on the first day of Christmas...

The Christmas season starts December 1st at our house.  For at least a week now Rachel has been counting down the days until December 1st, because she knew that December=Christmas!

So this morning Rudy, our Elf on the Shelf, made his first appearance of the year.  Rachel's completely embraced the elf idea, and couldn't wait to see him.  Every morning Rudy is hiding in a new look out spot, and she searches the downstairs to find him.  According to the book, Rudy watches her throughout the day and reports back to Santa at night.  Then he flies back and into a new spot early in the morning.  The book warns that if you touch the elf he could lose his magic.

This morning she found Rudy sitting on top of the speaker in the family room, next to our advent calendar (another important part of our December).  She was thrilled to see him, but one of the first things out of her mouth was, "What if Rebecca touches Rudy!?"  Oops.  Rudy didn't take into account last night when he chose his spot the fact that there's a very curious 18 month old in the house that will touch anything and everything--especially things that are new, exciting, and different.
Sure enough, later in the day, after Rachel got home from school, and she and I were busy doing something else, we heard a crash in the family room, just as Rebecca started to cry.  I looked in to see Rebecca standing next to the speaker, the advent calendar house on the floor next to her, and Rudy in her hand.

*GASP*

Rachel BURST into tears immediately.  "RUDY!" she screamed.  "She touched Rudy!  Oh no....." she sobbed, "I really wanted him to fly!"

I calmed down a crying Rebecca, who really wasn't hurt after pulling the house down on herself, then tried to calm down a crying Rachel, assuring her that Rudy would be okay.

Over the weekend she saw the Elf on the Shelf special, which was on TV.  In the story the boy who doesn't really believe in elves, touches the elf, knocks him down, and the elf can't fly anymore.  That's why Rachel was so sad--she didn't want Rudy to lose his ability to fly.  In the movie the elf's friends carried him back to the North Pole to a special elf hospital, where they took care of him, and he was able to fly the next morning.  Rachel asked if that's what would happen to Rudy.  Not wanting to lie to her, I said, "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

So Rudy is currently "resting" on the mantle, where Rebecca can't reach him,

and I told Rachel that we'll just have to see tomorrow if he's in a new spot, like usual.

So it's been a catastrophic day on this first day of Christmas.  Hopefully Rudy will remember to choose better places to hide for the rest of the month, out of reach of you know who.