A Heart Attack Named Buddy

We have a cute little elf named Elvin who has been visiting our family every December for several years.  He hangs out in the house and keeps an eye on things, and moving to a new spot every night.  When he arrives at the beginning of December he brings a little gift for the family, usually a Christmas book or movie.  This year was different, though, and Elvin brought a Christmas yard inflatable Buddy the Elf as his gift.  It worked out well that Cat had been talking about wanting this inflatable, and Ben and the kids really wanted it too.  I wasn't as excited, but we went ahead and set Buddy up on the front porch the day he arrived.  I thought it would be fun for him to be near the Christmas tree.

But as Buddy got into some trouble the next day, as Buddy is prone to do.  I hadn't understood why so many people leave their inflatables uninflated for most of the day, but I figured it out pretty quickly.  When I came down the stairs from my room, this is what I saw of the living room:

and I'll admit, it gave me a little fright.  I was pretty surprised to see Buddy looking at me through the window.  So I went outside and straighened him up so that he could face the yard.  The next time I glanced out of that window, Buddy had fallen forward so that his upper body was balanced on the banister in front of him.  By now I needed to leave the house and didn't have time for any more of Buddy's shenanigans, so I unplugged him and went to my car to go.  Imagine my surprise when I glanced at the front of the house as I was leaving and saw that Buddy was splumped against the brick wall near the windows, slowly sinking down, apparently turning into slime.

Buddy's adventures didn't stop there.  We wanted to keep him inflated as much as possible, so we kept him plugged in on the front porch, even though he seemed to enjoy turning around to check on us through the window.  (Maybe he was trying to help Elvin with his duties?)  We'd go outside and turn him around, again and again, whenever he got blown over or around.  But no matter what happens, he is always as cheerful and excited as he can be.  After all, smiling is his favorite.