Elf Not on My Shelf Anymore: A cleaning victory

I can admit that I'm a sucker for simple entertainment.  I can amuse myself for quite a long time making up new words to songs, like I'm some sort of Weird Al Yankovic wanna be.  My dad was the same way.  So when the Elf on the Shelf craze hit I truly thought my family needed one.  I could clearly  visualize the amusement posing a small stuffed elf would bring!  I really hadn't taken into
consideration that my daughter was almost thirteen years old and possibly too old to start this tradition.  If I'm honest this was probably what I was thinking anyway...

Of course I would have never left him like this for Jen to find.  

The problem is he never made it out of the box.  For the past two years he has not sat on a shelf high and proud, but was left stuffed in his box unloved and unseen.  Santa would be very upset to know that he became just another "thing" laying around.  A victim of hoarding.

After last weeks cleaning spree I decided that it was time for him to live.  He needed a new home where he would be loved and allowed to have the adventures he deserves. My dear cousin has three wonderful little boys who are just the right age to enjoy this holiday tradition, so I knew what I had to do.  He had to go.

So today I set in motion Operation Santa's Watching.  I pulled some strings and acquired a letter from the big man himself and wrapped the package.  Hopefully in a few days 2 little boys (the third is too little) will open this package and their little eyes will widen with the hope that from miles away the jolly old man that is Saint Nick is watching them.  

 Sometimes there are rewards in tasks we don't want to do and for me this is one of them.