The antics of the elves and their pups 2010.

As you may recall Paige and Megan have elf friends that come to visit each year. They arrive on Thanksgiving morning and stay until Christmas eve. This year Oliver and Jasper brought their pups with them. Oliver has a Fox Terrier named Scout and Jasper has a Westie named Murphy. They had lots of adventures with the girls and they played a few pranks as well. For instance they got into the candy canes and started putting them on the tree while the girls were at school and I was at work.

The elves do nice things for the girls too, it's not all practical jokes. Before we left the house to go see Ballet Met's Nutcracker the elves gave the girls snowflake pins for their coats. They are pretty thoughtful elves.

On the night of the 23rd we let the kids camp out in the family room on an inflatable mattress. The dogs seemed to think it was a great idea too. You can't really tell but Rowdy was snuggled up under the covers between Paige and Megan. I dug him out and made him sleep in his dog bed upstairs next to my bed. I didn't want him to get rolled on in the middle of the night.

Apparently the elves and their pups got restless in the middle of the night and decided to play a trick on the girls by t.p.ing the family room. Megan said she woke up at 4 a.m. and she was scared at first because she saw something hanging from the ceiling fan. But then she realized it was just toilet paper so she snuggled up with Paige and went back to sleep.

Oliver and Jasper brought Paige and Megan each an "Amazing Hamster" in a Santa suit. They usually give the girls a small gift on Christmas Eve morning. I think it's a little thank you for taking such good care of them and their pups and for being such good girls.

While we were over at Aunt Terry's and Uncle Steve's for Christmas eve the elves stayed in the car. Paige and Megan were afraid that Aunt Terry's dogs, Ginger and Hershey might think of the elves as puppy toys. On the way home Megan was snuggling with Jasper and Murphy and she was a little sad that they had to go back to the North Pole with Santa. I told her it wouldn't be fair to her elf to keep him here all year because he would miss his friends and family back at the North Pole. I think she understands that having her elf come visit each year makes it more special than if he stayed the entire year.