The Fairbourne Family

I put Saylor down for a moment and she and Fleur took a moment to go admire the banister that was beautifully decorated by my wife.

They wandered around and looked at the little ornaments. "Does this mean Gramps is coming soon?" Fleur asked.

"Yeah caterpillar," Val asked. "He'll be here in a few days."

"Tree time?" Saylor smiled.

"Yeah baby, when Gramps comes you'll all put up the tree," I smiled at her while she giggled.

After a moment, both girls gave up on us, Saylor came to me while Fleur went to Val, same as every other time.

"Did we get elf on the shelf?" Fleur asked excitedly.

"Yeah, there's two this year," Val said.

Fleur giggled excitedly. "He came!" She smiled widely.

We all walked over to the mantle and let the girls grab their letters and take a good look at their elves.

Saylor's elf had on a standard red elf suit and a pair of glasses on while Fleur's had the same elf suit but no glasses and it had on white shoes instead.

"Okay, me first," Fleur said excitedly while Saylor pouted.

"It's okay bear, you'll go after Fleur okay, there's still your letter to read," I said to her and she nodded and smiled.

Val helped open her letter and started reading. "Hi Fleur, it's Maxinoff again! I'm here for the holidays! So that means we have to set some ground rules," Val read out the letter.

"Mommy, what are the ground rules?" Saylor asked me quietly.

"They're very strict rules and things you have to follow bear," I explained and she nodded.

"Rule one: no more leaving your shoes in front of the door. Only on the rack, if they're at the door, I might put something inside them." Val said and Fleur nodded agreeing to the rule.

This one worked out to our advantage too.

"Rule two: Maxinoff likes cookies so one each day should be good! And bring a glass of milk, chocolate chip makes me thirsty."

"And rule three: if you're naughty, I'm naughty so be good...but I'll just be naughty anyways!"

"No!" Fleur sighed while Saylor laughed. "Maxinoff is always naughty." Fleur sighed and shook her head.

"Have a very good Christmas Fleur and I'll make sure to tell Santa you've been good if you follow all the rules, if you don't you might get coal for Christmas. But it's the first day so I'll be very nice to you Fleur, I left you a present upstairs in your room, Merry Christmas Fleur!" Val finished reading it.

Fleur immediately got off Valentina's lap and stood tall. "I have to move my shoes from the door. I don't want Maxinoff putting anything in them." She ran to the door and immediately moved her shoes to the shoe rack.

That's one of me and Val's problems solved, no more shoes by the door is a win.

"Can I go see the present?" She asked.

"We'll go up together, we still have to read Saylor's letter," I said and she walked back over to us sitting back in Val's lap.

"Me now," Saylor grinned and tried to open the letter on her own. "Mommy I can't do it." She pouted.

"That's okay baby, we'll open it together," I said and helped her open it. Once it was open she giggled all excitedly.

"Hi Saylor, I'm Otto, your elf on the shelf, Santa's little watcher!" I started reading and a smile spread across the little three-year-old's face.

"Christmas with me is all kinds of fun, fun for me, maybe for you. I like to be a little naughty just like you." I read.

"I'm not naughty." She pouted and Valentina fought back a laugh and Fleur giggled.

"Since we both like to cause mischief let's set some rules for each other. If you don't hide things anymore, I'll stay out of your chocolate," I read out. "That's one. Two is, like Maxinoff, I love cookies, so I get two every day and I'll share one with you, bring a glass of milk too, and one for you."

"And finally, check the Christmas countdown every day, you have to change it."

"Really?" Saylor asked. The Christmas countdown is her favorite thing but we don't allow her to touch it because she'll flip all the numbers at once. No matter how many times we change it back, she'll keep flipping it.

"Yeah, the letter says so," I smiled and she smiled widely.

"At the end of the countdown, they'll be present under the tree and I'll be gone so you have to make sure it's correct otherwise can't tell Santa you were good this year." I read.

"I promised Otto!" Saylor said.

"Those are the end of my rules for Christmas so have a very merry Christmas and I can't wait to see what trouble I get into—I mean you get into! I also left you a present on your bed since I'm being nice for day one, Merry Christmas Saylor!" I finished off the letter.

Saylor smiled widely and turned to me. "Can I go see my present?" She asked.

"Both of you go upstairs and we'll come up too," Val said.

Fleur held onto Saylor's hand and they both ran up the stairs to their rooms. "They're gonna be upset at the no present," Val said as her hands wrapped around me.

"That's why I have hot chocolate and cookies ready to go, and we can watch another Barbie movie for the night," I said telling my wife the plan I have for us to prevent the girls from crying all night.

"Mhmm, I see," she smirked.

"Of course, your wife is very smart," I said.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have married her."

"And she never would've passed your English class," I added while Val chuckled.

After a moment, we went upstairs. Both girls were sat in Fleur's room ready to rip them open.

"Okay let's see what you both got," Val said.

Both girls ripped their gifts open and were immediately unimpressed when they noticed there wasn't actually anything exciting for an empty cardboard box.

"There's nothing!" Saylor said sad.

"He did it again," Fleur said just as upset as her sister.

"I don't like Otto—mommy throw away," Saylor said as she climbed into my arms again.

"I'm sorry my angels, they weren't very nice from day one," I said to both of them and held Saylor close. "What if we have some cookies and hot chocolate to make up for the no presents," I suggested.

"Yeah," Fleur said with a smile and Saylor agreed.

"Let's go get some hot chocolate and cookies then," Val said and both of them left before we did.

Val held onto my hand. "We're in for a good holiday aren't we?" She smiled at me.

"Aren't we always my love," I smiled and kissed her before we went down too.