do you believe in magic?

Last year my niece's teacher introduced her class to a tradition known as "Santa's Elves". Basically, mom and dad buy a stuffed elf for their child and the elf "arrives" at the child's house shortly after Thanksgiving. The elf is then known for doing little things for the kids (like making their beds or leaving candy) and reports back to Santa on whether the child has been naughty or nice. :) The full story is here. So this year my sister decided to do the elf thing for my niece and my nephew. Earlier today, as a joke, I picked up both stuffed elves and started throwing them around. Needless to say, my niece and nephew were both upset with me. Oops. :-/ My niece was afraid that I'd chased the elves back to the North Pole and she was particularly upset. So I ran into some Naughty and Nice Hershey's Kisses in Rite Aid this afternoon and came up with a brilliant idea. I came home from the store and snuck into my niece's and nephew's rooms and placed a single "Nice" kiss on their pillows. Then I placed a single "Naughty" kiss on my pillow (and my sister's oldest son's because he keeps trying to convince the kids that the elves aren't real -- the turd). The "Nice" kisses are wrapped in silver foil and say "Nice" on the ribbon while the "Naughty" kisses are wrapped in black foil and say "Naughty" on the ribbon. [snicker] They were both tickled pink when they discovered their elves had left the kisses. It's nice to spread Christmas cheer. :)

In other news, my ear is freaking killing me. UGH. It's just about time for some drops and a nice dose of Lortab to ease my suffering. Mmm... narcotics. :-P It's also about time to experiment with my new Waver. I've decided to let my hair grow out (yet again) and I've also taking a liking to adding some "natural" curl to my hair instead of straightening it. We'll see how this thing works. So far it seems a little awkward to hold/use so it may be going back to the store.