Please Welcome Randy Owen: Our Christmas Elf on the Shelf

A close friend told me on Monday she wanted to come over this week to present us with a family Christmas Gift. She said that the gift is time sensitive. Intriguing right? I know what you are thinking ‘She made an edible gift’. I thought the same thing and salivated thinking about what it could be: bread? cookies?

We made plans to have dinner and let the kids play as I am more of a ‘spend quality time with gift giver than drop the loot and head out’. At any rate, after dinner and play time, the gift giver said since my husband was not home, to wait until we could all open it together. I thought ‘darn, I was hoping for some dessert.’

Later in the evening we finally got to open the family gift and I squealed with delight. The rest of the family just looked wondering what ‘it’ was: ‘It’ was Elf on The Shelf. I read the box and instructions and then the rest of the family joined in the excitement.

What, you are not familiar with Elf on the Shelf?  From the Website: ‘A Christmas Tradition is Santa’s special helper. He keeps an eye on children all over the world and lets Santa know how everyone is acting’. See, the elf moves around and is a different location each morning. He is watching and reporting children’s behavior to Santa, he can talk to adults but not children and the kids are not to touch the elf or he will lose his magic.

Now, the challenge was to name the elf: Out of nowhere came: ‘Randy!’, ‘Yes, Randy, dat is his name’.  I instantly loved the name as did my husband. The cheerful reaction was then followed by ‘No, it’s not, it’s Owen!’ And then the uncomfortable silence when children wondered what Mom and Dad were going to do.  We glanced at each other and knew we  both preferred Randy. I said ‘How about Owen for the middle name?’

A few uncomfortable seconds pass and then our son says ‘Randy might tell Santa that we are naughty if we fight’. My daughter’s repsonse was ‘Okay, Randy is his name’. It was quite sweet to see them decide together that it is best to come to an agreement than have the elf tell Santa they are naughty.

Once the agreement was made and children in bed, I had a premonition: the children would burst into our bedroom early in the morning so we could go look for Randy and his new location (see, he moves each night to a new location to observe from). Guess what? that premonition became reality at 5:45 am. Randy was sitting on the bathroom light suspended above the sink (not that I noticed as my eyes were barely open).

Do you have an ‘Elf on the Shelf’? What is his/her name?