Elf on the Shelf Day...Whatever

Our elf has been quite the lazy son-of-a-gun lately. It's like he's gotten comfortable in the house. Either that or he's already decided what his report back to Santa will be and he's fed up with "watching" us. Jim decided to clean out our home office file cabinets tonight and when he took the year-end documents upstairs to store, Mr. Marbles took the opportunity to do some office work of his own. If only I was the one reporting back to Santa, I think Mr. Marbles might be on the naughty list...

Elf on the Shelf Day 15

Seeing as how the world is supposed to end tomorrow and all, Mr. Marbles accompanied me to work today and took advantage of the fact that I own my own little skin care practice and can give heavily discounted facials. And by "heavily discounted" I mean free. A) He's an elf and has no money and B) I still feel kinda bad about almost killing him off in day thirteen's post. Call me forgiven after this. Anyway, he chose my "All Organic Facial" due to concerns that anything harsher would take the color right off of those rosy little cheeks of his. Good choice, Mr. Marbles! Now go tell Santa I've been good!

Elf on the Shelf Day 14

Someone pointed out to me that my blog postings had taken on the tone of a lousy soap opera and I have to say I agree. When Bee grabbed Mr. Marbles that should have just been the end of the drama, but nooooo, I got lazy. (Hey, you try being this creative for 24 days in a row and see if you don't take the easy way out once in a while.). Anyway, today Mr. Marbles is enjoying his time of relaxation. I'm thinking as soon as I get the rest of my wrapping, packing, baking, and cleaning done ill probably do the same.

Elf on the Shelf Day 13

Ok, we skipped day 12 but the picture below explains why. It seems Mr. Marbles wasn't dead-dead, only kinda dead. That meant we still had a chance with him. Currently he's in 'elf-tensive' care and is being taken good care of. He's got wires and tubes coming out of him and bless his little heart, he's still got that goofy smile of his. So things are looking up! Stay tuned and think good elf thoughts!

Elf on the Shelf Day 11 AKA Day of Tragedy

It was bound to happen. Mr. Marbles was found this morning, face down in the middle of our living room floor, unmoving, and unresponsive. Right next to him, sat Bee the Beagle, looking...guilty. Jim asked, "Why is he lying face down on the floor like that? Is he planking again?" "No," I answered, "He's dead." "Why is he dead?" Jim asked. "I guess he died because he was so sad by all of the naughty behavior." I answered. (Bee, I'm looking in YOUR direction.) I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, folks. Stay tuned for this continuing saga...

Elf on the Shelf Day 10

Planking. Have you heard of it? Here, allow me to save you the trouble of a Google search: Planking (otherwise known as, The Lying Down Game) is a relatively new fad where participants lie stiff as a board (or plank!), face down, and unmoving, in often unusual places. They then have pictures taken of their planking and post the pictures on social media sites. Umm, fun? Anyway, it seems we have a trendy elf in our house. Today Mr. Marbles was planking on our Christmas tree! Don't worry, Mr. Marbles, I'll post the picture for you...

Elf on the Shelf Day 9

Mr. Marbles obviously took his opportunity of free access in my pantry seriously yesterday. Today he was found building snowmen out of marshmallows. (Jim says, "Oh he needed to build himself some friends, he's lonely." I'm totally afraid of what this naughty little elf is capable of when given a Sharpie marker. Watch out!

Elf on the Shelf Day 8

Well I can see that our little Mr. Marbles wasted no time in getting his teeth back to their sugary state after his cleaning yesterday. Elves love sugar, we all know this. There's plenty-o-sugar in maple syrup so I can't say I blame him for his craving. Gee, I hope he doesn't mind generic brand syrup from The Walmart!

