What Joy!!!

Last year, my daughter and I decided that we would write Santa a letter and ask for an elf to visit us the month of December. We had the idea from hostanelf.com and a little girl named Catie. Catie passed away from a brain tumor, but her mom was blogging all about the fun Catie and her elf had during the Christmas season. Basically, you write a letter requesting an elf from Santa then you document the journey. The elf comes named, with jelly beans and oatmeal flakes, and a letter stating that during the day the elf will be watching the child to be able to report back to Santa on their behavior. But, sometimes they get into mischief at night. They come ALIVE!! Our elf arrived last year and her name was Joy. She got into all kinds of mischief. She poured baby powder all over the bathroom floor and made snow angels, she wrote on the bathroom mirror, etc. On several occasions she wrote back to my daughter in her journal. She even went to see a play with us, Annie Jr., and brought my daughter an "Annie" movie that night for her. On the nights that you don't mind if she gets into mischief, the child can feed her a jelly bean. On the nights you want her to sleep or rest, you feed her oatmeal flakes. On Christmas Eve, she has to go back to the North Pole when Santa comes to your house to deliver toys. Occasionally, during the year, Santa sees fit to allow her to make special trips to your house, i.e. birthdays, special holidays (ours came last year with the Easter bunny with a special note and left jelly beans for my daughter, Joy's favorite is jelly beans). We had so much fun with her. On the last night she left a note on top of my daughter's daddy. Joy was mischievous the night before she left and had gotten into the wrapping paper. The note said, "I know I've been bad. I wrapped up your dad". My husband was wrapped from head to toe in wrapping paper while he was asleep!!!
Last night, Joy made her way back to our house. We found her under the Christmas tree this morning with a pair of new pajamas for my daughter. She also brought with her jelly beans and oatmeal flakes. Let the fun begin. I have told my daughter that she would only be able to give her jelly beans 2 nights a week b/c I don't have time to clean up her messes every morning. She thought that was a good idea and can't wait to see what she does tonight. Incidently, my daughter's tooth fell out this morning. It had been loose for a few days so I think Joy and the tooth fairy are getting together tonight. They should have lots of fun together. I just got a new camera (my other one and laptop) were both stolen 3 months ago so all my pics of Joy and Tori were stolen, but I will post pics along the way of the fun we are having with her. Come along with me and if you are interested in helping out a good cause and having tons of fun go check out Catie's Elf at hostanelf.com. They are giving a portion of their proceeds to Cure Childhood Cancer research.

Love,
Wendy