workin off the blackmarks

Growin up in the weeks before Christmas, the stinkin elves would show up and start watchin us. If we were caught being less than good we would get black marks. And if Christmas arrives and you have black marks- you don't get presents. Those stinkin black marks!!! We couldn't tease our siblings, or talk back to mom, or "forget" to clean our room. When december rolled around, we became angels. And, interestingly enough, now that I am a mom those stinkin elves came back, But they weren't watching me anymore. My kids learned about the elves this Christmas, and since I didn't remember how we got rid of black marks I made up my own way. My kids had to perform service to get rid of black marks. So here I have caught them in the act. I think this was just a day or two before Christmas so they were extra happy to do anything to get rid of the black marks. Now I know why Mom was so happy when the elves came!