Stay tuned, we are improving.....meaning, one year ago, Mason-Kate sadly screamed in horror as the jolly red suited Santa made his appearance in her life for the first time at a church Christmas party. It was sad. This year, he came in and MK watched from her seat with her big, bright eyes....she never moved, she never smiled, she just watched. When he left the room, MK looked at me and said, "I not sit on Santa's lap with my boys. I sit on Santa's lap with you." Ok, so that is how it went, she sat on my lap, the boys with Santa, and Ryan ran to jump in too. How she sat on my lap was the funny part. She sat facing me, hands gripping my arms, her head tucked into my chest. This is improvement, yes. She didn't cry, not even one little tear. And she told Mrs. Claus thank you when it was all said and done.

Our elf, Matthew, is back and wreaking havoc on our holiday decorations. Seems he has gotten a bit more mischievous this year. He is into rearranging our decor and then he perches himself next to his mess to keep a watch on the behavior in our home. Silly elf. Pryce is so excited about Matthew; MK can't figure him out and asks at least once a day "who dat is?"; Colin has deemed Matthew a "decoy"....
Yesterday we made our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm. We typically spend a few hours there, first selecting the tree of all trees for our home and then drinking hot chocolate, eating baked goodies and visiting with friends that we run into. To fight the cold yesterday, I layered myself with first a t-shirt, a sweater, then Colin's heavy jacket and topped it off with my coat....layering is the style, right? Our day was wonderful, our tree is beautiful and now the boxes can be put away. Yay.

During the hayride, P spotted a ladybug. Ladybugs are a popular good luck sign among those in the Chinese adoption community. For us, it symbolizes our hope and dreams to go back. To find this "needle" in a haystack, during this holiday season, assured us to hold onto our hope.

After our wonderful day out, we ventured back home to begin the afternoon of decorating. Last year, we did this same thing....we visited the farm, got the perfect tree, came home only to realize that the tree was too big for our stand....back to the farm, got another perfect tree, back home, decorated. This year during our drive home, Ryan and I talked about our plans for the afternoon, football, and dinner. The entire drive, I kept thinking how pleasant the day had been and how easy the tree selection had gone....good thoughts. We arrived home, drove into the garage, the usual. After I turned the car off, I looked into my rear view mirror only to see this tiny little evergreen hanging down from the back of my car....it was the top of our tree! We had driven into the garage with the 9 ft tall Christmas tree on top!

**Click on the pic of MK with Ryan to make it larger. Notice her little eye peering back at me.....

A Seabrook Thanksgiving

Ryan's family tradition as a child on Thanksgiving was to visit Seabrook Island. We were fortunate this year to be able to unite with everyone, 21 family members, to celebrate the holiday. Ryan is the youngest sibling in his family. His brother and two sisters were teenagers when he was born. We have 7 nieces (and a niece-in-law?) and nephews on his side of the family. Our children are the babies of the bunch and make up the 8, 9 and 10 of the grandchildren.

We are thankful to the aunts, uncles and cousins who openly included the youngest three in their games.....favorites of the weekend were Apples To Apples, Scattergories and 21. P will tell you that his favorite part of Thanksgiving was playing 21.

And we are thankful for G-Mom and G-Dad. G-Mom and G-Dad are very dear to our family and have saved the day on many occasions over our almost 12 year union. One of the most notable saves came when P was born. We were living in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. No family around. My parents arrived shortly after P's birth and had to leave the day I was released from the hospital. I had some complications following his birth. G-Mom arrived when P was just 6 days old. G-Mom walked into our house, placed her bags on the floor, the two of us loaded P into the car and off we went to the dr.'s office. This was about 3 in the afternoon. Ryan was at the airport waiting on a flight to interview for a job in Florida. Colin, then only 2, was being watched by a friend. The doctors appointment did not go so well and I was told that I would be having surgery that very night. Frantically, we called Ryan, who was boarding a plane, and he rushed home to be with me. And then there were my two precious boys, just 2 and 6 days old. G-Mom didn't know what she was walking into when she came to visit but fortunately she was up for a surprise overnight babysitting adventure. As we were leaving to go to the hospital that night for the surgery, I remember Ryan's mother asking me in a desperate voice, "Beth, what am I going to feed the baby? Will he even take a bottle?" G-Mom handled it well, they all three survived and P has had a special bond with G-Mom ever since.

And we are thankful for Seabrook Island. And the beach. We can't seem to get enough.

And we are thankful for modern technology. C's weekend included numerous football games with the cousins and computer hopping. If C could not be found on one computer in the house, he was on another.

And we are thankful for rest we were able to enjoy. I was able to take numerous photos of P sleeping. He plays hard and crashes harder - this pic was taken around 7:30 one evening, can you tell which one took a nap earlier?