Elf on the Shelf Day 7

After all those marshmallows that Mr. Marbles ate yesterday I figured he should probably get his teeth cleaned. My sister in law just happens to be the world's most fabulous dental hygienist and I was scheduled for a cleaning today anyway, so I brought him along. He was a good little patient and sat very still but wouldn't open that mouth of his, for love or money. I'm not even a hundred percent sure there are even any teeth in that plastic mouth of his. But he did get to flirt with the girls in the office a little and I am now probably going to be known as "that patient who brought an elf to her cleaning." Ah well, at least my teeth feel all shiny and clean!

Elf on the Shelf Day 6

First off, I've had a bit of a stomach flu today so the elf was frankly the furthest thing from my mind. With that said, I also haven't ventured near the kitchen today because the thought of food today, well, it's not pretty. Luckily it seems Mr. Marbles is immune to my flu bug (seems fitting since he's made of cloth and plastic). He was found this evening, helping himself to some roasted marshmallows. My only thought was, how the heck would I explain an accidental kitchen fire to my firefighter husband (who IS on duty today) should it come to that?! Wow that could be a little embarrassing. On a side note, today I discovered a fun (not really) little trick that Bee has picked up. The second picture today shows how clever she is at toilet papering our bathroom. Who needs a naughty little elf when you've got a naughty little Bee?

Elf on the Shelf Day 5

Mr. Marbles has gotten a share of his own medicine today. Instead of pulling one of his little pranks, it seems he's been taken hostage by some of the toys in our game room that the kids like to play with when they visit. Tsk, tsk, even the My Little Pony is in on the act. I'll be honest, I didn't think she had it in her. On a side note, Jim pronounced the elf's name "Mr. Mar-Bells" the other day. It has made me giggle every time I hear it. Tomato, toe-mah-toe I guess!

Elf on the Shelf Day 4.5

I know that technically Mr. Marbles has already made his appearance today but we had our niece and nephew over to make gingerbread men today. They'd heard about this elf living in our house and wanted to see him, so Mr. Marbles had to get up to some extra antics today. We started by searching for him and wouldn't you know it, that crazy elf was fishing in the toilet. At first they weren't too sure of the elf but seemed to quickly get over the creepy factor. (Although I did notice that neither of them wanted to return to the "elf bathroom" without an escort. Smart kids.) I'm also thinking that for parents $34.99 might be a wise investment, as elves go. Today whenever there was even a HINT of rebellion, all I had to say was "Mr. Marbles is watching you." and they would snap back in line. What good little soldiers they are. (Susanne, I apologize if your children need therapy later on in life.)

Elf on the Shelf Day 4

Last night after I put the dogs to bed and climbed into bed myself, I waited a few minutes and whined to Jim, "I heard a noise on the stairs. I'm scared." It's not unheard of for me to occasionally do this (hey, it's quiet in this huge house, I can hear every noise and sometimes the noise is S-C-A-R-Y!) Jim went to check out the "noise" (my hero!) and found Mr. Marbles at the bottom of the stairs. Apparently Mr. Marbles is a dare devil!

Elf on the Shelf Day 3

There was no note from Mr. Marbles today but I guess elves need to shave too sometimes. On second thought, I don't think he needed to actually shave, his face is as smooth as plastic! Don't cut yourself, Mr. Marbles, you cost $34.99!!!

Elf on the Shelf Day 2

Jim was a little confused when he found Mr. Marbles in his truck this morning. I don't think he "gets " this whole elf thing yet. Today Mr. Marbles was found hiding in the freezer, holding onto a bag of meatless soy crumbles. His note explained that he was not used to Idaho's warm weather yet and was a bit homesick for the North Pole. Oh Mr. Marbles, you're killing me!

I'm back!

