I Don't Get It, Vol. 1

Elf on the damn Shelf.  It's not cute.  It's creepy.  And I don't understand the appeal.

I've read peoples blogs, seen the descriptions and the 'point' of it...but I don't get it, and don't like it.

According to elfontheshelf.com:

"The Elf on the Shelf ®: A Christmas Tradition is a very special tool that helps Santa knows who should go on the list of those who misbehave and who on the list of those who behave well."

From what I've witnessed, parents are using Elf to prank children, scare children, and threaten children.  For example, "If you don't do your homework, Elf will tell Santa and you'll be on the naughty list."

Now, I don't really care what you people do with your own kids, but I was a kid once, and I would NOT have appreciated it.  If you need to punish your children, grow some balls and do it...don't blame a 9" plush little boy with a painted face.  Plus...dolls with those fucking creepy eyes are fucking creepy.

Let's check out some of the things Elfy does.

Not cool Elf...not cool at all.

Nope. Not what parents should be doing with a childrens toy.
When I was a kid, lessons were not taught like this.

That's just not sanitary. (Well, neither is the second picture).

Great idea, let's trash our own house and pretend an inanimate object did it.

A few things here.
I thought this is something parents did not want their children exposed too.
And...if an Elf drank all my wine...I'd be pretty pissed.

Call me a party-pooper or an Elf hater or whatever you want.  I don't like it and I don't get it.

To make things worse...What the FUCK is a Troll in the Hole?

What about you?  What do you think of Elf on the Shelf?  What's annoying you these days? Leave a comment!

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to follow 'Where in the World is Kacey?', please subscribe here so you don't miss anything! Also, be sure to check out Kacey's Kitchen for the latest recipe, Mushroom & Beef Tacos with Avocado Salsa.

California & Grand Canyon Adventures, Part 9, Day 8

If you need to catch up on our California & Grand Canyon Adventures this summer, check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8!

Hopefully I'll finish this series up soon, cause there is so much more to cover in 2012 before it's 2013! Yikes!

Okay. So this day was pretty cool.  It just happened that our friends Nich & Des from back home (East Coast - Holla!) were visiting the fine city of Los Angeles at about the same time we were! This was especially exciting because we don't get to see them very much at all.  Aaron hadn't seen them since our wedding (2 years ago).  So anyway...I had not been to Universal Studios Hollywood ever, and Aaron hadn't been since he was young, and Nich and Des have this uncanny love for theme parks.  It was just a given that we should go.  So we did.

Military Discount Alert!  Do NOT go to Universal or other theme parks WITHOUT contacting your ITT department.  They have the most amazing discounts ever, but you typically have to order them ahead of time direct through your base (or another base).  This is the second theme park that we've gone to getting crazy deals through them (Disney 4-day park hopper for $138 each - hello?!?!).  In this instance, the 4 of us (military member plus a finite number of guests) got a Year Pass plus Front of Line pass for something like $80 each or so (I can't remember exactly how much).  Another awesome thing...you can order ITT tickets from ANY base.  Our base didn't carry Universal Hollywood tickets at the time, so I called Camp Pendleton (different branch) and they overnighted the tickets to me!

Onto our day....

Nich and Des are awesome to theme park with.  My first theme park as an adult was last year (Disney), before we moved from Florida, and I was so thankful that it was just my husband and I.  Asides from having goofy fun (get it...goofy?) together alone, we planned out our day to hit every ride/show we wanted with minimal lines.  We were so stealth running through the park, grabbing a fastpass, running to another ride, hitting up our fastpass ride.  We completed 2 entire parks in one day.  That's really amazing people.  And we couldn't have done it if we were in a group with dilly-dalliers going "uhh...do'r...what do you want to do next?". I couldn't handle that.  People would die.  But Nich and Des were clear and upfront with what they wanted to do in the park, and the 4 of us easily decided how to navigate the park.
 Please tell me you guys remember An American Tale.  If I were a mouse, Fievel would be my boyfriend.

