White Elephant

No, not another trip to the zoo. I'm talking about Grad Group's annual White Elephant gift exchange, which was held yesterday at the Larson-Wolbrink's home. Although Audrey was in attendance, the clear stars of the show yesterday were Lily Larson-Wolbrink (17 months) and Allegro (2 years), our friend Liz's new guide dog. The two of them together were the epitome of cute, Lily with her boundless energy and bouncy curls, and Allegro, a big yellow lab puppy who was "off duty" for the evening so we could pet him and interact with him.

The fun thing about White Elephant, beyond watching Lily and Allegro explore new levels of cuteness, was seeing what people brought - Paul and I went home with a plastic U of A mug, a woman's hat and necklace, a 4-bottle wine rack, and a insel garland decorated with shiny paper ornaments. But we got rid of four items we have had two of for some time, including Norah Jones and Louis Prima CDs, the Shel Silverstein book Runny Babbit, and a "Touch and Feel Farm" book.

We also got rid of a musical Happy Birthday bag that has slowly become the bane of my existance. Let me explain - somewhere along the line, one of us got a birthday present in this bag, which plays Happy Birthday and lights up when a corner of it is pressed. Due to limited storage space, we keep our wrapping paper in a storage box under our bed, but it turns out that this bag is a mite sensitive. So as I have been getting up at 3:30 AM to go feed the baby, it was not uncommon to have musical accompinament to this event - a tinny "Happy Birthday" that went of as I got out of bed and continued to play as I crossed the hall to Audrey's room.

Since I hit upon the idea of getting rid of it at the White Elephant, the bag became even more insistent. As we loaded it into the car for the rise to the Larson-Wolbrink's, it went off three times, as if to say "No! Don't get rid of me! You will miss this tinny "Happy Birthday!" But we don't. Enjoy it, Stephanie, and don't be afraid to regift!