Guess Who’s Back

Well, Huxley made his appearance some time early Monday morning. You may be asking, who is Huxley?

He is our elf on the shelf. If you are not familiar with the elf on the shelf, let me enlighten you. An elf on the shelf comes into your home sometime after Thanksgiving and stays through Christmas Eve. He or she goes back to the North Pole every night while you are asleep to report on your behavior to Santa.

He comes back before you wake up, and sometimes, causes a little mischief. Our elf, Huxley, is not a mischief-maker as much as he likes to have fun.

For example, his first night here, he decided he would camp out in Kiera’s room on her dresser. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Apparently, he brought his own string of Christmas lights and wrapped them around Kiera’s television, dresser and looped them to her tree.

He also wrote a note, letting her know he was back.

It’s amazing the difference in Kiera when Huxley visits. Not in her behavior, necessarily. She is really a good kid.

One of the differences is how she wakes up in the morning. This morning, when I walked in her room and discovered Huxley and his lights, I began to gently try and wake Kiera up.

“Kiera. Time to wake up.” I said as I patted her back. No response.

“Honey. It’s time to wake up.” I said, gently pushing her hair out of her face. Nothing.

“Guess who came back?” I asked. Her eyelashes fluttered as she tried to open her eyes.

I continued on. “You should see what he’s done.”

Her eyes popped open and she began to glance around her room, blinking rapidly as she tried to focus.

“Look over there.” I motioned toward her dresser. She lifted her head up to peer over to where Huxley sat perched in front of her television, holding a strand of Christmas lights.

A slow grin made its way across her face as she stared at him.

I handed her a glass of milk, patted her back and said, “I’m going to go finish getting ready.”

Now, generally, at this stage of the morning, Kiera mumbles “ok” to me and tries to focus her eyes on her glass of milk. Then a short time later, I go back in her room to do her hair and help her get ready.

Not this morning. I hadn’t been back in my room for five minutes when she appeared in my doorway. From that moment until I dropped her at school, she laughed and reminisced about Huxley’s prior visits.

In years past, he has written notes on our bathroom mirror, taken Barbie out on a date, wrapped our kitchen cabinets with wrapping paper, rappelled down our door, and so many other things.

For all his crazy antics, he sure does make mornings a little easier in our house. Welcome back, Huxley.

Rowonna McNeely works as the Communications Manager for the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband, Aaron are regular volunteers in the community, and have their hands full with their daughter, Kiera, along with three dogs and one cat.

Thank you for sharing in our weekly journeys. If you have missed any of our past stories, check out our blog page at www.lifea2k.net or drop us a line at lifea2k@yahoo.com.