Well hello there! We are safely back from our trip and glad to be enjoying the comforts of home once again. It was so odd waking up in our bed the first morning we were home and realizing that there was no fancy, delicious breakfast waiting for us! We are both glad to be home but I must admit I'm already dreaming of warm, tropical places...Maybe next year.
Before we left for our trip I had gotten most of our Christmas shopping done (except for a few little things here and there). There is one tradition that I'm starting for Jim this year: Have you ever heard of the Elf on the Shelf??? It's this creepy little elf doll that you purchase
And it comes with a book and you're supposed to tell your kids that the elf is visiting from the North Pole to spy on them and will be leaving on December 24th to report back to Santa whether they've been naughty or nice. Moms are supposed to move the elf around during the night and its a big fun game the next day for the kids to find the elf to see what "naughty" things the elf has done. We don't have kids. We have dogs. In particular we have Bee, a one year old beagle who likes to chew expensive things. The elf was $34.99. Get the picture? Still, I think as long as our elf stays out of Bee's reach he'll be fun. Jim will think he's creepy so there's my fun. I decided I needed some ideas for my elf on where to put him each morning so I turned to the Internet. And you know what I found? Crazy moms who make their elves do things like, pour flour all over the counters and make "snow angels". Or make their elves take all the ornaments off the tree. Uh, guess who gets to clean those little messes up? That's right, me. So I'm thinking my little elf is going to do naughty things like take 50 dollar bills out of Jim's wallet so that I can get spa treatments. Anyway, the book also requests you name your elf. The other night I turned to Jim and said, "If you had to name an elf what would you name it??" Of course his response was, "Kari, I don't know. I'm too tired to think of elf names." So I had to name the thing myself. Everyone, meet Mr. Marbles! I ordered Mr. Marbles a bit late so we only got him yesterday. Jim was at work so the way I decided to introduce the elf into our home was by strapping him into the passenger seat of Jim's truck with a note that said, "Sorry I'm late, my flight got delayed and they lost my luggage, you know how that goes..." I'll be blogging every day until Christmas about the naughty things Mr. Marbles does. I know it's not the same as reading about warm sandy beaches but hopefully it's good for a laugh. Enjoy!

Our last day

Today we woke up early and enjoyed the B&B breakfast. I had nightmares last night about Robert the doll (did you google him?) so of course the first thing I told Jim was, "We must go taunt that doll!". So after checking out of our lodging, we took off to see the museum that houses creepy Robert. And creepy doesn't even begin to cover it. If you don't know his story or don't want to google him, let me tell you about Robert. Robert is a doll who was given to a child named Eugene in 1906, by the family's Bahamian servant who was skilled in black magic. Because the servant was unhappy with Eugene's family, she cursed them through Robert the doll. The family swore they could hear Robert talking to Eugene and neighbors often said that Robert would move about the house, looking out windows when the family was not at home. Strange and bad occurrences took place when Robert was around and Eugene was often said to tell everyone, "Robert did it!". Robert was eventually locked in a trunk when Eugene died in 1972. The family who bought Eugene's house found Robert and shortly thereafter began to have the same bad happenings as Eugene's family did. Robert was said to eventually drive the new homeowner insane. Robert now resides in a small museum and is said to still haunt anyone who makes fun of him. It is said that if you want a picture of Robert, you must ask his permission and wait until he grants it by tilting his head. If Robert does not grant permission, you will be cursed if you take a picture anyway.
I was excited to be in the same room as Robert. I was even more excited that Jim and I were the only people in the entire museum. I wanted a picture. I approached Robert. Nothing happened. I said, "Well hi there, Robert! May I please take your picture?". Nothing happened. I walked around the exhibit and read Robert's fan mail. (Robert receives tons of letters each year asking him to please lift a curse, or for forgiveness. Robert even has letters and birthday cards from presidents Bush and Clinton) I approached Robert again and whispered, "I don't care if you give me permission or not you crappy old doll! I want a picture!". So I took my picture. This may have been a bad move. We wandered around a bit more and I was overjoyed to see a skeleton sitting on an old fashioned wheelchair and an antique hearse. The odd thing is, there were no descriptions of these items so I still don't know what the heck this museum was.
Once we were done with Robert, we stopped at a Cuban sandwich shop for cafe con leches and sandwiches for dinner then started the journey back to Fort Lauderdale. On the way, I made Jim stop at Shell World because any store with the world 'World' behind it has to be exciting! Its a whole WORLD of SHELLS! It did not disappoint! We finally made it back to Fort Lauderdale (and passed some 'Alligator crossing' signs on the way!). We returned our rental car and checked into our hotel for the night. Tomorrow we will be at the airport for the long flights home, with a long layover in Chicago. Because I don't particularly think sitting in airports are exciting, and therefore think reading about sitting in airports would be REALLY not exciting, there won't be a blog post tomorrow. What I can say tonight is that these last 26 days have been wonderful despite some things not going exactly as planned. For those of you who have helped us get here: WE SIMPLY CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!! And for those of you who have followed our adventures through my blog, thank you too!!! There were nights when I was tired and didn't feel like writing but would remember an email, text or Facebook comment where people said they looked forward to reading this each day. So I kept at it and now we have a great little diary of our trip. Thank you!!! Jim asked if I was going to keep the blog up and my answer? Maybe! I love reading friends' blogs when they post fun things they've done with their kids, good recipes, or home projects. So who knows, maybe I'll keep it up. And maybe Jim will post about whatever it is men like to do. (Ha!) But again, thank you for reading!
So for the last time on this trip we say goodnight from the Ebbers!

