Tuesday, December 9, 2008
ELF Genelle
Carson and I are watching Fred Claus right now, and it is bringing back memories for me! When I was in 7th grade my Dad decided to go to Idaho and bring back a dozen or so reindeer. My brothers and I (being the entreprenewers we are) decided to make a little cash during our Christmas break, so we opened a petting zoo type business in our yard. One of my brothers was Santa and the other was in charge of asking for the money. Me and my younger siblings were elves. My Dad made up all these crazy stories about all the animals that we had at the time, and it was reallt quite amusing. We made the news and everything! It became quite popular, ended up opening Santa's workshop where we would sell "reindeer dandruff" (which consisted of antler shavings mixed with glitter.) Oh the stories I could tell! Anyway, I guess my parents saw the money and the genius in this idea and took it to the next level. We spent the next 10 years working as elves along side my Dad (Santa) and Mom (Mrs. Claus) At the time I could not have been more humiliated, but as I got older I realized it really was something special. We helped people bring the spirit of Christmas into their lives, and it really is my favorite time of year. One year we even worked Christmas day! We took the sleigh and set it up in someones home, and were there waiting when the kids came down the stairs. I will not ever be able to forget the looks on those kids faces when they saw Santa and his reindeer in thier living room! We have been in hundreds of homes and got to experience things that it's safe to say no other child got to experience. When Carson and I got married he got to share in the joy of elfhood. It was quite amusing how he and my brother really got into the elf thing. They even glued thier ears into a point, so that the kids would really know they were elves. That was the last year we were able to do the santa/reindeer business, and I wish that my little kids could enjoy the month of December like I was able to. I know I have some pictures around somewhere of the good ole days, so I will try to find them. I feel badly that I gave my parents such grief for making me dress up everyday, because as it turned out, those are some of my favorite christmas memories! Merry Christmas to you all!
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5 comments:
I loved the Anderson's Santa business, was even envious that Mrs. Claus was so stinkin' skinny! I never knew it was the kiddo's idea, how clever of you guys.
Genelle, I can only hope that Emma or any of my monkeys can be just as amazing of adults as the Anderson 5 are. I love all of you guys like my own family. Your tender words from an earlier post brought tears to my eyes, thank you for the compliment, and yes I loved Duane dearly.
One other thing, do you remember one time I was babysitting, it was around Christmas time, amazingly some monkey business was underfoot and I called Santa to tell on you guys? I don't know if you remembered but how sweet of a tool that was. You guys were like nu-uh, that's not Santa, and then amazingly settled down just in case it really was. Man, love the power of Santa.
Merry Christmas sweet girl, love you lots.
What fun memories! I wish I could've seen it just once cuz I bet it was amazing to have the reindeer as sidekicks...that would've made me REALLY believe! :)
BTW, I tried Quik Trip cocoa and I LOVE IT! Thanks!
Genelle, you HAVE to post pictures!! I'd love to see you all dressed up in the good old days!
nels didn't this start WAY before 7th grade? I remember being in like 4th or 5th grade and your dad and Zach brought the reindeer to school when we were at Peter's and it peed in the hallway and he made zach go clean it up. Or did you just have one back then? Anyway, I tell people here about my crazy best friend with a million animals.
My imagination has some pretty fabulous photographs all pictured! What a delightful holiday story!
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