I Got Elfed

For a good laugh, check this out:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1233772035

"Santee Cause"

We took Grace to Navy Pier to go to the Children's Museum and to see Santa. Last year was a disaster with lots of tears, this year was much better. At first glance she wanted nothing to do with the noisy, shiny, bustling, and very red stage platform where Mr. and Mrs. Claus sat. I casually mentioned that if she asked him to Santa might bring her toys on Christmas, this peaked her interest. I told her that she didn't have to go see Santa but that I was going to and she could come with me if she wanted to. This seemed like a somewhat less terrifying idea to her and she agreed to go with me. We patiently waited our turn while a very large group of the "Red Hat Society ladies" took their turn on Santa's lap. When it was our turn, we climbed the stairs and walked up to Santa. Grace was not impressed. She did not want to even look at him let alone sit on his lap, until he mentioned that if she is a good girl he would tell Rudolph not to miss her house on Christmas Eve. That did the trick and she took his hand and started jabbering away about toys and her house and mee-mee's. Before we left she asked Santa to bring some toys for Mommy too- she's got my back.

Okay, so it has been over a month since I last made an entry. Since then, we had a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend at the Simmon house along with Grace's 2nd birthday. We ate all sorts of variations of turkey, butter, and cream for three days and it was true bliss. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we had all of the GP's and Great-GP's over to the Simmons for a birthday celebration for Grace. She opened a mound of presents and finally got that "mee-mee" cake (M&M's for those of you who don't speak Grace) that she has been talking about for the last two months. She enjoyed the cake ceremony so much that after she blew out her two candles she immediately asked to do it again. We re-lit the candles for her to blow out and she looked at all of us and said "sing!!". Hmmm....one time on her first birthday, two times on the second, is this going to be a trend??