Christmas 2008

Whew- isn't it too bad that vacations have to pass by so quickly?  We haven't even had a chance to have a nap during the break.  We had a very Merry Christmas.  Patrick's parents and brother arrived earlier in the week and it was nice having a few days with them.  One of the days we went to the Allen Fieldhouse exhibit with all of the sports memor-

abilia.  The curator came out and offered to let Elle try on a football helmet, but she was a little nervous to do so.  She did enjoy carrying it around, though.

 

On Christmas Eve Elle helped make cookies for Santa.  We also put out some carrots for the reindeer.  Santa and the reindeer must have enjoyed their snack because most of it was gone in the morning.

  

Christmas was a nice and restful day.  Elle enjoyed helping everyone try to open their presents.  Jay just liked being in the midst of everything.  He took a nap halfway through the present opening festivities, so we had to save the rest of his gifts until he woke up.  The kids received lots of presents, including puzzles, games, clothes, dress-up costumes, cars, and a train table set.  Everyone was much too generous!  

We had an extremely yummy Christmas dinner of center-cut beef tenderloin.  It was quite a treat and was prepared perfectly by Patrick.  Sarah's mom and step-dad arrived in town yesterday so we had Christmas Part II.  Jay received lots of dinosaurs and Elle now has a plethora of play food.

I forgot to write last week about our recent outing to McDonalds.  It was the first time we have taken Elle to a McDonalds with a playplace.  She had a 4 piece chicken nugget happy meal, which happened to take her 3 sittings over the course of a few hours to completely finish (no wonder she's so little)!  She really enjoyed checking out the playplace, but was a little apprehensive of climbing way high up in the toys.  Has anyone noticed how small the McDonalds portions seem to be now a days?  Sarah ordered a chicken sandwich, which was just teeny weeny.  

One other thing worth mentioning from this past week is that Elle had her first eye exam.  Due to a family history of eye problems on each side of the family, it was recommended that we have Elle's eyes checked out.  She did really well and was very cooperative.  She had to wear glasses at one point and find items that popped out of the page.  When she took the glasses off she said, "like Sponge Bob!"  Elle did an excellent job identifying the motorcycle, telephone, and other objects.  The doctor said her eyes were good and that she didn't need another check up for 2 years.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and best of luck sticking with those resolutions!