On the 18th Day of Christmas ….…..….

Feeling back to center this morning, I ventured out as far as the corner market where the Security Guard unintentionally almost ruined my Elf Hunt.

I guess he thought he was being helpful when I walked in and he said, "The elf is in the fresh fruit section".

"I’m pretty good at finding Zippy on my own, but thanks for the heads up", said I.

Fortunately, the hunt was not ruined, because I did not find him in the fresh fruit section, so I set about searching the entire market.

While doing so, I saw two little girls bounce through the market door with their parents, excitedly saying, "We’ve got to find the elf!".

Good luck, thought I, since they'd hidden him so well that I wasn't finding him.

I walked the perimeters, checked the isles, made it back to fresh fruit and was about to give up when I glanced over …… and there he was. Right where Security Guard said he'd be.

Hunt over, I went looking for the little girls, found them, said "I overheard your wanting to find the elf".

The girls didn’t get an opportunity to respond as the mother excitedly asked "We’d heard he’s in the meat department, but didn’t find him. Where is he?".

She thanked me when I told her, while her husband, thinking the whole thing hilarious, began laughing.

So, there’s that.

Remainder of today was finishing up my second attempt, this season, at a gingerbread house — appropriately the Elf on the Shelf kit.

I now know the meaning of having "skin in the game" because, using sugar glue last evening for the build, I managed to blister two fingers and cut another, but at least I ended up with a good clean sturdy structure.

Having learned a few tricks from watching gingerbread shows since the little house I built a few days ago, including icing the windows, I'm happy with the results and, quitting while ahead, done building gingerbread houses for the season.

Oopsie. I misidentified which side is which in the video. The first shot is the back, not the front. The front has the chimney.