Mother of the Year Award

So, I just won Mother of the Year!!!  I know, right???  How fabulously exciting!  I can only wonder how long before I lose that standing….we won’t worry about that right now.  Let me tell you how I won it in the first place.

Let me start at the beginning of the story.  It seems like everyone under the sun has an Elf on the Shelf.  I was NOT going to get on that band wagon.  That was, until Lena approached me last year about getting an elf, one she could do for Hannah.  Now you need to remember that Lena is one smart cookie and is onto it all…so she knew the whole deal with the Elf on the Shelf.  How am I to say no to that request?

So, off I went in search of an elf to use.  I was not going to invest into the ‘real’ Elf on the Shelf so I looked at ornaments and found nothing, finally what I found was a bookmark.  Sounds crazy, right?  Well, this bookmark was fabric with a stuffed head and a flat body.  Being that I am relatively handy, I took out the bottom seam and stuffed the poor elf’s lower extremities.  Lena was thrilled and proceeded to come up with ideas for ‘Elfie’ last year.  I helped a little but mainly it was Lena.

So, Hannah was very excited about Elfie’s return this December.  He arrived without much fanfair and did some fun-ish things, nothing too crazy.  Usually the plans are made in quiet whispers at bedtime, Lena laying out what she wants done and I’ll do it up after everyone is safely asleep.

Now, as many of you know, I work as an Interior Decorator for a company in Truro, as well as for my own clients.  We had a chair arrive in a large cardboard box a week or so ago.  I drug that big box home and hid it in the garage.  After both girls were asleep, I drug it into the kitchen, poked holes in the top { in hindsight, pay attention to the spacing on your string of lights….just sayin’ } and then I drug it upstairs into Hannah’s room.

Do you have any idea how noisy duct tape is when you try to unroll it in a bedroom at night where there’s a sleeping child?  It’s noisy, trust me….  Anyway, I taped up it up, poked the lights in the holes and plugged it in and then marveled at it for a bit.

I wasn’t about the give Elfie all the credit, but it did seem like something he might be involved in.  SO, he was sitting on top of the box with a note, simply saying ‘Surprise’ written by me using my left hand to throw them off.  { Hannah even commented about his neat penmanship…maybe I should write with my left more often? }

Last night I ended up with both girls in bed with me.  Somehow I needed to get them into Hannah’s room where their surprise awaited them.  I wasn’t feeling exceptionally clever after fighting for blankets and removing little limbs tossed over me so I basically told them Elfie and I had a surprise for them in Hannah’s room.

To say they were thrilled might be an understatement.  Hannah already has plans to sleep in it and Lena envisions lots of reading, I’m sure.

Me? I’ll be sitting back, admiring my Mother of the Year award….enjoying it before I lose it….again….

To be continued,

Lori