It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas time this year seemed to sneak up and pass us by in a hurry. I'm not sure if we were extra busy or if I was just really unprepared for the fast-paced holiday season. Regardless of the hustle and bustle our Elf on the Shelf, Brigsby, managed to appear on time this December and forced us to slow down a bit and enjoy the fun memories that this time of year brings.

Brigsby did all sorts of silly things around the house this year. From sun up to sun down Rhett searched for his tiny elf friend. Despite what the book might say, expectations at our house are high and Brigsby was expected to move spots all day long. This pressure to find new and inventive places for an Elf to hide kept me on my toes and led to what could have been one of the biggest Christmas disasters of all time. While hubby and I have been accustomed to tag teaming Elf moving duties, on the Wednesday before Christmas a communication mishap led to one Elf's MAJOR misfortune.

The tragedy unfolded like this:

As I was rushing through dinner service, not paying much attention to anything except the short orders that were flying my way, I decided to flip on the cooktop light to get a better look at what I was doing. My previous notation that Brigsby hung from the vent-a-hood seemed lost at the moment and I continued plating up different dinners and delivering them to the hungry mouths that wouldn't stop hollering out for food. Out of no where Papa ran over and pointed up. Smoke and a charred remains of Brigsby's foot and leg hung from the lightbulb over the stove. As we shouted in whispered tones about which one of us "killed" Brigsby, we hastily shoved him in a near by coffee cup to conceal his unfortunate injuries. All the while Rhett was eating his dinner and none the wiser.

The next morning, after spending all night tracking down the only identical Brigsby still left in Austin this close to Christmas, I drove 35 minutes to pick him up. For insurance I smuggled along charred Brigsby to verify that they were indeed identical (at least from the waist up). Luckily for me, the two matched enough to keep up the cover. And so, Brigsby #2 was born. Christmas went on as scheduled and everything was again Merry and Bright.

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