Elf Magic?

Hello friends,

Things are much more calmer here in now. I am thankful for that. I feel so blessed to have great BFF's that are there for me. Thank you Tammy and Marsha. We were able to get away Sat. for a shopping trip, which really helped my spirits out!! Things are still going to come up and my mom has an appt. on 12/3 with her pulmonologist so I know it is just the beginning of more things to come, but my mind is much better and I think I will be able to handle what comes. I needed to be able to set my ownself up for dealing with some future stresses when they do come. I am not really *worried* about my mom's appt. after getting my focus where it needed to be, but I would appreciate some prayers on her behalf when we speak to the doctor that day. We might consider putting her on hospice (not bc they think she will die necessarily), but to help my sister and I with her care. We have had lots of experience with hospice in the past and very recently with my grandfather in April and we were so much better equipped having them. I am a nurse, but I have my own family, stresses, full-time job, etc. and so does my sister. All the care falls on us. It might just help us not to have to bathe her ourselves, get her out to the doctors (especially in Winter months), and such. I will still continue to fix her meds, but a nurse would be able to come in weekly and monitor her and a tech could come bathe her for my sister. We will see......

Now, the real reason for my post is in regards to our Elf, (her name is Joy). If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know how this goes. A couple of years ago I read a blog about a little girl that had cancer. I still follow her site. She died after a long battle with the beast. Anyway, her mother always blogged about how in the month of December, Katie got to ask Santa for an elf to come visit with her for the holidays and all the fun and mischief that the elf got into. They were raising money for CURE, childhood cancer research. Tori-bug wrote a letter to Santa at Elf Magic and requested an elf. She came that first year, two years ago, named and with a box of oatmeal flakes and jellybeans. The letter from Santa said that she could stay her for the month, but on Christmas Eve she had to be placed under the tree to hop back on his sleigh to go back to the North Pole. Sometimes though, the elf gets into things at night and creates mischief while the family is asleep. If you don't care if she gets into mischief, you "feed" her a jellybean and if you don't want her to get into mischief she has to "eat" oatmeal flakes. The first year, I did really good and was really creative to come up with mischief. Last year, not so much. I only allowed Tori-bug to "give" her a jellybean two nights a week b/c sometimes she made a huge mess and I simply didn't have time to clean it up. Other nights, we would just find her in the freezer (bc it reminded her of the North Pole) or she would sometimes be laying in front of the TV, like she was watching a movie all night. Not too hard.... This year, I was considering her sending a note saying she was not going to come here and maybe she would go help someone else spread the magic of Christmas, with another family. My sister-in-law said I couldn't do that bc I had gotten it started way back when and I couldn't stop now. I just don't have any creative ideas for the "mischief" this year. Can you help me come up with something? If you have time, go back over last years posts from around this time of year and see what she has done before. I don't really want to do the same things over again. I have *some* ideas though. I think she might bake cookies one night and ask Tori-bug to take her and the cookies to the nursing home and pass them out. One night or day, she might make homemade dog treats and have Tori-bug drop them off at the vet or animal shelter. She is not only supposed to get into mischief, but help spread good cheer too. I want Tori-bug to learn the magic of Christmas and doing for others. It is fun to watch her wake up in the mornings and start immediately looking for her to see where she is. Last year, Joy (the elf) put a 4 ft. Christmas tree up in Tori-bug's room with ornaments all over it that said "Joy" and she was at the top, like a tree topper. That was really cool. She will show up this year on Dec. 1st. with a set of Christmas pajamas so i need at least 10-12 ideas. So, if you have anything creative for me to help spread good cheer or do something mischievous (without me getting caught), post it on here. There are websites that I have looked at for ideas, but some of the things are just not do-able for me. Come on, help me out..... and say a prayer for my mom's visit on Dec. 3rd if you remember.

Ready for the "magic" to begin,
Wendy