Holiday Spirit

The holiday spirit has returned. Fritz the Elf has been embraced, acknowledged and is revered in the house. Mark has taken up the mantle of hiding Fritz every night. I think it speaks to his soul a little bit, trying to find very clever hiding places. Fritz has made appearances in our chandelier, atop the Christmas tree, in the deep jungle of our peace lily, in my china cabinet nestled in my good crystal and famously in Milo's Christmas stocking which Milo found bizarrely hilarious.

Fritz has also appeared atop my paper mache parrot in the kitchen. The parrot is named Pedro and hitched a ride home with me on a girl's trip to Mexico over 10 years ago. Pedro only speaks spanish. In college I took Latin and Russian, so alas all these years Pedro and I have had a language barrier. But Christmas crosses boundaries both spiritual and culturally, so Fritz spent a lovely day lounging atop Pedro. And for the first time in a while, I saw a smile come across Pedro's beak.

Milo has been talking to Fritz and telling him things he wants for Christmas, and last night he tattled on one of his school mates to Fritz. He told him that "Nicholas stole his storm trooper and his chapstick and made Milo feel sad." I need to check the Elf rules as I am not sure that Fritz can or will inform Santa about other little boys and girls. But Milo asked him to tell Santa that Nicholas really shouldn't get any toys for being so mean. I think this is a bit extreme, but Milo was very sad about the loss of his storm trooper.

Tonight Fritz will journey back to the North Pole with Santa. I think the whole Sheridan household will be a bit sad to see him go.