If All Goes According to Plan…
On Christmas morning, my daughter came downstairs at her mother’s house, eager to dive into her presents. I was there for the big moment, a tradition we’ve kept alive even after our divorce. My daughter’s Elf on the Shelf, Rasy, was nowhere to be seen. Rasy only stayed until Christmas, and then departed for the year – a fact that caused the kid no small manner of heartache.
Oddly, she found no presents from Santa waiting for her. Instead, she unwrapped a note rolled up like a scroll.
“This Christmas,” Santa wrote, “we have arranged a special treat for you with your parents. Mrs. Claus thought you’d enjoy this game. Rasy was quite impressed with you this year. Rasy and I have hidden eight Whimzies in this room (click here to learn about Whimzies). You must find them to unlock the secret code!”
Santa also apologized for his jittery handwriting and explained that his sleigh was very bumpy.
So, my daughter searched high and low to find her Whimzies. The little rascals were hiding in the tree, in the manger, and in all other manner of sneaky places. Each one had a tiny green scroll attached to it that helped her uncode this message from Santa: TWO RED SOCKS.
She pondered this awhile, and then found two Mickey Mouse elves – one in each of her red stockings hanging from the mantle.
A Disney World luggage tag attached to each elf’s arm unlocked yet another code, this time for a word scramble: LEBNDEAT. She pondered this puzzle for quite awhile. Perhaps if Santa had thought to include a hyphen, the scramble might have gone easier. At last, she figured it out, went to the end table, opened it up, and pulled out – a big Mickey Mouse.
This Mickey, too, had a luggage tag. A folded note inside the tag read, “In Ten Days…”
She opened the note.
“…you and your parents are going to Disney World!”
She frowned. “Don’t we have to pay?”
Her mom and I assured her that we had it covered.
“What about school?”
We further assured her that her teacher said it’d be okay. Finally, she smiled.
After a hearty breakfast, my daughter and I went over to my sister’s house for the day. We laughed, played games, ate a whole lot of pasta, joked, opened presents, and played more games. The magic wasn’t over yet, though.
Late that night, we arrived at my apartment. Santa had filled our stockings and left them under the tree. In her stocking, she found a Minnie Mouse doll. A note was wrapped around its leg – written on the back of a piece of Santa’s wrapping paper.
“If all goes according to plan, you will have received us at your mom’s house on Christmas morning,” the note began.
The message was from the two Mickey Mouse elves she’d found in her stockings. Apparently, the elves couldn’t risk sending the note with themselves and being discovered. “We decided to leave the elf guild,” they wrote, “to find our own way in life. We don’t want to build toys or make cookies. We love Santa and our elf family, but we want to see the world on our own.”
They asked her if she would host them for awhile, one at each of her homes. Unlike Rasy, she was free to touch them as much as she liked. “In fact,” they wrote, “we hope you will move us often and take us on many adventures.”
And I suspect she will do just that.
