If there's one thing I learned this Christmas, it's that being the first and only grandchild on both sides of the family means you score huge in the gift department. On Christmas Eve, we met the Brights at St. Michael's for the children's service in the basement. Ellie has a Little People Nativity Set and a book about Christmas that we've been reading, but she obviously hasn't figured out the whole birth of Jesus thing yet. She knows there was a baby, a star, an angel, and a donkey involved, but that's about it. After church, we went back to the Brights for dinner and opening presents. We let Ellie open all of hers first since she had to go to bed. Once she figured out that she was the recipient of many gifts, she started going nuts and screaming "Ooooooo!!" as she opened each gift. She got two babies, a stuffed doggie, some blocks, crayons, a puzzle, and a beautiful bracelet. Uncle Ben set up the train set which was a big hit with Ellie. It only took Ellie two hours to go to sleep... then the adults opened gifts downstairs.
We woke up at our house on Christmas morning. Santa brought Ellie a ride-on Elephant and an Elmo live. She really likes the elephant. It sings four different songs while she rocks on it. We made it over to my parents by 11AM where there were more festivities and she hit the motherload with the Elmo Restaurant, a gift from Grammie and Grandi. She LOVES the Elmo Restaurant. She saw it and immediately started cooking up a storm and has not stopped cooking since she received it. She has taken to putting her new baby in the oven which is troublesome, but maybe she thinks it's nice and dark for baby in there. She also likes handing out the money in the register to everyone.
We spent the afternoon of the 26th at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science and the next day, we saw the Trains at Northpark. It is a nerd paradise of miniature trains. That have the trains running through scenes of Dallas, New York City, Washington DC, a forest, and a western town among other things. Ellie really enjoyed it and they had some trains at her level . Mom and I saw the movie Doubt on Saturday afternoon. It's getting lots of nominations for awards and such but it was sort of slow and disturbing.
Lee and I spent Sunday surveying what Ellie does and doesn't play with and making two piles - save and give to charity. The problem is that I would get something out she hadn't played with in six months and she'd act like it was the long lost toy she'd been missing and start playing with it. Half of her stuffed animals are getting the boot. Sometimes I wish we lived in the 1800s when children had a corn husk doll and a block of wood to play with. And they liked it. Now everything makes noise, is the size of a baby hippopotamus, and requires 4-AA batteries which have to be inserted using a Stewart Little-sized screwdriver.
Lee and I spent Sunday surveying what Ellie does and doesn't play with and making two piles - save and give to charity. The problem is that I would get something out she hadn't played with in six months and she'd act like it was the long lost toy she'd been missing and start playing with it. Half of her stuffed animals are getting the boot. Sometimes I wish we lived in the 1800s when children had a corn husk doll and a block of wood to play with. And they liked it. Now everything makes noise, is the size of a baby hippopotamus, and requires 4-AA batteries which have to be inserted using a Stewart Little-sized screwdriver.
So here we are at the end of 2008 and I am exhausted. I think I aged 5 years in the past 7 days. I feel like I'm recovering from Spring Break 1997 without all of the beer, vinyl pants, dance offs, and midgets. I don't know how I'm going to do it year after year... and especially the years when Ellie starts getting up at 5AM. When that starts, I'm going to stay in bed, set up the camcorder, and tell her to hit record when she gets up. At least I have 11 months to get geared up for the next season. 
The Bright Family wishes you a happy and healthy 2009!
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