Renki the Magical Elf

Do you see him?

This adorable Elf is from the cute kid's book, "The Elf on the Shelf". Some of the girls I teach in my Sunday primary class were talking about it and I remembered hearing about this before. I thought it was such a cute idea that I went out that Monday and got the kit from Books-A-Million for a fun FHE night.

We read the book and named the Elf; Renki. (That's 'Ikner' spelled backwards, Theo's brilliant idea!) We went around the room introducing all the kids. Tobie very cooly replied, "What's up?", Miriam gave an energetic wave accompanied by a giggle, Emma growled at the unwanted attention from the doll and Hannah just sweetly waved.

They believe in this Elf's magic so earnestly that I believe he could have jumped up and done a jig, but that would be against Santa's law, so he sits obediently on his perch and quietly watches the kids while making mental notes to report back to Santa with.

The night went smoothly. The kids were more helpful, more obedient and showed love and courtesy towards one another. If any one of them got out of line, the other would gently remind them, "Renki's watching you.". Which would quickly snap them out of their bout of disobedience.

It was all going well....until it was time to go to bed. When the lights go out, apparently that cute little Santa's helper becomes a minion of the Dark Lord's. It worked out alright as far as the two girls were concerned. They were paralyzed with fear to their beds. But we had to deal with Tobie sprinting across the house to our bedroom as he kept checking behind him to make sure that the possessed doll wasn't following him. Each time we had to chase him back to his room, and each time he came back just to let us know how much "dolls that move FREAK ME OUT!".

After a night of sleeping on our bedroom floor, he has gotten use to the idea of Renki. All the kids have, and they love waking up the next morning having to find where his next sitting spot will be.

Even though I'm glad that they got used to Renki, that also meant they got used to his presence and their true natures have come out already. That slight reminder that Renki is watching, doesn't hold as much power as it did at the beginning of the week. Oh well, I guess that's better than thinking Renki is out to bite their legs off or something gory like that.