Addendum:
Dear Robert,
I am so sorry that I called you a crappy little doll today while I was at your museum. I didn't mean it, I just really wanted a picture of you to scare my blog readers. Please forgive me and I will tell everyone what a terrific doll you are. I really do not want a curse on my head, especially since I am getting on an airplane tomorrow. Thanks, Robert!
Your friend,
Kari
PS, Jim is also sorry that he said you're not scary.

Conch Republic, Day 2

It's so strange to get to explore the same city two days in a row since we've been on a constant move for almost a month now. And explore we did! We woke up early again this morning and went downstairs for coffee and breakfast. This B&B actually had a nice breakfast prepared for us. We then walked over to the southernmost point of the US for a photo opportunity. We decided that our best bet for getting to know more about the city was to take one of the tour trolleys that allowed us to hop on / hop off. We were able to spend a lot of time on foot this way as well. I would never have guessed this but apparently Key West has the largest number of historical buildings in the US. I enjoyed seeing the historical architecture as well. And really, how can you not love a city that has thousands of wild chickens roaming the streets? One of our stops took us to a really neat toy store where we were able to get a few small gifts for our nephew's birthday. (See picture). We had photo opportunities everywhere we went today. As lunch time approached, neither of us were very hungry so we decided to get some Cuban coffee and (what else) an order of plantains to share. We took our snack to the southernmost beach and enjoyed it while looking at the turquoise water. We boarded the trolley once again and took it to the Green Parrot Bar, which is a Key West icon. It's located in a building that was once the local morgue so of course we had to get drinks here. We continued hopping on and off the trolley like this all day, until we felt like we'd seen a good amount of Key West. When we hopped on the trolley for our last ride, to get back to our B&B, the driver recognized us. We were the only people on his last tour so he decided to take some different routes and gave us a one on one private tour. This last ride was probably the most informative part of our day! After arriving at the B&B, we dropped off our shopping bags and headed out for a quick dinner of lobster roll and conch fritters. On our way to dinner we heard MORE KARAOKE, this time someone was singing 'Wind Beneath My Wings'. Badly. I don't know if Key West is the karaoke capital of the world, but it should be! Today we are still exhausted but it's a good kind of exhausted. Tomorrow we may or may not go see a museum that is home to Robert the haunted doll. I'm scared just thinking about it. As for tonight, we are curling up to watch some good ol' American junk tv before going to bed. If any of you are up for a good spooky story before bed, I suggest you look up Robert the Doll. Just don't say I didn't warn you!

