Hey Friday, hey! We are looking forward to a quiet weekend before we welcome home our dog, Oaks, on Monday. He has been away at “bird dog school” learning to retrieve fowl so he can work when Jim goes hunting. I’ll probably be making some (more) pumpkin pancakes (baaarely shown above) because ’tis the season and… YUM. I can’t get enough! In the meantime, here are a few things I Googled this week.

How to hang Christmas lights in stucco: This YouTube video (yes, I totally watched it and took notes) was incredibly helpful. I practically wanted to start my own side business by the time I was done watching!

What to do when your child fears Santa Claus: This is awful. We made the mistake of letting Harper (3.5) watch Elf the other night. You know the scene in the very beginning when baby Buddy crawls into Santa’s bag? Harper interpreted that as Santa stealing the baby. “But MOM!” Harper cried, “That baby’s mama will be SO SAD when she goes in and sees it gone. Why did Santa take the baby? Santa isn’t going to take me or Ellie, will he?” Ho Ho Horrible.

How to properly dispose of bacon grease: I usually pour it into a can and put the can in the freezer. But is that ok? What is the right way? It seems my approach is the most common after all. Thanks for the confidence, Google. Also – thanks for this neat idea — save and mix with seed to feed to the birds.

Is there an Elf on the Shelf app? Jim and I are gearing up for our first real season of Elf on the Shelf with the girls. (We did it last year but H wasn’t that interested.) I’m not looking to go overboard with props and crafts but we did start a list of ideas and taped it to the inside of a kitchen cabinet so we don’t run out of inspiration when it’s late and all we want to do is go to bed. I was wondering if there was an app that could help keep our ideas organized, send a reminder and allow us to assign each other Elf Duty nights. I didn’t quite find exactly what I was looking for, but Elf Help came close. I suppose we could just use a shared Google calendar, right?

How to tie your scarf so the tag doesn’t show: Am I the only one who has an ongoing issue with scarf tags always showing? My J.Crew scarves are the worst offenders (in my opinion) when it comes to tag placement and I resorted to taking a seam ripper to one. I Googled this to see if there was a magic answer, and there doesn’t seem to be. But! The Wall Street Journal had some recent advice on scarf tying.

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Things I’ve Googled is an ongoing series and comes from one of the standard questions Jim and I ask each other when we get home. Often, it’s a good indicator of where our minds have wandered off to in the middle of the day and the topics usually make us laugh. So consider this part educational. Part oversharing. Part nonsense. Completely random.