Let me begin by admitting that I was a bit reluctant to let one of Santa's helpers into our home with the task of surveilling my five year old daughter. Would his fear-driven monitoring technologies and reports (he uploads data to the Fat Man every night) serve as a carrot or a stick to our kindergartener? Are these the kind of values we want to impart? We pulled the trigger and Larry began his stint as the eyes and ears of Santa two weeks ago.
Everything was going well... or so it seemed. Our daughter said goodnight to Larry each evening and then my wife and I moved him according to the supplied instructions. His new vantage point in the house allowed him to "get the goods" on our daughter every day until she worked out his new location and could adjust her behavior accordingly, so as to improve her chances of scoring big on Christmas.
And then it happened. Larry was out "shopping" one night (he generally stays out late) and I came across his laptop and Excel spreadsheet detailing my daughter's behavior. The workbook was open to the "naughty" tab and his notes covered everything from "not washing after wiping" to "picking one's nose" to "breaking wind in mixed company." Seriously? Who needs this kind of oversight? I knew it was time to bring the elf down a peg. I bided my time.
The opportunity presented itself last weekend at poker night. Four of my buddies and I gathered around our humble table to trade chips over a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Larry watched intently for a while before announcing that he wanted to "sit in for a few hands." Suffice it to say that Larry has no poker face whatsoever. Elves may also be color blind (not sure he can count either) and things quickly went from bad to worse for the poor little guy. By the end of the night, he was into me and my buddies for Two Large. "I wonder what Santa would think about all this?" I asked him pointedly.
Long story short, the reports on my daughter back to Santa have improved dramatically, and Larry has started down the long road of working off his debt by Christmas. I hope you can share the excitement of fabricating new chores each day for your own elf. We use an advent calendar to track the compound interest and keep things simple. Big fat five stars for this product!
After hearing from friends and reading reviews how great this was, we bit the bullet and got it. I cannot say enough about how cute this was for our two boys (age 6 and 3). They bolted downstairs every morning to find the elf, and the oldest cried when he touched it accidentally because he thought it would lose its magic. The story and elf was the sweetest thing. Note, however, that parents have to remember to move the elf around every night, or come up with creative excuses for why the elf decided to come back from the North Pole into the same spot! :-).
As soon as we opened the box, my 3 year old daughter said it was scary. I decided to let her warm up to it so I just put it on the mantle and read her the book. When I was done, she said she didn't like the elf and asked me if it could go to Santa's house and not come back here. I think it's a really cute idea, but maybe if the elf doll was a little...cuter looking(?) it would work better. That or she just doesn't like the idea of a doll watching her all the time, not sure I blame her on that one.
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