The Conch Republic

Here we are, finally on dry land and on the last leg of our vacation. Early this morning we arrived at Fort Lauderdale (like, 6 am!) and had our last "usual breakfast" on the ship. We then lined up to disembark and go through customs. We were in a cab on our way to the car rental place by 8am. We rented our car and immediately started out for Key West, which ended up being about a 3 and a half hour drive. As we arrived in town, we stopped at the Winn Dixie supermarket to pick up some milk. Did you know you can purchase chum for fishing here? Yep, it's located in the freezer aisle, right next to the ice cream! Who knew?? Anyway, we finally arrived at the Avalon Bed and Breakfast, our home base for the next few days. We walked around the downtown area for a bit, stopping to grab some conch fritters for lunch (yum!). On our way back to the B&B, we tried a slice of key lime pie, dipped in chocolate. Oh my, that thing was dangerous. Mom, if there was a way to bring some home, I would. You would love it! We checked out the pool area and said hello to the resident cat (aka, world's fattest cat. I couldn't tell if he was purring when I pet him or if he was having breathing problems due to his weight) Today we've noticed that we are simply exhausted. I don't know if it's from the month of traveling, and knowing we are in the home stretch or what, but we needed a nap this afternoon. Our initial impression of Key West is that it's a party town, which made us more exhausted. I guess we aren't as young as we used to be! After our nap, we showered and set out for a mile long walk to a neighborhood Cuban sandwich place that was supposed to be the best. On our way there we walked down Duval Street which is the main drag here, and full of bars, restaurants and shops. You know how they say you haven't lived until you've heard a flamboyant, intoxicated man sing JLo songs in a karaoke bar? Well, Jim and I can say after tonight that we've lived. (Ok, so maybe they don't say that but how else was I supposed to work that into the blog? It was too good to not mention!) We arrived at our sandwich place just as they were getting ready to close at 7 and ordered a meal to share. We took a quieter route back to the B&B (no JLo karaoke) and ate dinner on the covered porch. Now, we are exhausted and full so that seems to be a good combination for sleep. Goodnight, and sweet karaoke dreams!

Florida or bust

Today was our last port day and to be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment. We were up early and enjoyed our usual breakfast (man, I'm going to miss having breakfast made for me every day!). We arrived in the Bahamas, at our ship's private island for what I thought would be a fun beach day. Then the cattle call started. We were herded into a dining room and were given numbers to be called for the tender boats. Since there are no docks on this island, we had to use the tenders to get there. Jim and I were given numbers for the first boat. Unfortunately when the first group was called, every single person who wanted to go ashore, got up regardless of their number. There was line cutting, pushing, and I was over the experience before we even got started. We did get on to a tender and eventually arrived on land. The beach had a lot of debris from the recent hurricane and the lounge chairs were so close together, you'd better like your neighbor. Our neighbor was smoking a cigar. We moved. Our next neighbor lit a cigarette. We moved again. Then a group of off duty crew members stood behind our chairs and all of them were smoking. I started to wonder if Marlboro actually owned this beach. Jim tested the water and reported that it was colder than we were used to. That's all it took to get me to say, "Let's get off this island!". We were on the next tender back to the ship, less than 45 minutes since we'd arrived. We decided a nice quiet day at the pool was in order so that's what we did. And quiet it was! I even fell asleep! After my nap, we went to grab some lunch in the piazza and to say goodbye to our favorite waitress down there. And we said goodbye to all of those amazing little desserts too. More than a few tears were shed for the chocolate pudding. (Don't laugh, it's like heaven in a bowl.) We then enjoyed a cocktail on our quite private balcony before packing up our junk. Tonight we've decided to continue our quiet theme with dinner in the room. We actually see an incredible sunset as I write this. By tomorrow, we should be in Fort Lauderdale and then in a car on our way to Key West for the last part of this amazing trip. As for me, I think I'll go say one more little goodnight to that pudding!