Wee Miss Màiri Rose has a little stuffed bear ornament.  I think maybe someone gave it to her at a yard sale?  I don’t really remember for sure.  But when the tree came home, the first thing she wanted to do was to hang her bear on it…before the lights, before the hundreds and hundreds of feet of finger knit garland, before anything.  The thing is, since it’s hers, she insists on keeping track of it, which means it doesn’t get packed away with all of the other decorations, where we would have a half decent chance of finding it.  And when it (inevitably) couldn’t be found, she (predictably) threw a fit.  Iain thought he had seen it recently and went upstairs to help her find it.  She came back downstairs, screaming and crying…with the bear hidden behind her back.  It’s a big joke, you see?

And a joke is exactly what it became, between Steve and Màiri, about how Christmas Tree Bear was likely to run off again.  And sometimes he actually disappeared, usually to be found, oddly enough, in Steve’s shirt pocket.  He’s a tricky one, that Christmas Tree Bear.

Earlier this week, the advent stocking for the day contained this note:

Which lead to another note and another clue and another one after that.

All over the house.  With big children reading the notes aloud and little children gasping and guessing and running all about.

Until finally bear was found…

And restored to his rightful place on the tree.  At least until next time he wonders off.