Meet Bernard...
Bernard is our Elf on the Shelf. He is cute, he is festive, and he and I have a complicated relationship. You see, he didn't show up at our house for many years (which was just fine by me). Year after year my kids would ask why all their friends had an Elf on the Shelf and we didn't. I explained that for some reason, one had never shown up at our house. Weird. But two years ago, Bernard showed up. I guess he felt sorry for my kids. He only came for the second half of December so that wasn't so bad. Same thing last year. December 13th or 14th was when he showed up.
But this year, this year, he showed up EARLY. December 2nd to be exact. Maybe he knew how excited Grace was for him to come. Probably that. In fact, Grace is so excited about Bernard that she has been writing questions for him to answer. Complicated, almost philosophical questions like: "How are Elves's born?" "Why are you a RED Elf and not a GREEN Elf?" She did throw in a softball question at the end: "Do you get to ride in Santa's sleigh?" It's December, and I'm sure Bernard is very busy this time of year. I think he wasn't expecting to have to write notes every night. In years past, there were several times when he didn't even move for days. Weird. Bernard is probably getting tired. Grace and Grant must be tired. This morning they woke up at 4:30 A.M (also known as the middle of the night) looking for Bernard and answers about who he is and where he came from... That made me tired.
Luckily he had managed to respond, thanks to the teeny tiny Elf-sized pencil Grace had patiently whittled down in the electric pencil sharpener and left out for him the night before. Adorable.
Bernard has pretty cute child-like handwriting don't you think?
Maybe Bernard won't come back tonight. Maybe. But then again, Grace is so wrapped up in the Magic of Christmas that he will probably come back just to make her happy. Probably that.
