Christmas is for the Elves

You may not believe in Santa Clause, but at least his Elves are real. At least in my family. Every year I get a number of gifts from various Elves, most nice, some used, some, well, mischevious. And I love it.

My family loves to give gifts, and we give (and get) a lot of them. The typical Christmas morning takes maybe 3-4 hours because of the number of gifts, and because we open them one at a time. Awesome. (plus orange rolls and bacon, double awesome, but that's for another post)

And a lot of those gifts are from Elves. For example, I frequently get great books from the "Used-Book Elf", who must frequent used-book stores looking for the books that other folks in the family have read and enjoyed. I *never* get a used book from someone in the family, even though they have obviously read the same book the Elf is giving me, but then, who gives a used book on Christmas? It's just not right. But the Elves have their own thinking about what's right and what isn't. And the "used-book elf" is a personal favorite since that Elf has particularly good reading taste.

And of course there's the "Sartorial Elf" who leaves me looking dapper. Or the "Cozy Elf" who keeps the whole family warm. There are even college-specific Elves. I know of ones from Duke, Florida State, Miami of Ohio, Vanderbilt... they're everywhere.

And let me tell you, the Elves are multiplying. Every year some new Elf shows up. Or a whole cadre of new Elves. It could be scary to think of this hidden race, slowly propogating without most of humanity's knowledge, except that for the most part they're benign, even benefecial; I mean, the gifts are usually good!

So long live the Elves.