A Texas woman found herself going viral this week after she forgot her children’s Elf on a Shelf in the oven and subjected him to a gruesome, melty death.
Brittany Mease told her colorful tale Monday on Facebook, where about 72,000 people commented on the mishap. As of Thursday morning, more than 141,000 people had shared her post.
Mease wrote that when she brought the elf, named Elfis, out of storage on Dec. 1, she dreaded the task of finding different adventures on which to send him each day.
"Y'all know I can't stand doing Elf on the Shelf, but I suck it up every year and do it to see those precious smiles on my beautiful children's faces," Mease wrote.
She had a brilliant idea to get out of moving him each day. She put a cast on the elf’s leg and left a note for her kids to find that said Elfis broke his leg when he tripped on toys they left lying around the house.
She wrote that Doc McStuffins, a favorite children’s television show character, patched Elfis up, but that the elf needed bedrest for 14 days.
"Mom win, right?" Mease wrote. "I just got a free pass to not worry about moving that creepy guy for TWO WEEKS!"
Read Mease’s entire tale in the Facebook post below. Warning: The post includes colorful language that may be offensive to some readers.
The trouble began when her children, Graysen and Ily, noticed that Elfis had been on bedrest for longer than two weeks, Mease wrote. When the kids weren’t looking, she grabbed Elfis off the kitchen counter and tossed him in the oven, planning to deal with him later.
Then life happened, and Gray ended up hospitalized for several days. Mease told Mom.me that doctors believe he developed rheumatic fever following a strep infection in his throat.
In the chaos, Mease forgot about Elfis.
Until lunchtime on Monday, when her kids wanted leftover pasta -- baked in the oven.
"I preheated the oven and started cleaning the kitchen," Mease wrote. "About four minutes later, I started to smell something REALLY funky, and that's when all hell broke loose and I broke my son's heart."
Mease wrote that she and a visiting friend were talking and, mid-conversation, she realized what the smell was.
“I yelled, ‘(Expletive). The (expletive) elf is in the oven!’” she wrote.
She and her friend began frantically trying to rescue Elfis, and that’s when Gray walked in.
"Gray came in the kitchen with excitement (literally the happiest I think I've seen him since he got out of the hospital), thinking our elf was back, but his world fell apart as we were using kitchen utensils to get our burnt and melting elf out of the (expletive) oven," Mease wrote.
Photos Mease posted show the horrific aftermath, during which Elfis was hung up on the metal oven rack, scorched and misshapen.
Gray was heartbroken, Mease wrote. Ily, on the other hand, laughed and said she was glad that Santa’s favorite snitch could no longer tattle on her if she misbehaved.
Mease was left scrambling to find the spare elf she bought last year.
"Then I have to call Santa (in front of the kids) and ask him if he will please pick Elfis up tonight," Mease wrote. "Ya know, since he is unable to make it to the North Pole to get fixed because his head literally popped off…and his feet are completely melted off.
“(Expletive) this Elf on a Shelf (expletive). Wish me luck. Let’s see how I get myself outta this one.”
Mease on Tuesday updated her friends, saying she found the extra elf -- which she bought last year when she misplaced Elfis. She wrote that she was torn about what to do.
“Do I let our Elfis tradition go out in flames or have Santa’s magic bring him back?” she asked.
Ultimately, Mease decided that Santa should repair Elfis’ wounds and return him to their home. He even delivered Elfis to their home himself.
"As much as I despise this freaking elf, Santa has returned Elfis and I have committed to more days of moving the creepy thing," she wrote. "Christmas magic is real! Merry Christmas, everyone!"
The response to Mease’s predicament was strong, and sometimes it was as hilarious as Elfis’ oven mishap. One person organized a candlelight vigil for Elfis.
Others shared tales of their own Elf on a Shelf struggles.
Mease, an Army veteran, is using her newfound notoriety to raise awareness of Chiari malformation, a congenital defect in which a portion of a person’s brain protrudes out of the skull and into the spinal column.
Mease's daughter was born with the condition and has survived three brain surgeries to alleviate symptoms. The single mother writes about Ily's fight against the illness, as well as epilepsy, a sensory processing disorder and other health issues, on a Facebook page called Ily to Infinity.
She wrote that she has been strengthened by the messages and care from other parents all over the world who have children fighting the same illnesses that affect her daughter.
Mease also wrote that her children have come up with a plan to keep Elfis safe in the future. Gray decided that the elf should return to the exact same spot each night so he doesn’t get killed again.
"Gray is glad to have his Elfis back and Ily's a little salty, but she'll be alright," Mease wrote. "I plan on keeping both elves and using them as Christmas ornaments in the future, when (the kids) are older.
“I cannot let a funny mishap be forgotten.”
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