Christmas Hangover

To tide you over as I wade through the hundreds of pictures I took over the last few days...

And then it's over. All the build up, all the excitement, all the gifts and songs and lights and sweets and countdowns and decorations and shopping and stories... then, it's the day after Christmas. The day after Christmas is awesome and sad. You wake up and realize you have a bazillion new things to play with but all the presents are open and Santa won't come back for another year.
Here's my story.

Remember this guy?

"merry christmas Ethan, you've been a very good boy. I had a lot of fun getting to know you. Have fun, be good! See you next year!"

 He's cute, he's mischievous. He turned our milk green, he replaced our stockings with our underpants, he tp'd the tree. Now, after a final trick of leaving hints around the house for Ethan to follow,

"good morning Ethan, see if you can follow the clues to find me, Marble." "check the Christmas tree"

Under the tree was a picture of E as a baby in a santa hat that said "where do you go to bake cookies" the oven "where do you put your favorite movies, if you want to watch them?" Which led to the dvd player "where do you wash your hands" which led to the note above

he has gone back to the North Pole until next Christmas. Tonight, I had to console my heart broken 4 year old as he cried because Marble wouldn't be back hiding tomorrow morning. So, in hind sight, while Marble was tons of fun for both us as parents and Ethan as child, was he actually a good idea? All part of the Christmas hangover.