Gosh, the holidays do keep us busy! Emma has been picking up the kids slang lately. She says, "what-e-ver!" ,and "That's so weird!", and "That's so gross!" Whatever ends in an exclamation mark, she picks it up. Her vocabulary is really astounding. Everyday she uses new words and phrases that I hadn't heard her say before. (I just looked in the family room and noticed Emma took off the pajamas I put on her 5 minutes ago and replaced them with the clothes Ellie just took off when she put on her p.j.'s.)
I'm posting some pictures from November and then some from December. In the November pictures you'll see the girls helping me cook dinner. That is a nightly thing around here. As soon as I head toward the kitchen to start dinner, the girls scurry in and drag the chairs from the table over to the cabinet and offer their help. I'll also post some pictures from our Chinese playgroup. There's a few random picts of the girls with their purses that their Nana sent them and eating at our favorite pizza place (Johnny's). Alison is in a lot of the pictures with the girls because half the time she's at our house and the other half of the time Ellie's at her house. You'll see some pictures of my boys in there with the girls around the tree. Emma is loving all the holiday decorations and festivities. As we were decorating the tree, Ellie kept saying, "How do you like your first Christmas Emma?" I don't know which one is more excited. Oh, I almost forgot to mention... the girls made a fall bouquet in my bird bath. Ellie said, "Mom, come here, you gotta see what me and Alison did!" Those can be scary words. They covered my eyes and led me out and then, voila! There it was, my bird bath filled with dirt, pinecones, pinestraw and mushrooms on sticks. It was quite a site! They were beaming with pride and begged me to take a picture. Of coarse I gushed over it and took pictures. Ellie said, "We were just putting mushrooms on sticks and then had a splendid idea!" (Did ya catch that? Splendid. She's seen a few too many Disney movies.) Our Thanksgiving plans were to spend the day with Keith's family. But Ellie ended up sick, so her and I had to stay home. We made the best of it though. We had "pajama day" and watched Christmas movies all day! That weekend we put up all the Christmas decorations. Keith was so sweet and put wreaths on all the windows and hung the icecycle lights on the house. The girls thought it was "splendid"!
The December pictures include the girls sitting on Santa's lap at the mall. We were not planning on seeing Santa that day. We actually dropped by Northpoint mall to play on their indoor playground and ride their carousel and have lunch after Emma's eye appointment in Atlanta. But when we saw Santa with an empty lap and no one in line, we couldn't resist. There's also a shot of the girl's at Supercuts with purple balloons. Ali (Alison)and Ellie got their long hair cut into adorable bobs! Sooo cute! Ellie's was long enough to donate to Locks of Love. (Must be at least 10") I'm posting pictures from our annual Christmas parade in downtown Watkinsville. The girls walked in it with their Chinese playgroup. We were promoting adoption awareness. Boy, in a small town, you never know what you'll see in the parades. There was a float with a porta-potty on it. And behind that several John Deer tractors. There were horses and all kinds of animals on floats. Then Santa came at the end and literally dumped candy on our heads. It was really painful! Jenny (Alison's mom) and I took the girls to a little sandwich shop afterwards (the Krimson Cafe)and met a farmer and his wife. I could have chatted with them all day. What a sweet old couple! I have to say, I really love living in a small town. It's helped me slow down my life a bit and appreciate the important things. I'm posting pictures of a Christmas party that we go to every year. A doctor and his wife who live on the square in Marietta and have an adopted daughter from China and 2 biological children host catered Easter and Christmas parties every year and invite families they meet with adopted children from China. They always have something special there. (A train ride, pony rides, this year a trolly ride, last year Princess Barbie came and danced with the children and did their nails and painted their faces...). It's an amazing site to see all these little chinese children all dolled up in their Christmas best, running all over this old house clomping their shiney patan leather shoes on the hardwood floors.
Before I close this post, I wanted to mention an odd thing that happened the other day. I was pouring milk from a measuring container into Emma's cereal. (There was a little left in the carton, so I had put it in something smaller to save room in the frig.) Anyway, Emma said, "No mommy, not China milk." I pointed to the container and asked if it was China milk. She said, "yes." I said, "What milk do you want?" She pointed to the regular milk jug and said, "cow milk." Hmmm, did that container bring up a memory of some kind of formula they gave the kids in the orphanage??? What memories are in that sweet little head of hers? I sure wish I knew... And who told her milk came from cows???
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