My Thoughts on: Elf on a Shelf

Admittedly, I came late to the Elf on the Shelf game.  My kids are ten and seven, and while Christmas does still hold a lot of wonder for them, it seems to be turning to wondering why year after year, Santa won't cough up a iPad or an iPhone for Christmas.

So when asked by the Applophiles why we don't participate in the whole Elf thing, I didn't really have an answer or much of a clue what this dude does.  After spending a few seconds with Google, I determined that with a price tag of $29.99, this sprite was never going to occupy anyplace in our home.  But not one to disappoint the children, I came up with my own version of the game, "Buck in a Truck"

Buck is a Buck O'Neil bobblehead.  If you don't know who Buck O'Neil is, do your own Googling.  So he came down off of the Boy Child's shelf, was given a jaunty red stocking cap and put into the bed of a Little Tikes dump truck.  (Picture is at the bottom.)

I set the bar low from the beginning regarding what Buck would do at night, and how his movements would come to be.  He chills in the truck during the day, Mommy moves him from room to room at night, and if he forgets to move, feel free to hide him yourself.  If there is ANY FIGHTING over who finds Buck, who saw Buck first, etc, Buck goes back with the rest of the bobblehead collection, only to move again just once a year when Mommy dusts that shelf.  (No judgments.  If you're a dusting freak, simply don't come over to my house.  On second thought, feel free to pop in with your Pledge and some rags, and I will let you go to town!)

Now I realize that some other kids' elves are up to all sorts of hijinks and mapcap adventures in the night, but most nights Mommy can barely manage to stay awake long enough to put the two Rushlings to bed, and she needs at least two cups of coffee in the morning to do anything remotely creative. That is just how Mommy rolls. *flashing the universal UnPinterested Mom gang symbol*

(What's an "UnPinterested Mom" you ask?  Let's not open the Pinterest Pandora's box with me just now, and we'll save it for another blog.)  

Suffice it to say that most of the moms behind these elves are a part of the same group of Crafty Crap/Dinner Must Have At Least 74 Ingredients/Make All Your Kids' Costumes Pinterest-y women that I refuse to try and keep up with. 

If you are one of these moms, God Bless You!!  I am not hating on you, really.  If the world were made up of just one kind of moms, the word "mom-petitive" would never have been coined, and the underacheiving moms like myself would have no one to talk about when we meet up in the grocery store in the frozen meals aisle.

But I'm a Stay at Home Mom!  I have all the time in the world to Pin and craft and cook and sew and dream up wild adventures for Buck!  Right?  RIGHT?  Okay sweetie, and you probably also believe that if you wish really, really hard, your husband's body will transform into Channing Tatum's.  Ahhhh, Channing Tatum.  We'll save my feelings regarding him for another blog as well. 

So let's all raise a glass of sugar-free hot chocolate (BWAH-HAH-HAH!  The words sugar-free and chocolate should NEVER be used in the same sentence!)) to the moms who are too cheap to buy the Elf, too sleep-deprived half the time to remember to move the Elf substitute every night and totally uninterested in creating a whole alternative lifestyle for a stuffed toy.


Sparkly Kisses,

D