Giving White Elephants A Bad Name

Hey y'all - 

On Friday night, we went to a holiday party for your dad's office. It was held at the home of one of his co-workers and featured a white elephant gift exchange. NOTE: This is where I say a silent moment of prayer that your dad's co-workers don't stumble upon this blog. I don't think people understand the concept of a white elephant gift. In my mind, you either bring something so awesome that it's worth stealing and causes a fuss, or something so awesomely bad that it's laugh-out-loud funny. But if you take a handful of junk out of a drawer and wrap it, that's not a white elephant gift. 

Laney drew from the present pile for our family, and opened what turned out to be an old plastic fishing bobber. Everyone yelled out, "What did you get?!?" and Laney dramatically showed it around the room like she was auditioning to be a Showcase Model on "Price is Right." Then, she turned to me and said, "I'm going to need to open another one." It's a metaphor for life, honey. Sometimes, you're going to come to the table with an electronic Darth Vader helmet that plays twelve different villainous phrases in the voice of James Earl Jones, and you're going to walk away with a fishing bobber. 

We were at the (lovely, really) party for two hours, and in that amount of time, it snowed about five inches with no signs of stopping. We decided that instead of driving home in the snowstorm, we'd spend the night down the road at Grandma Sue's house. 

The snow made the trees and bushes in her yard look beautiful:

Before we went inside for bedtime, Laney and Dad decided to make a snowman. Yes, my child has (and had with her) a coat and gloves and a hat and a scarf. But she doesn't need those things, 'cause IS NOT COLD, MOM. You just can't reason with crazy people. 

There's a woman in Dallas named Julie who discovered this blog while looking for her friend's similarly-named blog and decided to stick around. Though we've never met, I think she's swell. I remember a year ago, I posted a video of Laney and Thor sledding in our yard; Thor had on a long-sleeved T-shirt, and Julie commented that just LOOKING at him made her cold. When I took this picture of Thor making a snowman in his short-sleeved shirt, I thought, "Julie's going to LOVE this." Isn't it funny how the internet brings people together?

Snowy hugs all around.

Love,

Mom