Barry Christmas!

Barry is an elf. He hides on a shelf. Or a ledge. Or on top of the refrigerator or kitchen cabinets. He watches and reports back to the jolly round man at the North Pole. You didn't think Santa was a clairvoyant, did you? He's not God. Duh.

Barry was spotted by E, G and J-Boy - the early birds -Christmas Eve morning sitting atop a kitchen cabinet. He was quiet as a mouse, never taking his eyes off the boys.

"Shhh! You don't want to scare him away. He's watching you guys to make sure you're being good."

         "I know. I heard him this morning...flying," said E, then by J-Boy.

Important to note that my reaction to this statement, in my head, was: "That's kinda ookie. You heard him? Yikes. Horror movie."

Of course, my actual reaction was...

"Really? Cool. Well you better give him your Christmas lists so he can fly off to give them to Santa."

So they did. And then ran upstairs. And wouldn't you know it...a half hour later, the kiddos came back downstairs to see Barry and the letters gone, but he'd left a letter of his own to them. He told them thanks for writing to Santa, and that if they believe...they'd receive. He also mentioned something about Santa was keeping an eye on Lil' B and the girls as well.

* * *

Fast forward to this morning, Barry came through with the goods. Santa had apparently brought them some righteous stuff that they wanted, via no shortage of help from my mom, my dad, A's parents, my bro and sis-in-law, my grandma, A's grandparents, A's bro and his wife, and others I'm sure that I'm forgetting to mention...gosh, they're starting the music, man, better wrap this up...oh yea, and A and myself, too, I must say. I mean, the guy, St. Nick, is good, sure, but he's getting up there in years and requires the assistance of the adults from time to time.

And, also Dad bought them brand new bikes and mom hooked them up with helmets to keep them safe. They were ridiculously happy. A gaggle of giggly kiddos.

They had an amazing Christmas, and I've never heard the word "awesome" uttered as many times in one sitting pretty much ever in 32 years.

I wish you the merriest of Christmases! Hope it is blessed!

Want to learn more about Barry and his pals? Check out http://www.elfontheshelf.com/ for the goods.