Let's Rewind a Bit...

Okay, so everyone has that one memory that they always associate Christmas with, right? I was thinking about this yesterday when I was babysitting a little boy, age 8, in the first grade. After picking him up from school, I look in my rear view mirror only to see him giggling to himself with the biggest smile on his face. My imagination got the best of me, causing me to eventually break down and curiously ask him what was so funny. Man, oh, man I did not prepare myself for his answer. Our conversation went a little something like this..
Me: "Campbell. What is so funny back there?"
Campbell: (Grinning while looking into a big red bag) "...nothin."
Me: "Okay, well, what's in your bag? Did you have a Christmas party today at school?"
Campbell: "No, I made something for my elves. I'll show you when I get home. It's going to be so much fun!"

Okay, so one can only imagine what I began to think after this. First of all, what in the world is an elf and why does he feel the need to make things for it? For the remainder of the ride home, I got a 8-year olds' explanation of what exactly an elf is. You see, apparantly, and geniously, they're these stuffed elves that apparantly come "alive" at night and are supposed to keep watch over the kids and report back to Santa. Well, Campbell had deceivingly come up with a plan to write them letters every night and ask them to complete a task. You know, to prove that they're real.
Campbell's master plan began to fall into place the moment we got home. The suspense was killing me. What in the WORLD was in that red bag?! You'll never guess. I walk into the living room only to see Campbell spreading chips and paper and anything else you can think of around the living room. Attached to said mess? A note. : "Dear Elves...if you're real. clean this up. haha. love, Campbell"
I'm not even kidding. So, this little "challenge" provided me with quite the challenge myself. What do I do? Do I clean it up so that his parents dont wring my neck when they get home? Or do I simply play along and leave the mess for them to clean up? I sneakily snuck to the bathroom and texted his mom. Luckily for me, she said to leave the mess. We can't crush the kids spirit this close to Christmas, right? (PS: look below for a picture of the little fella)

That whole experience really made me stop and think about my past Christmas' and my experiences with such. I didn't have magical elves or flying spying reindeer, but my Mom had her own special tool for behavior control. The magic spoons. Some of you may know what I'm talking about. The wooden spoons with the holes in them. Hurt like fire when you were spanked and made you think twice before commiting any sort of criminal act again...okay, maybe not CRIMINAL, but it sure felt like it. It got to the point, that, around Christmas time, all Mom had to do was OPEN the magic spoon drawer, and any noise or bickering upstairs would quickly die down. Looking back on it, my Mom was a genius, and her master plan worked. As a little "ha-ha" moment last year, Baker and I gave everyone in our family there own wooden spoons with their names on them. Lucky for us they haven't been used...yet. There's still plenty more Christmas' before I move out!