"Rusty"

We welcomed our own little Santa's helper into our home by giving him the redneck name of Rusty. It is pronounced "Rrrrus-teh". He is not exactly mischevious, per se, but he does like to hang upside down from lights, eat (and share) powdered donuts and even went rogue and returned from the NP with some snow one morning, complete with an elf-sized shovel.

And on Christmas Eve morning, Rusty surprised us with some sparkly reindeer food to sprinkle in our yard that night. How thoughtful!

The concept of Rusty reporting naughty or nice feedback back to Santa didn't exactly eliminate naughtness as well as we had hoped. The threat of the wooden spankin spoon still gets the job done in half the time.

We did enjoy having the daily "Where's Rusty?"....certain nights, I'd forget to relocate him and Ben would do so on his way out in the morning. Then both J and I would be scouring house for Rusty...and which point I would frantically text Ben demanding hints in order to avoid a meltdown out of frustration. Only once did Rusty spend the night in the same spot two nights in a row.

Now, 3 days post-Christmas, Jackson is highly concerned as to Rusty's whereabouts and doesn't understand that his elf buddy will be taking an 11 month sabbatical.