On December 6th a new friend came to join our family for a month or so. His name? Tinsel


Or "the infernal spawn of EVIL" as he seems to appear to the boys. We read his book "The Elf on the Shelf" which told us all about an elf that lives in the house with the family and reports back to Santa every night about how well or not so well the kids are doing. It explained that he can't move or talk to them he just listens and if he gets touched that he looses his magic. And as soon as we were done the boys looked up and saw sitting on the half wall outside their door their elf on the shelf. They both immediately started to back away from him their faces etched with sheer TERROR. Hyrum kept asking "Is that REAL?!? I think he's real?  Is he real?" and looked carefully to see if he was moving. Noah kept saying "He's going away tonight and I'm happy! I want him to GO AWAY!" I went over to him to tell him that Noah was exceptionally good at the dentist office that day but they were still nervous about him. I'm surprised that they got any sleep at all that night worrying about the intruder. Not sure this was the best idea. The next morning the boys nervously wandered the house until they found him here.


Getting to know the new neighbors. That night the boys wanted to read the elf on the shelf story to Tinsel, perhaps to remind him of his duties and that he couldn't move when the boys were awake.


Every morning was met with a touch of fear while they nervously roamed the house until he was found.



One day Tinsel made the mistake of hopping in a toy school bus.  Hyrum quickly figured out that he could move him around without actually touching him.


He took a tour with the help of the boys


A neighbor friend tried to convince him that if you touched the elf once that it would talk to you but if you touched it again it would loose it's magic.  We tried to put the kaibosh on that. But he ended up falling out of his ride with the boys increased courage around him.


But they were still too nervous to touch him after he fell. He chose higher perches for his next few times

Tinsel acquired some brand new skills after his brush with magic loss



But soon got courage enough to enter back into the line of fire. He was properly respected this time.


It freaked Hyrum out to have him in his stocking. Tinsel soon found the kitchen is a delicious place to be



We also started sending notes back and forth to Santa through Tinsel.


Tinsel even joined us in filling the manger with good deed hay


And gave proper respect to the Holy Family


He was given a note from Hyrum that he forgot to take so we had to give it to him again at his next perch


The note is CLASSIC! A total keeper! If you can't read it, it says

Satu,
am I on
the
notee
list

The suspense was killing him! He was sweating it.  But Santa soon sent his response.


That little trick freaked out the boys too. At one point he was dangling from one hand. They were afraid to go in the bathroom. This was Tinsels last place


Hyrum wanted to light the candle so badly and Dad did it for him without telling mom who had said no. When I walked past I smelled the marshmallows burning and without thinking grabbed Tinsel and pulled him to safety.  He then lost his magic. Lucky for us and for Tinsel it was the day before Christmas eve that he lost his magic and was able to hitch a ride with Santa back to the North Pole while we were in Idaho.

The jury is still out whether we will ask Tinsel to come back next year. We may put it to a vote.



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