Bad Elfing Luck
I should have known from the get go that this elf season was destined to be disastrous. As Thanksgiving approached, I searched desperately for our dear Lucy.
We had specific hiding spots for her when we lived in Hawaii and Kentucky, but it seems like she may have ended up being sent with our non-temp storage when we moved to Newport this summer. As any desperate mom would do, I ordered an identical replacement from Amazon, just in time for the Elf debut on the day following Thanksgiving.
Day 1 of the 2018 Elf on the Shelf season went off without a hitch! Lucy 2.0 printed out a little welcome note, put a message up on my letter board, and created a trail of chocolate Kisses from the stairs to her hiding spot. The girls weren’t expecting her arrival at all, so I totally could have delayed her reappearance.
Later on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), we hit the road for Massachusetts. About half an hour into our trip, John and I realized that Lucy got left behind. Usually, I’m really good about remembering to bring our Elf along on vacation with us, but this was just the beginning of our bad elfing luck.
The girls awoke on Day 2 (Saturday) and instantly started searching for the elf. I was hoping that since they hadn’t mentioned her much the day before, they may have forgotten all about her. Nope. No such lucky! Lucky, I frantically thought to text my dog sitter to have her move the elf and send me a photo. She has a little brother and her mom goes ALL out with the elves, so I knew it wouldn’t be an issue.
Later on Day 2, the dog sitter’s mom (my AMAZING neighbor) sends me a message letting me know that she’d be moving the elf for us for Sunday and leaving a basket of goodies behind. PERFECT!
The girls were so excited to see that we had been elf’ed when we made it back home on Sunday! I mentioned it in my last post, but it’s basically like the BOO baskets that go around during October for Halloween! I’ll finally be putting my baskets together tomorrow, after shopping for them on Tuesday! I can’t wait!
For Day 4, I nearly forgot to move the elf AGAIN! Seriously, only 4 days in, and I’d failed 3/4th of the time. It was NOT shaping up to be a good elf season.
Here is the real kicker though. As I was settling into bed on Monday night, I realized that I had forgotten to move the elf AGAIN. It was around 10:30 when I hopped out of bed with the When Life Gives You Lululemons audiobook going in my earbuds and made my way down our dark stairs. As I made it to the last step, I reached to turn on the downstairs lights, as to not disturb the girls.
Only it wasn’t the last step. I slipped and came down on my left ankle, and instantly heard a series of cracks. Convinced I had broken my ankle, I did what any sensible person would do. I scrambled to pause my audiobook. I also cursed the ghost of Lucy 1.0 for haunting me.
The pain was horrid, but I figured if I curled up in a ball and moaned, it would go away sort of like it does when you hit your funny bone. That’s definitely not what happened. Thankfully, even though he had already dozed off, John heard me and came running down the stairs. We debated heading to the ER, but we didn’t want to wake the girls or disturb a neighbor to come watch them, so he helped my hobble up stairs. But not before I insisted that he move the elf.
The next morning, after the girls made their way to school, we headed to the hospital. I no longer thought the bone was broken, but I was convinced that it was fractured at the very least. X-rays proved that to be lie. Turns out I’m just dealing with a sprain. The folks at the hospital got me set up with an air cast and crutches, and sent me on my way.
Today was my second full-day with the ankle injury, and thankfully I can feel it improving. The swelling is out of this world, but I’ve been able to at least put the ball of my foot down for balance. After all the work it’s been doing, my right glute is going to be in superb shape!
The holiday ball that we didn’t get tickets to is this weekend. It was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t win that lottery. The tickets were $145 per person, and I would have been one sad panda if I had to crutch my way around without dancing.
Also, lesson learned. I finally set my cell phone alarm to remind me to move the elf before bedtime. This elf is a pain in the ass ankle, but seeing the girls’ faces light up each morning makes it totally worth it!
