It's Starting to Look Alot Like Christmas.

We have finally put up our Christmas Tree. In the 9 years we have lived at this house, we have only put up our tree a handful of times. The reason is we are not usually home for Christmas. There always seemed to be no point.

This year, however, we are planning on being home. After we celebrate Christmas Eve in New Hampshire with Dave's family, we are coming home the next day. I will be cooking a big roast pork dinner and we will have Dave's Nana here, along with his father and lady friend.

I am actually looking forward to it. I love to cook, and because we have always celebrated at Dave's sister's house, I have always felt useless, as she cooks the big meal. Well this year I am. I already have the cookbooks out and have been planning my menu.

Also, because it is a small crowd, I can have a nice sit down dinner with all the trimmings. Yay.

Here are a couple of pictures of our tree and my favorite ornaments:


This first ornament, I bought last year. This is a panda, with a good wishes quilt and lady bugs all over it. I bought this in honor of Katy. I remember when I bought this, i thought she would be with us by now. Boy, was I wrong.

The second ornament, is from this year. I bought this at Pier 1. It is a special handpainted design done in the ancient Chinese tradition of (OK, I can't find the paper that describes it) Anyway, it is painted on the inside of the glass ball. THis picture does not do it justice. It is white with gold painting of doves and it says Peace.

December Update (Warning - this post is long)

Hello Everyone,

I am back. It has been too long since I have updated my blog and I thought I would do that today. Boy, to catch up on two months. Let's see, where should I start.

1. ) We had a wonderful dinner with some fellow adopters from our Adoption Agency. What a great nite. We met at Chuck's Steakhouse in Auburn, MA and had a great time. It was so nice to meet new people that have a common interest. I hope we can make this a regular meeting. I think there was talk to try to get together for Chinese New year in February.

2.) We got our fingerprints back and approved. Now we have to work on getting our I600 form redone. This will be another $400. Yuck. But hopefully this will be the last time.

3.) We have officially passed our 13 month anniversery of LID. I cannot believe it has been over a year. Trying to be the optimist that I am, i have to keep saying we are way more that half way there. (I say this with a big fake smile on my face) I think I am going to need some Botox for all the clenched happy faces that I have been making.

4.) We had my husbands big 40 birthday party in November. What a great time. Lots of good friends, family and fun. Unfortunately I can't show any pictures for fear of revenge from the party goers. Everyone said they had a great time. I know that Dave did. He let me know when he rolled out of bed the next day at 1:00 pm. (Just in time for football) Oh well, it was his birthday so i cut him some slack.

5.) The most wonderful of all was the visit from my sister and her family. They flew in from California and stayed for about 10 days. We had such a good time. This was the first time I had seen my neices for 2.5 years. They have grown so much. The last time I saw my neice Lily, she was 3 months old, now she is a toddler. This was also the first holiday I have spent with them in over 5 years. What a great week. We went to the Children's Meuseum, had a lot of playdates with my other sister and her family, we had Thanksgiving at my cousins house, a fun shopping day with just me and my two sisters in Burlington. I could go on and on. Instead I will share some pictures:































6.) The last thing I would like to say is that referrals were given out at the end of November through Sept 8, 2005. That means if they keep going with the amount they have been giving out, we can expect to see our referral at the end of February, or March. This is my best guess estimate for December. Let's see what happens at the end of the month.

So you can see why I haven't been blogging lately. Too much going on. But I am turning over a new leaf and will start to blog more often.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.