The Day After Christmas
















On our way home from the hotel, we stopped at Lynn's house. It was her daughter, Ciara's, first Christmas and we wanted to drop off our gifts to her. Jess kept asking to hold Ciara so I had Jason help and was able to get a pic of the 3 of them. Aren't they cute together?

Paula

Merry Christmas!!

Today was Jess's second Christmas home but the first one she really understood. We got up at 7 and went downstairs to open presents. Santa was very, very good to the kids! Jess was so cute. After each present, she'd ask if she could open the next. I think one of her favorite things is her new toy cellphone. She was very excited to get a new Wiggles cd as her old one was skipping a lot. Jason loves his new Mario Kart Wii game; he and Mike are playing now. In a few hours we'll be off to Mike's parents and then to his aunt's for a party. We're visiting a friend of mine after that; it's her daughter's first Christmas. Tonight we'll be staying at a hotel. Jason's excited about going swimming. Santa was very good to me as well. I got gift certificates to a scrapbooking crop that some of my friends are going to; I can't wait!!




Before everyone got to the presents




































Mommy's little helper










































Jason's always wanted to learn how to juggle











































Next year's Christmas card?

New Favorite Christmas Song

I was on Rumor Queen (what else is new?!?) and found a post about an awesome Christmas song. It made me remember how we were waiting two years ago and so thankful that our little girl is home with us for her second Christmas now. The song is Merry Christmas by Third Day. The guy who wrote it adopted a little girl from China and his family pics are in the video. What a beautiful family he has!

Fun in the snow and the Christmas pageant

Friday we got out of school at 1 because of the blizzard they were expecting. The snow started coming down at 3 and by the end we got about 12 inches. The kids loved playing in it. Thankfully it was soft and fluffy so the only place that was hard to shovel was at the end of the driveway where the plow had packed it down. Friday night we lost power at 9 and it came back on the following morning at 8. I was just happy that it didn't stay off like in western MA. It snowed through Saturday. Mike had to work and the kids and I decorated the tree. Sunday we had our Christmas pageant at church. Jess went back and forth over whether she wanted to be in it. She wanted to during Sunday's practice but when it was time for the actual pageant she didn't want to do it. Luckily I got some cute shots during practice of my little angel. Jason was a reader and did a great job being front and center.

"Helping" me shovel

Jess's first snow angel

Jess's ornament from last year - Elmo

Something nice Xerox is doing for our troops
If you go to this web site, www.letssaythanks.com , you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. It's free and only takes a minute.