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!