf fill in...a WWE wrestling action figure, of course.
When we showed the kids, they were a little confused but actually on board with our elf. In a quirky, Amish-like move, two of my children stayed up late on Saturday night sewing clothes for the little WWE elf by hand.
While my kids were busy sewing late into the night, Tim was on the couch nursing his (still) sore shoulder from rotator cuff surgery last month and I was knocking back a few at our adult Sunday school holiday party. "Do you elf?," I asked the rowdy, somewhat drunk gang from church.
After what you can imagine are some inappropriate, yet hilarious, adult elfing jokes, the gang really came through with some great elf on the shelf ideas.
So, last night at dinner we discussed the elf rules as we understand them--the elf is magic after he/she receives a name, he will report back to Santa any crap they try to pull and nobody, I mean nobody, can touch the damn elf. Then we brainstormed names and all voted for Keith.
Once dinner was done and the dishes were cleared, the ceremony began. We lit as many Christmas candles as we could find. Everyone grabbed jingle bells and we started ringing and chanting: "Jingle, jingle bells. Jingle, jingle bells."
Tim with his booming voice proclaimed: "I hereby declare that this elf will be called Keith Babu and he now has the magic and the power to report back to the North Pole directly to Santa." (I forgot to mention Keith has a middle name which the kids also picked--Babu.)
The kids squealed with delight and now our very own elf on the shelf fun is about to begin. Sure our elf may look a little different from the other first graders' elves, but JT is really excited and happy. And that makes all of us happy. (Plus the fact that he didn't cost anything makes me even happier.)
As we said good night to the kids, we added, "Be good, Keith is watching."
The naming ceremony went something like this shark bait scene from Nemo:
This is the movie that inspired the kids to name the elf Keith, Hoodwinked. We love this movie and especially this part:
Hilarious!
ReplyDeletehooooooow did i miss this post?!? best. ever.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you liked it, I think some people think we're nuts. :)
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