Christmas Joy

I am convinced that there is nothing better than being a parent at Christmas time. Watching Kiya's eye's light up at the sight of her Dora tricycle on Christmas morning or just truly enjoying ripping wrapping paper and bows off of everyone's gifts. It was amazing and warmed my heart.

We were so blessed to be able to spend the holidays with all of our family and still sneak in some special just the three of us time too. It was truly a special time.

I did sneak some special time to think about what next Christmas might look like. We won't have our Little Man home yet but we might just maybe know his name and have a picture to cherish. We might not but it is nice to dream and think about him.

I hope that all of my blog readers had a very Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year.

Cinnamon rolls, Santa, and our family of 3

As I write this, we are having a lazy day as a family of 3. Weather did not permit us to see my parents today but hopefully soon. We started with cinnamon rolls and a visit from Santa and just enjoying our little family. I am listening to my gift from Santa right now--the Glee soundtracks :) See pictures below for Kiya enjoying her gift from Santa.

Spaghetti sauce is on the stove and cookies may even be baked from scratch today as we start our own family traditions. Wow--it has been a long time coming and while I am bummed the weather has prevented us from travelling, I take one look at this little girl and it all becomes okay.

We went to church on Christmas Eve. Wow, first time at the children's Mass and I think we had to have been over capacity by a hundreds of people. We were told it would be packed but I never imagined it would be that busy. Kiya did great minus the one rather loud, tired scream. Good thing we were sitting near a bunch of little ones her age and everyone understood. I was proud of myself for making it through Mass without crying. I got really close once or twice but I held off. I just couldn't believe this was all really happening. We were at Christmas Mass with our daughter.

After church we headed to the in-laws for dinner and presents. Kiya loves Egg noodles :) And here she is opening her very first Christmas present. We figured she loves the dogs so let's get her a stuffed pug. It was great night spent with family.
Christmas morning we woke up and Kiya got to open her gift from Santa.


She really liked the wrapping paper :)

And better yet, she LOVES her new toy.


So as we have a relaxing day ahead, we just think back to just how amazing this year has been. Last year we were anxiously wondering if our phone would ever ring to bring us the news of our long awaited child. Now here we are a year later living our dreams. And while I could do without the icky weather, I am here with my family and that is all I could ever ask for. Kiya is the greatest gift. Sure I am enjoying my new CD's but nothing will ever top having Kiya as a daughter and maybe if we are lucky 2012 will be just as magical as 2009 has been for us.

Merry Christmas to my family, friends (both online and in person). May you be blessed to be spending your holiday in the company of the ones that you love. I know I am.

Kiya went to see Santa :)

I know I have been MIA for awhile... I was sick, Kiya was sick, Dave was sick, Badger was sick...not fun times but we all seem to be on the mend.

Since everyone was feeling better we took Kiya to see Santa at the mall. I fully anticipated that it would go horribly wrong. With her stranger anxiety and separation anxiety I just thought we would have tears and screams. Well, once again my daughter amazes me. Isn't she just adorable?? :)

No tears, no screams, a little thumb sucking and then this sweet face. :) What a big girl.

In other news, Kiya is cutting at least 2 more teeth. She is getting her top middle teeth which will bring her grand total of teeth to 4. We suspect she is also working on her 1 year old molars given the drool, the chewing, the refusal to eat, etc.

Well back to wrapping Christmas gifts and mailing Christmas cards, I will try and post again soon but if not Merry Christmas!

My weekend was great because...

My weekend was great for so many reasons. I will start with the definite highlight of my weekend. Here is a picture of my new friend, Leah, that I have known for many months but just met. I read her blog and she reads mine and we truly hope that if the stars align and God willing we will get our referrals around the same time and hopefully travel at the same time. It was nice to meet in person and to feel connected to someone who just gets it. We share the same joy, anxiety and borderline craziness about how our lives are about to change. Us soon to be adoptive moms need some validation that we aren't losing our minds so it was nice to get some of that this weekend. Leah is one cool chick and I am glad we met for real. And her son, Noah, is just too cute for words and boy does he love his animals. He was telling me all about the big crocodiles and how much he loves tigers. Just adorable!

On Saturday, we finally put up the Christmas tree, stockings, etc. We are a little behind in the department but it is done now and the house feels a lot more festive.

On Sunday after brunch with Leah and Noah, we went to our neighbors holiday party. She makes cut out cookies for the kids to decorate (and the adults too) and we all just hang out and relax. It was really enjoyable. We are truly blessed to live in a great neighborhood with some really great people. We had a lot of fun and brought home way too many holiday sweets. I made 2 different kinds of fudge for the event and still have some left over. I always thought fudge was hard to make and it so wasn't. I had both batches done in less than 45 minutes. It is the setting and the chilling that takes time. The rest is super easy.

After we got back from the party, we took our Christmas picture for our Christmas cards. That was a little bit of a chore trying to make sure everyone looked good including the pugs. I then ordered our cards on shutterfly.com and hopefully we will have them by the end of the week. Again, we are running late on that but better late than never. There are 3 pictures on our card this year. One is of Dave and I each holding a pug, one is of just the pugs and one is a map of Ethiopia (the birthplace of peanut). I can't wait to get them. I will post that picture at a later date.

Last week I asked a few times if it was Sunday yet, the day I would meet Leah, well now I will be asking is it January yet??? Could I really be this close??? Are all my dreams about to come true??? I need some answers to these questions and hopefully January will bring them to me.