Elf Antics!

For the second year our elf Lulu joined the family for the month of December. Lulu got off to a great start-leaving rhyming messages daily and showing up in the more precarious of places. The first day Olivia saw the elf she realized it was time to make sure she stayed on the nice list. Conversations went like this: Me: “Olivia would you please set the table?” Olivia: “Is Lulu still here?” When I said yes she helped set the table. Another time Olivia told me,“Mama I am not going to pull the baby’s hand back any more since Lulu is here.”

But Lulu wasn’t always on her A-game. One night she moved too quickly and Olivia-who was supposed to be sleeping-came downstairs and wondered why Lulu was already somewhere else. A few other times Lulu was sleeping on the job and we had to distract Olivia and quickly shove Lulu in another spot-like the laundry room! Then there was the day that Mark forgot the rule about not touching the elf and touched Lulu who was eating a cookie from the cookie jar, in FRONT OF OLIVIA. His defense was, he wanted to eat a cookie. Seriously!

The worst was when Lulu forgot to join us at Nana and Poppy’s house. After the third mention by Olivia of excitement that Lulu would come to Nana and Poppy’s house we realized we needed to find a Lulu replacement. Mark visited Target at 7 AM to find out they were not in stock. We checked two other stores at 9 AM as I tried to keep Olivia in bed, and finally Nana managed to convince a store owner to let us go into the store an hour early and purchase another Lulu. However, the elves look different now (different eyes and face shape). Realizing this as I tore into the box, I hid Lulu #2 in the chandelier and covered her face with holly. But there was no fooling Olivia. Upon finding Lulu she said “This is not Lulu. This is Xini’s elf Sparkle.” Thankfully, Olivia was ok with a visiting elf but Mark and I learned a very valuable (and $30) lesson, never leave Lulu behind again!