Elf On The Shelf To Leave Christmas Eve

What a joy it's been having Suzie our Elf on the Shelf around this year.  Suzie is my daughter Tara's elf.  Tonight when Tara goes to bed, Suzie will leave until next Thanksgiving.

Tara and the rest of us have had so much fun with Suzie.  We try to guess where she is going to show up every morning.  Suzie finally showed up where I guessed on Christmas Eve eve.  That rascal, I would guess the same spot every night and she finally showed up there.  She showed up on a Merry Christmas mirror holding Buddy (from the movie Elf.)

However, Tara suprised me the other morning when she said that she is sad that Christmas is coming.  Tara has had all her Christmas presents wrapped for a couple of weeks.  She even put stickers on her presents that say "Open this one first."  She's been practicing what we'll do Christmas morning and trying to bargain with us, on what time to get up on Christmas to open our presents.  So I was a little surprised when she said that she was sad that Christmas was coming.

I asked her why.  She said, It's because Suzie will be gone until next Thanksgiving.  She loves talking to Suzie.  She wrapped a gift for Santa and told Suzie not to tell Santa what it was.  Tara said, she'll miss getting up every morning and trying to find her.  I tried to help by saying that Suzie is in our heart while she's gone and that she'll be back before you know it.  I don't know if it helped.

This morning, I think Suzie was letting us know that she'll miss us too.  On the last day til she leaves, Suzie was sitting with the Angel on top of the tree.  We love the angel and all that angels stand for.  I just learned that Angel appears in the Bible around 125 times and most of it is around the time of Jesus, from an angel talking to Joesph in the beginning, all the way to the cross.  So Suzie was saying good-bye for now and that everything will be ok until next year.

Tara had a lot of fun with Suzie....along with the rest of us. She brought us joy and lasting memories.  So until next Thanksgiving, Suzie have a safe trip back to the North Pole and we'll see you before you know it.