Christmas 2008

We had a very nice Christmas here. Charlotte was unbearably cute hauling around all of her presents, doing the hand motions to Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, nodding to indicate yes (for the first time ever), and dancing to the music from the wide variety of toys she got that play songs. Elisabeth was over the moon because she got what she wished for: "a pogo stick and some stuff for Charlotte." I was so touched on Christmas morning when Elisabeth came downstairs. She immediately said "oh! I got a pogo stick! I am so happy!" which was immediately followed by an inquiry about which Santa stuff was for Charlotte. She has such a good heart.

Santa brought Elisabeth a GeoTrax train set, which has been a huge hit. Elisabeth enjoys playing with the train, and Charlotte enjoys sending the little people down the freight chute while saying "wheeeeeeeee." Oh - and taking the engine and shoving it into all of the places it doesn't belong, including but not limited to the elevator shaft.

We also got a game for Elisabeth that she can legitimately beat me at: I Spy Eagle Eye. The tide is turning. There are 8 different boards, each having a zillion things on them. Think "Where's Waldo" but with items not people. Each person picks a board for themselves. Then there is a deck of cards, each card has 8 items on it. Each person picks a card and you frantically search for one item on the card that is on your board. You get to ding a bell if you find it first - this is huge incentive for a 3 yr old. And Elisabeth can beat me at this game even when I'm trying to win... but I secretly enjoy playing this game.

For all of those interested, as expected Elisabeth can in no way make the pogo stick work. It seems too tall for her, even though it says it would work for her height. The bigger problem is that the spring is pretty tough and she is just too much of a featherweight to make it work. I think she's getting frustrated about it. I mentioned the possibility of some WD-40 on it to my dad and now she asks me approximately every 30 minutes when I'll put the "slippery stuff" on it.

Being off for three days in a row is heavenly. I'm sitting here watching terrible television (What Not to Wear - this girl is actually crying in the confessional because she can't find anything to buy with her $5000 gift card, oh the tragedy), I spent a large part of the afternoon working on a project I've been planning for months - the basement re-do, and I have the exact same schedule planned for tomorrow. Work is really cramping my style.

Here are two cute pictures from Christmas morning:

Charlotte playing with the GeoTrax train set.

The look of joy on Elisabeth's face when she saw that we now have our very. own. copy. of. Dumbo! priceless.

And with that, I'm back to TV. I have more stories for this week, but I'll put them in separate posts. Oh, this is a relief, crying girl from TV has discovered the color purple and it looks like everything is going to be ok. I wonder if CNN turns out happy like this.