Gus and Cleo

I realize I neglected to post on the 6th. Things have been busy. So I doubled up and you get two posts today, one of Children's books and one on Gus and Cleo.

Now who are Gus and Cleo, you ask? They are the Jones family elves. I'm not sure if you're aware but certain families have elves assigned to look after them all year and report back to Santa on how they're doing. Gus and Cleo were our elves.

I realize now that I haven't ever asked my parents who came up with this idea but it was nothing short of brilliant. Gus and Cleo almost felt like members of our families. I remember drawing pictures of them and wondering what they looked like. I imagined Cleo as a beautiful elf with long blonde hair and pretty lips and I imagined Gus with tousled brown hair and a snub nose with laughing eyes.

My parents had an old-school voice recorder (big fatty silver brick) that you could speed up or slow down during the playback. They would record their voices leaving us a message from Gus and Cleo and then turn the dial to fast for the playback so we heard this chimpmunk-esque voices talking to us and about us. Sometimes my mom or dad would "hide" the tape recorder behind a couch cushion and "catch" Gus and Cleo in the middle of a conversation. We would listen, fascinated.

My mom would sneak into our rooms at night and put new Christmas socks on our feet as we slept. That was a sign that Gus and Cleo had visited. We'd leave them treats before bed and I remember sitting straight up and tearing into the family room to see if they had eaten our treats. They'd write us notes in scrawling handwriting telling us that we were being good and that Santa was happy. Sometimes they left us treats. There wasn't much that made me more excited than a treat from Gus and Cleo. And boy did I ever want to be on my best behavior, knowing that Gus and Cleo were around. I remember threatening my siblings when I felt they were being unfair or mean. "Gus and Cleo can see you, Danny."

I remember being so concerned about whether or not Gus and Cleo were Mormon. I remember a serious talk I had with my brother Danny during which we decided they had to be Mormon because if they watched us all the time, then they came to church with us every Sunday.

My dad is a master story-teller. When I was little, I had this fear of wolves. He started telling us stories of Japuska, Wonder Dog of the North (dad, how do you spell that?) who was half dog, half wolf. I think he single-handedly inspired my sister Kathy's long-time obsession with wolves. Anyway, he wrote several stories about Gus and Cleo's background. Gus and Cleo were pretty close with my parents and would talk about their history often. Gus once worked as a snow-shoveler in the North Pole. He shoveled the front walks for all the other elves. One Christmas there was an incredible blizzard and Santa's sleigh was completely stuck. It was Gus who shoveled him out. My dad would write up these stories and then come into our rooms at night to tell them to us. We were completely enthralled. I could imagine everything in my head.

This is one of my favorite Christmas memories, I can't wait to have my own kids so they can get to know Gus and Cleo.