 These things came in handy.  But you know what?  The park wasn't even too busy if we didn't have them.

 I loved how the park is built on a mountain and there are tons of different levels.  Props to Des and Aaron for walking up some  4,908,234 stairs. Give or take a few.

This is what I get for not getting permission for posting pictures of people on my blog.  I think it's kinda funny.  The next few shots are from the Studio Tour, which is something like a 30 minute tram town of, you guessed it, studio tours.

 How they reenact car explosions and crashes.

 I don't even know.

 We all liked the Animal Actors show.  It was pretty neat to see animals like guinea pigs, mice, cats, and others trained to go places on cue.  Afterwards, everyone with Front of Line passes got to stick around and pet some little creatures and take pictures with them.  Can we say STOKED!  Even Aaron bonded with one of them.

 Oh boy... (Made of Jelly Beans)

We had a blast, and it was so nice to do something like that with friends we rarely see.  We didn't want to say goodbye, but we parted ways and headed down to see my cousin Shannon in Orange County.  More on that next!

Hungry?  Check out my most recent post on Kacey's Kitchen, Mushroom & Beef Tacos with Avocado Salsa.

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MilSpouse First Friday Fill-In (December)

Wifey of Wife of a Sailor came up with this 5 question monthly series to get to know our fellow bloggers better!  Once you post your answers on your own blog, you will submit your link on her site, where all the contributors are listed! Check it, Check it! 

Here's my questions and answers for Decemeber!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed? I would have chilled out a little more.  Maybe living in the middle of nowhere is starting to get to me, maybe it's preparing to move across the world, but there were a few days this month that I definitely stressed myself out waaay too much.  I also feel like I've been going non-stop and could totally use a day on the couch with a bottle of wine and a Law and Order SVU marathon.  That would totally straighten things out for a while.  Dum-Dum.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in November? Went to Dallas with friends and ate ungodly amounts of delicious food which made me so freaking happy.  Really, how could we NOT have 2 dinners in one night.  We also John & Sherry from Young House Love at our first book signing.  Oh! And we had our first formal afternoon tea.  That makes us all sound so fancy pants, but don't let that fool you.

3. What is your favorite holiday memory? There is a toss up between 2 specific moments.  Once at Thanksgiving I laughed so hard I fell through my chair.  No joke.  My parents had this beautiful old OLD dining room set that was old.  We never had any issues with it up until then, but it was getting kinda old and the chairs kind of rickety.  *laugh* *laugh* *boom*  The seat of the chair just totally gave way.  Which is weird because I must have weighed all of 100lbs at the time, and my uncle's chair, who was supporting nearly 400lbs was fine. Did I mention the chair was old?

And then there was the time that we look over and my grandmothers head was in my grandfathers lap.  My dad yells, "Mom! Can't you wait until you get home!!!??!" My grandmother was the first one to pick up on it, my mom is yelling at my dad for saying that 'in front of the kids', my grandfather doesn't know why everyone is laughing and yells "Does anyone have a flashlight!?!", and I swear - food and drink must have shot out of everyone's nose.  That was like the funniest shit ever.  We are all still laughing about it, and that must have been 10 years ago.  Oh, the reason it looked like my grandma's head was in his lap was that he dropped one of his pills, and she was looking for it on the floor.

Priceless.

4. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? We are going 'home' during the Christmas/New Years time, so our week is going to be pretty busy.  As of now, the plans are to hang out with my sister in NJ, get a shit ton of pizza *angels singing* (and booze), and just hang out.  I'm sure video games and lots of darts are going to happen. Also, annoying her cats.  Cause that's what we do.

5. What are you looking forward to in December? December is going to be a busy month.  Next week I'm looking forward to packing ALL OF OUR STUFF AND SENDING IT TO JAPAN.  Holy crap.  And OF COURSE I'm so so SO stoked to see my family the week after that.

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