Tutu is Risen (Part 3)

December 3 2023 Day 33

The dog is barking. My daughter is teary eyed. Tutu is covered in cinnamon powder. Just another day at the old homestead.

Turns out quite a bit happened on Tutu the Elf on the Shelf’s first day of the new season with us while I was at work. It takes me a while to figure it all out.

(First, if you haven’t read parts one and two of the epic Tutu the Elf saga you can do that in the archives. It may provide some clarification!)

Anyway, Little Bean is telling me the story of what happened, her words falling out of her mouth like a desperate waterfall. I’m trying to keep up.

Some of her friends were over earlier that day. One of them is, shall we politely say, a non-believer in all this Santa and Elf business. To illustrate his non-belief, he reached out and touched Tutu.

Touched her.

Right on the nose.

For those of you unfamiliar with the lore, this is the most grievous sin that can be committed against the Elf on the Shelf. Touch the elf and the elf loses its magic. It effectively dies. Little Bean’s friend killed Tutu.

“Oh no,” I say. This is uncharted territory. I don’t know what to do next. My wife shrugs.

“So, um…” I’m trying to tread lightly here. “Why does Tutu have cinnamon powder on her.” My daughter has placed Tutu in a little shrine, like a little funeral pyre, and surrounded her with her favorite Tutu things; candy, flowers, stuffed puppy.

“That’s the only chance of bringing back Tutu’s magic,” she says.

“Oh,” I say. There’s a long pause where we both stare at Tutu. “Um, so where did you learn that?”

She looks at me like I’m insane.

“Everybody knows that,” my wife chirps. “Cinnamon can brings a lot of things back, even magic.”

“How long do we wait?”

“Overnight maybe,” Little Bean says. “Hopefully by morning.”

Later, I look up cinnamon to discover that yes indeed, it is a spice used to spell-cast love and positivity.

My daughter is attempting to cast a spell of love on Tutu to bring her beloved elf back from the dead. I don’t even know where to begin with this. I encourage you all to connect your own dots based on your own particular belief system.

For my part, there’s more practical concerns. I’ll have to have a chat with her friend. Or maybe with the dad of her friend. I’m not quite ready for Little Bean to walk away from magic quite yet. And if cinnamon sprinkles has anything to do with it, neither is she.

Later, after she’s gone to bed, I discover that she’s also written Tutu a note, apologizing on behalf of her friend, telling Tutu that she felt bad and could she please come back.

In the margins of my daughter’s note, I write, “It’s ok, I’m feeling better but it will take me a little while to be back to my normal self and don’t forget that I love you too. For now though, every time I sneeze I can taste cinnamon.”

In the morning, very early, she wakes me up. “She’s back daddy, she’s back and she said that she now sneezes cinnamon.”

And I watch her face, full of joy and relief, and I think, it’s not the elf that’s magic. It’s my daughter.