Collins the Elf

I have never done Elf on the Shelf with Eli.  It's not something we really wanted to do, for a variety of reasons.  I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon, just because, and we were really striving to keep Christmas focused on Jesus and less on Santa.  However, Eli's class at school has an elf (Annie), and he started asking why we didn't have an elf and maybe we could ask Jesus to tell Santa he wanted an elf named Collins.  All that being said, the Taffs ended up with an elf  in the middle of the month.

I have no idea where Eli came up with the name Collins (I like to think he's a British elf).  My guess would be Eli's buddies Kherington and Kinzley have a little sister named Kollyns and we had gotten their Christmas card earlier in the week.

The premise of the elf is that he appears each Christmas season to keep an eye on you.  During the night, while you are asleep, he flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa about your behavior.  The next morning he's back at your house but in a new location.  Eli had fun racing to find Collins each morning, but you can't touch him or he loses his magic!

I'm glad Collins wasn't here the whole month of December.  It was a chore to get that thing moved each night and to come up with funny antics that he could participate in - our elf will not be bad, or he will be shipped back to the North Pole!

The first morning, December 15, with Collins.

So proud!

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 19

The look on Eli's face is hilarious.  He grabbed the crayon box and Collins fell over.  Eli was devastated and on the verge of a meltdown.  He wanted to make sure that we knew he didn't touch Collins; he fell all by himself!

December 20

December 21

Mommy missed the picture, but Collins was hanging out at the nativity, worshipping baby Jesus.

December 22

Collins and Rudolph were playing reindeer games last night!

December 23

December 24

Collins leaves tonight to head back to the North Pole to help Santa prepare for his biggest night of the year.  Goodbye Collins!  We'll see you next year!