Jingle All the Way

Meet the newest seasonal member of our family, Jingle. He arrived today in the mail via the North Pole. Santa sent him as his "scout elf" for our family. His job is to report back to Santa on all of Ava & Caroline's activities so Santa knows if they've been naughty or nice.

Every night when the girls go to sleep, he heads back to the North Pole to make his report and then reappears in the morning. He finds a new place to sit every day and each morning the girls can see who finds him first. But Santa gave us some rules to abide by: 1. You can't touch him 2. He can't talk to the girls....only me and Santa. But they can talk to him all they want...especially if they want him to put in a good word to the big guy and give him their wish list.

The first thing we had to do was give him a name so he could become ours. We all decided Jingle was fitting. On the way home from Maga's tonight, I told the girls that I had someone to introduce them to when we got home. They were so curious and kept asking me who it was. I just told them it was a guy who will be doing a very important job for us. Caroline was getting kind of bugged by it and really wanted to know who it was...at least his name. But I wasn't saying anything because he didn't have a name yet. Smart little Ava thought for awhile quietly and then asked, "Is it an elf?" She's so darn intuitive. When we got home Caroline was really irked and stomped into the house saying, "I don't like this little guy! I don't want him at our house!" She hadn't even met him yet and didn't know anything about who he was.

How fitting she was most skeptical when we found him sitting in the chandelier in their bedroom and she wanted to get him down immediately so she could touch him. "But Mommy, he's not real!. Is he real? He's just a stuffed animal!" I told her he was real like Duckie and that if she didn't think he was real, then that meant she didn't believe in Santa Claus. She came around soon enough.

It's a good thing Jingle didn't show up Monday or Caroline would be in grave jeopardy of getting a lump of coal in her stocking. See, Caroline almost started the house on fire in Eden. And I'm not kidding. The girls were watching a movie in the living room while I was on the phone with Aunt Lisa in the same room. I stepped outside briefly on the deck and shortly after Caroline came running out frantically telling me, "Mommy, Mommy the towel is burning!"

I ran inside to find a bath towel on the living room rug smoldering and smoking. I hung up the phone, grabbed it and the only thing I could think of was to run outside on the deck and throw it over the railing to the grass below....it was the closest exit. With smoke alarms blaring and Caroline running around in near tears saying, "Is this an emergency?!!! Is this an emergency?!! Is the fire chief coming?!!," I herded them downstairs with me in case the carpet went up in flames for some reason and so I could put the burning towel out before it started a grass and wildfire in the nearby brush. When I got outside it was in full flames. Since the hoses weren't attached to the house, the only solution I could think of to immediately extinguish the fire was to throw the towel into the hot tub. Sorry Brad, but figured it was better than letting the house take the hit.

Needless to say, I was a wreck and Caroline and I had a good chat about the dangers of putting anything in the fireplace....even if you just want to get a towel warm. All I could think about was how she could have gotten hurt, burned or how easily her little blousey top could have caught on fire. But I am so proud of her for coming to get me rather than running to hide for fear of getting in trouble. What a big girl! And because of that, the only thing lost was a bath towel. I am so grateful! So next time I'm on the phone with you, please forgive me for not leaving the room to hear you better.

As far as Jingle is concerned, all I know is that the girls were in bed at 8 o'clock sharp, didn't give me any grief, didn't talk after I shut the door, didn't yell for me for over an hour to tell me something silly, and even scolded Duckie for not being quiet. If this keeps up till Christmas, the Easter Bunny will be getting an elf.

Merry Christmas and may you remember to count your blessings!