Last year, right after Thanksgiving, I woke up early before the kids and found this ridiculous mess in my kitchen.

I was suspicious, of course. Had the kids been up already? Sure enough, I could hear them moving around upstairs, so I went to the girls’ room and asked them to explain the mess in the kitchen.

“We didn’t make a mess,” Sophia said.

“Well then how did it get there?” I asked.

“We don’t know.” Emma and Sophia both shook their heads, wide-eyed with bewilderment.

So I marched them down the stairs and pointed to the counter. “Are you telling me that you two didn’t sneak downstairs before I got up and get into the chocolates?”

They were thoroughly confused. “No.”

“Well who did it then? Do you expect me to believe that the Princesses came to life and smeared this chocolate all over their own faces? Maybe they were trying to eat it!”

They looked at each other, stunned. But their only response was to shrug and continue to insist that they didn’t do it.

Well, it turns out that my ridiculously improbable theory was correct. Emma and Sophia’s princess dolls came to life while we were all sleeping and tried to eat the chocolates out of my kitchen cabinets! The funny thing was, only the princess dolls that Santa had brought them in years past were capable of coming to life. Ordinary dolls we’d bought ourselves at Target had no such powers. We figured that the elves must have infused their toys with some sort of devious magic.

Over the next few weeks-in fact, every night until Christmas Eve-the princesses got into more and more mischief. They played Euchre (and I’m pretty sure Snow White cheated):

They made paper dolls:

They decorated the tree with the kids’ underwear!

One night, they actually tried doing some laundry. Let’s just say the royal life hadn’t exactly prepared them for handling delicates properly.

Christmas Eve, the kids woke up to a letter from the Princesses and a few small gifts. They were calling a truce.

The letter read: “Dear Emma, Sophia, and Raymond. We had so much fun playing this Christmas season! We can’t wait for next year! Here is a little preview of what Santa is bringing you. (He told us we could give it to you.) Love, The Princesses.”

A sort of bittersweet ending. We were starting to look forward to uncovering their mischief every morning. But wait, they said they couldn’t wait for “next year.” Did that mean they were coming back? Naturally, time passed, and we forgot all about it, until…

We came home from visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and found this:

I guess it’s time to decorate our house for Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

Do you have any fun and unique holiday traditions to share? I’d love to hear from you!