Paging Doctor Mommy: Nokee - Our Elf On The Shelf

You may have heard about the book and the tradition of The Elf on The Shelf. You may have even seen the adorable television show about the elf named Chippey that aired this Christmas, An Elf's Story, that is based on the book. If not, you can watch the trailer here...

But just in case you still aren't sure exactly what purpose these little elves serve, let me tell you!

The Elf on the Shelf is how Santa knows who to put on the Naughty list and the Nice list. Every family that receives an elf has to name him or her in order for the elf to receive its Christmas magic and to become a part of the family's Christmas each and every year.

Thanks to my parents, we have our very own little Elf on the Shelf in our family... NOKEE! Reagan named him the first year that he came to be with us back in 2009, and he has truly become a part of our family since then.

Nokee is an excellent listener, and an even better observer. He is Santa's eyes and ears in our home! We can not touch Nokee or else he will lose his magic, but he always listens and delivers messages to Santa. He pays attention to everything that happens during the day, both the good and the bad, and he then reports back to Santa each night by using his magical Christmas powers to fly back to the North Pole. He flies back to our house each morning before we wake up, and he loves to play hide-and-seek by landing in a different spot every day. For the past two years, Reagan has loved to wake up during the holiday season to run downstairs and find Nokee!

Needless to say, we were very happy this year when we came downstairs a couple of weeks ago to discover that Nokee was once again in our home, and that he was up to his usual mischief! He was perched on a candlestick, holding an itty bitty tee tiny little note that almost required a magnifying glass to read, addressed to both Reagan and Myers...

Dear Reagan and Myers,

I am so happy to FINALLY come back to visit with you from the North Pole. Santa and Mrs. Claus and all of us elves have been busy all year getting ready for Christmas. We have also been keeping an eye on the two of you!

Reagan, you are such a busy little girl this year. You are in Kindergarten! Santa is very impressed that you are starting to read. WOW! I know that Mrs. Dreyer and Mrs. Paulson both love you very much and that they are very happy that you are in their class. Oh yes, I know who your teachers are! I also know all about Coach Diana, Coach Katie, Miss Suzanne, Mrs. Rusch, and Miss Danielle. I get tired just thinking about all of the fun activities that you do everyday. You are one lucky girl!

And you are an AWESOME big sister!

Myers, you are a very lucky little boy to have Reagan as your sister. I can’t believe how much you have grown over the past year! When I arrived at your house last year, you were just an itty bitty little baby! Now you are almost walking and talking and eating anything that you see!

Reagan, don’t worry, Santa and I have made special notes to make sure that we only bring toys for Myers that will be safe for him to play with… we don’t want him choking on any small pieces since he puts everything into his mouth! But we need you to give us some good ideas of toys that you think that Myers might like. And we need to know what presents you are hoping for this year, too!

I’m happy to be back in your house to visit with you again this year. Just remember the rules…

1 – No touching! You don’t want me to lose my Christmas magic!
2 – Tell me your wishes! Even though I can’t talk back to you, I can tell Santa!
3 – Be on your best behavior! I’m ALWAYS watching!

Happy Holidays Reagan and Myers! We’re going to have so much fun this year, I just know it!

Love,
Nokee, Your Elf

Since that morning, Nokee has been keeping us on our toes. He's landed in a few of his usual spots... on top of either of our Christmas trees, on the fireplace mantle, or hanging from a light fixture. But he has also had a few surprises for us this year.

One morning we found him inside our refrigerator with another small note explaining that he thinks our house is too hot and that the refrigerator reminds him of the North Pole.

The morning that Pops and Momsey arrived, we couldn't find him in the house anywhere... he was waiting in the car to ride to the airport with us! He had heard Reagan counting down the sleeps, so he decided to hitch a ride so that he could see them immediately upon their arrival!

We came downstairs one morning to find him sitting quite proudly beside Reagan's lunch box with yet another little note explaining that he had decided to help out around the house, so he had gone ahead and packed Reagan's lunch box for me. He must have been a bit confused though, because her lunch box was filled with a bag of uncooked rice, a can of tuna, a sleeve of Starbucks Via coffee, 2 large garlic bulbs, over a dozen peanut butter dog biscuits, a bag of Aveeno Oatmeal baby wash, and close to twenty Hershey kisses. Needless to say, I had to repack her lunch... Thanks anyway Nokee!

But this morning, we discovered his trickiest move yet. I had made a loaf of bread in my Breville Breadmaker last night (OMG I love that thing!), and had left a small bowl of unused flour sitting on the counter. Nokee must have knocked over the bowl of flour when he landed, because it was spread across my stovetop when we came downstairs. But that wasn't the best part of it... Nokee had made a snow angel in the flour!