We heard from some friends that if you write a letter to Santa and ask him, he might send an elf to your house if he has any that are done with their toy-making duties. So we tried it, and Santa sent us an elf named Gallagher. During the day he looks almost like a toy, which was very disappointing to Sarah, who thought we'd be getting something like Dobby, the house-elf from Harry Potter. But it turns out Gallagher is hilarious. At night, when you feed him crackers and water and sprinkle him with magic North Pole Snowflake Dust, he comes to life and does mischief and hides. We can't wait to wake up each morning and find out what Gallagher has done this time!Here are some highlights of our visit from Gallagher.
Night 1: Gallagher reads our books
Night 2: Gallagher gets hungry
Night 3: Gallagher toilet-papers the children's bedrooms 
Night 4: Gallagher dethrones the Christmas Tree angel
Night 5: Gallagher makes snow angels
Night 6: Gallagher plays with trains Gallagher took down all our stockings and left them in a trail down to the play room, leading to the train table, where he set up the track and was riding in one of the trains!
Night 7: Gallagher and his elf friend Bridget have a slumber party. Toothpaste hijinks ensue.Our friends the Ackermanns spent the night after our Christmas party, so Bridget, the elf who is visiting their family, was in cahoots with Gallagher. They got hold of the toothpaste and wrote "Ho, ho, ho. Be good kids" on the mirror in the children's bathroom. Then the two elves were hanging upside down from the lights.
Night 8: Gallagher gives giftsGallagher wrote a note to the children to say goodbye, since Santa is picking him up in the sleigh on Christmas Eve. He left a gift for each of the children, and wrote a nice poem. They found him in the morning at the computer, with the gifts stacked next to him. Although he had printed his poem, Charlie noticed that he had created it in Microsoft Word and had the computer on with the poem still up. We are impressed that Gallagher is so good at typing on the computer!
goodbye note from Gallagher:
Dear Charlie, Sarah, Allison, and David,
Tonight’s the last night of my visit, dear friends.
When Santa arrives, my mischief here ends.
I’m taking a sleigh ride back to the North Pole,
To Santa, and Rudolph, the ice and the cold.
And so, my dear children, it’s time to say thanks.
I hope you’ve enjoyed all my mischief and pranks.
Thanks for the crackers, and water, and fun,
You’re very sweet children and I love you a ton!
Your dogs are so silly – I played with them at night.
And the slumber party with Bridget was such a delight!
I’m going back to Santa and we’ll watch over you, my dears,
And maybe I can come back again next year.
I've left a little present for each one of you.
To help you remember me the whole year through.
Be good children all year and take care of yourselves,
And when you see ice cubes, think of your friends, the elves!
With love from Gallagher
On Christmas Eve, Sarah and Charlie left the following note for Santa with the cookies, milk and carrots:
Dear Santa and elves,
Thank you for letting us borrow Gallahger. He was such a delightful little elf! If it is alright, can Gallahger or some other elf next year? Thank you for everything.
The Mackey Children
... and a long nap...
... the children opened the last gift, a present from Mommy and Daddy. It was a word jumble, made all the more difficult by David taking off with some of the letters. An S was never recovered, so Mommy made a proxy on a post-it note.
Once they had all the letters, they solved the puzzle in four minutes.
Look - a flashlight! And a package of gummies
Wow - my very own High School Musical hamper!
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