Snowy, the Elf on Our Shelf

Making his debut appearance in the Cisneros home this year is one of Santa's Christmas Elves. He's in the special class of elves called An Elf on the Shelf. He arrived one ordinary day in November and had settled himself on our dining room table with a book, which instructed Rebecca in the ins and outs of having an elf live with us. We can't touch him, or his magic could be broken. We can talk to him, but he can't talk back to us. Each day, he takes notes on what the child(ren) in our house does, whether she's bad or good, and takes any messages from her back to Santa Claus. The book instructed Rebecca to give her elf a name, and so he was named "Snowy." After Rebecca is asleep, Snowy flies back to the North Pole to give his report and visit with his friends and Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Then he flies back to us and chooses a different location from which to report each day.

Every morning, Rebecca rushes to find where Snowy has hidden himself. There have been two days since he arrived that he apparently didn't feel well or was too tired to make the trip back to the North Pole, because he was in the same place two days in a row. Rebecca was quite concerned one day and thought we should take him to the doctor, because he had planted himself in a box of tissue, after having not gone back to the North Pole the night before. It took some convincing, but she finally decided that if Snowy needed a doctor, Santa would make him see the Elf doctor at the North Pole.

We have been reminding Snowy that in a few days, we'll be flying to Tennessee to spend the holidays. Snowy has instructions that when he leaves our house next Tuesday evening, he will fly to the North Pole as usual, but then instead of flying back to California, he'll need to meet us at Grammy's house in Tennessee. Rebecca wants to leave him some snacks since this may mean some extra flying for him. I sure hope Snowy doesn't get lost and makes it safely to Tennessee! When Rebecca says her prayers at night, she includes prayers for Snowy's safety in flying to and from the North Pole. Needless to say, he's become one of our favorite Christmas traditions!