This year (like last) has been a little out of control with the Santa. Last year we received an elf named Marty that came from the North Pole to watch the boys and report back to Santa each night on their behavior. Now there are a few things we have learned about Marty that I thought other families with elves might appreciate knowing.
Incident #1 -
One morning Nolan woke up and Marty was in the same place as the day before. This is not a good situation because he is supposed to go to the North Pole every night and when he comes back he is in a different location in the house. This caused a short meltdown followed by a quick response from dad. You see, the elves have days off just like people do. They don't have a set Saturday/Sunday (because this is their busy season) but they do get a few days off during the holidays and we never know when they will be. Must have just been Marty's day off! (We also heard that friend's elf just likes to "play tricks" sometimes and goes back to the same location just to see if the children are paying attention...this could have been the case as well.)
Incident #2 -
One day Marty decided to sit on top of a little lamp in our living room. Since elves are magical, the rules state that you are not allowed to touch them. (They would lose their powers and they would not be able to get back to the North Pole.) The elves are always perched up high on shelves and on top of ledges for that reason. When Marty decided to sit on that lamp it was a little to close for Hudson to resist. He threw a fit over Marty for most of the day. He wanted to hold him and ended up melting down and calling the situation "stupid" which then made Nolan flip out because Hudson was throwing a fit and saying bad words right in front of Marty! Gasp! He was sure that Santa was not going to come to our house after this report! We had to explain to Nolan that Santa goes to all houses. He just doesn't bring presents to the kids that are on the naughty list. He was satisfied once he realized that Hud's bad behavior would not be his problem. Ugh! (This little ordeal prompted a personalized video from Santa for Hudson where he specifically told Hud to "Stop throwing those silly tantrums!" and to let him know that there was a note in his file and Hudson is currently on "naughty watch" over those fits. That was some scary stuff for Nolan to take in. (Hudson couldn't have cared less.) When he saw that Santa knew all about Hudson it made him think about things. Yikes! Good thing in Nolan's video from Santa he told Nolan that he knew he was "trying" to be nice to his brother - but he thought Nolan could probably "try" a little harder. The videos were awesome and they came from this new magical site that Santa has set up called www.portablenorthpole.tv.)
Incident #3 -
Hudson's best friend from school Eden has an elf named Jordy. One day her mother was putting something up in the book shelf where Jordy was sitting and it caused the shelf to move and Jordy fell onto the floor face down. Poor little Jordy! Eden wanted to run and pick him up but the 7 year old knew this was not okay and began screaming because Jordy would lose his magical powers!! What a dilemma! Luckily their mamma knew just what to do and she called the North Pole Hotline. (This is the same number sometimes used by parents to call in a bad behavior report - they just route you to a different department for the Elf help desk.) Thank goodness they were able to give her prompt advice - use kitchen tongs! If they could pick the elf up with some tongs and place him back on the shelf quickly he would not lose his powers. If you don't have a pair of tongs you might want to invest in a set because it's going to be a long month!
I hope these little tidbits that we have learned over the past week will help alleviate some of your holiday Santa stress. :)
