The Elf Fails
Once the Thanksgiving meal is over, it's time for the elf to make
his appearance. Yes, we STILL have Ralph visit us from Thanksgiving night
to Christmas Eve. I hope he'll be around for many years to come.
For us Ralph is less about "keeping an eye on the child for
Santa" and more about alleviating tension that often comes with the
season. (Although thankfully, this year the Christmas Crazy Kid level has been a little bit lower than usual.)
Emotions tend to
run high this time of year. Having Ralph around makes us laugh as he gets
into some wacky situations (though nothing too crazy...I'm not cleaning up
after any elf). He may hide among the left over Halloween candy (not that
there's much left now). He may hang in the music room as a reminder for
my son to practice the trumpet. Or he may just hang off the ceiling fan
in the living room for the fun of it.
The other morning
when I found a package on our front doorstep for our son (UPS must have been
working late the night before or I just didn't hear the truck), I decided to
have Ralph deliver it.
I knew what it
was. A new lunch bag as two days before Thanksgiving, there had been a
yogurt "explosion" in my son's previous bag. Who knew yogurt
could fly into so many cracks and crevices and smell so bad after several
hours? I had my son go on line to LL Bean and find a new one. He
did and his grandmother (my fabulous mother-in-law) ordered it for him.
Since it arrived
earlier than anticipated, I figured I'd leave the package on the kitchen table
and have Ralph make the presentation. It was a rainy morning so I thought
this would make a gray day bright.
The thought was
good, the execution was good...the lunch bag not. What looked blue on the
computer was definitely more purple. (Maybe I should have checked
beforehand...Iris blue is definitely a purple based color.) Do I need to
say that my son wasn't happy? So much for turning that frown upside down.
To be fair, he
only got upset for a few minutes and I did manage to convince him that there
was a solution. While he ate breakfast (reluctantly and most likely glaring at
Ralph the whole time), I ran upstairs and went to llbean.com. Quickly
found the lunch bag and all its color and pattern choices. When my son
came up I had him pick the color he wanted (no patterns for him) and also asked
him for a backup choice. Filled out the exchange form (which was included
in the package along with a UPS return label), put the lunch bag back in the
package, and taped it up. (My son DID cut the bag, but it was still
usable.) Told my son that he would get a new lunch bag in a couple of
weeks.
As we headed out
to school, I made sure I passed by a local business that has a UPS box out
front. Had him put the package in and we were good. The wait will
be a little longer than we had hoped for, but he should get the
"right" one before Christmas (and the winter break).
This might have
been an elf fail. (I'm not taking responsibility at all here! I mean,
it's not like I SHOULD have opened the package and looked inside PRIOR to
setting up the "presentation.") However, it wasn't an EPIC elf fail.
I'm not even sure that there IS such a thing as an epic elf fail.
Meanwhile, Ralph
will continue to hang around for the holiday.
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