Happy Christmas

Christmas came to our house and we now have a rocking horse. Phillip put it together. It is very cute and we hope Julianna loves it. We had a great Christmas dinner. Phillip's sister and her family and his parents came down. They did the cooking since I was rounding. We had tons of food and enjoyed the company. Julianna got lots of nice toys from everyone in our families. She is going to need more storage for her collection.











Santa left this is Phillips stocking. Do or do not. There is no try.

As part of our adoption journey we decided to go our for Chinese food each time we accomplished a step. We ate a lot of Chinese while we were paper-chasing, and less so during the five months we waited for INS to approve our I171. Somewhere along the way, we decided to start saving the fortunes and to use them in the baby's life book. This is one of our favorites.


Now, imagine yourself a jedi knight, stranded on the swamp planet of Dagobah, your jedi apprentice has just failed in raising his sunken X-wing fighter from the muck and say it again. May the force be with you.

It's hard to believe that an entire month has passed since I last smocked. I did finsih the dining room curtains and we decorated for Christmas. That was an adventure. We moved since last Christmas and had to first find where we stashed the decorations. Still have not found the stockings. Then we decided to get a nine foot tree to go with our 11 foot ceilings. You have to use a ladder to decorate a nine foot tree. We also did not have enough decorations, so for about two weeks it was decorated up to need-a-ladder point and only in the front. We never did figure out how to get the angel on top. I think next year she will have to go on before the top portion is assembled. We have spent a lot of time thinking how different our lives will be next year, with a two and a half year old. Phillip's sister sent us Third Day's Christmas CD yesterday. The last track on the CD is called "Merry Christmas" and is all about spending Christmas away from your child, who is waiting in China. Very fitting for us this year.

Phillip Adds to the Closet

I got a surprise this week--a box from home star runner. Phillip selected and ordered tee shirts for Julianna and my first clue was the box arriving. He got so excited and said he needed to wrap a Christmas gift for his baby. Turns out I wasn't the baby getting the gift. He loves home star runner. They are at www.homestarrunner.com