Epic Fail prevented....jff

My mom put jewelry in a "safe place" and couldn't find it for years. She finally found it when we moved - in an old phone book.

NO the real question is "who the heck started this creepy Elf on a Shelf thing?" Like I don't have enough to do this time of year?!

sanity ! Not sure if i wanna find it. who has time for that ??

When I was younger, I picked out a stuffed panda that I really, really wanted, so my mother bought it (right in front of me) but then said she'd give it to me for Christmas and hid it away. I didn't get it, and I actually didn't remember that Christmas, but then like 6 months later, I remembered and asked my mother about the panda. She didn't remember it at all, but said she'd look and give it to me the following Christmas. When I didn't get it again, I brought it up again. She didn't remember it, and didn't remember that we had talked about it earlier either, but she let me look through all of the stuffed animals she had "stored" as extras for holidays and such, and it wasn't there. I know she didn't give it to anyone else because she asked me about all presents before giving them to friends. I just figured she had hidden it somewhere else.

That was at least 15 years ago, maybe more. We've never found it. I know she bought it, I'm pretty sure she never gave it to anyone else, and they haven't moved, so wherever it is, it is really well hidden!!!

Not me, but my mom misplaced her wedding day diamond jewlery. She had tucked it away in a safe place in her apartment, and it was missing for well over 5 years. Ultimately she unearthed it. Wrapped up in paper towel, adn tucked in a cigar box among our unused children's nursery rhyme books.

It's now a family in joke. Whenever something goes missing, we joke "have you looked next to mom's diamonds?"

Glad you found your elf.
F. B.

Our passports - safely placed in the nightstand. Which then got moved out to the garage when we remodeled and never came back inside. Luckily I decided to look for them the week before we were traveling. Nope, they were not in the safety deposit box. Tore apart the entire house and garage to find them.

About 3 years ago I bought one of my girls an MP3 player. Christmas Eve I could NOT fund that thing ANYWHERE. I must have turned the house upside down. I even looked in boxes that I know I would not have touched. I found it 4 days after Christmas after I had run out on the EVE to get a 2nd one. it was not fun waiting in line and I really hate shopping during the rush as it is. I found it under the crib mattress, hidden by the crib skirt.

I've become a clutterer and often lose presents bought in advance. My grandkids have discovered that when they search my spare room they find such wonderful things that I've even forgotten I purchased. Fortunately they're always inexpensive things.

I bought gift cards for all my grand nieces and nephews early for Christmas and could not find where I put them! I had the receipt and after going through heck and back for 6 months I finally got Toys Are Us to refund them. Did I mention I hate Toys Are Us? I had to do IOUs and ship the others in the spring. They had Christmas in June. They enjoyed it. I found them this summer in my closet. Did I mention that I hate Toys are Us and their non helpful refund policies? I hope someone googles Toys are Us and gets this post.

The key to our master bedroom door. I had locked the door when we had a sitter over and thought I had the key downstairs. It wasn't. Husband ended up kicking the door in. Fast forward 18 months and I found the key in a drawer in our office. Oooops! My bad!

for the life of me I could not find my girls' softball pictures. I have a drawer in my craftroom of professional portraits that are waiting to be scrap-booked or framed and I went through the entire thing several times and could not find them. We had moved and things were popping up in several weird places. I literally gave up on finding them concluding that I tossed them. About 4 days later I was clearing off a corner of my desk and THERE they were. I was so relieved! I was about to contact the photographer to see what it would take to get reprints. So Happy I dont have to!

Ha ha, what's funny is that we too thought we may have lost the Elf. We go out of town to family every year for Thanksgiving. The first year we introduced the Elf, she (ours is a she) was introduced at the 'beach house' we were staying. This year, someone is living in that house, but moved out for the week that the family descends upon it (weird I know). Anywho, while there I realized I forgot to bring the Elf and wasn't sure if I remembered correctly the safe place I had put her.

When our son asked about her, my husband promptly got on the phone to talk to Mrs. Claus who informed him that the Elf couldn't come this year because someone was technically living in the beach house and the Elf would be waiting for our son upon our arrival back home. Great, that crisis was averted, but then we had to hope that the Elf was where I thought I put it.

As we walked in the front door, my husband scurried our son to his room and diverted his attention while I ran to our office hoping it was in the right place. It was thankfully and I quickly got the Elf all set up before our son came out looking for her:)

Oh, and last year, I forgot that I had even bought some presents and hid them away in a closet at work. On Christmas Eve, I was looking for some wrapping paper for a friend and opened that closet and saw this bag of presents and for the life of me, it took me 10 minutes to remember what they were and who they were for.

My best story is my grandmother's. When I was first engaged I would remove my ring and thread it onto my watch (first year anniversary present) along with my promise ring. I'd place them on the counter with my towel whenever I showered. Apparently my abuelita thought this was irresponsible as it could be easily lost. One day she took it and put it away. I freaked thinking I'd lost it...my engagement ring!!! Of course, there was no finding it. Eventually my fiancee replaced it. A year and a half after my abuelita's death I received a Christmas gift. A cup we'd given her for mother's day, still in it's original box. Tucked inside the cup, in a small blue velvet drawstring bag was my jewelry. According to my mom, my abue must have though she'd teach me a lesson and forgotten where she'd hidden it all! I miss that spunky old lady...

Hey, I had to ask my husband if he saw where I put my reading glasses at least twice a week. I finally started wearing them on my head! And I don't have near the excuse as what I did with something last year!!

I'm currently looking for a book I borrowed from a friend. My heavens - the thing is PINK, for crying out loud! How can I miss a pink book???!!!

LOL! Dawn