handsful

My parents gave me this little framed picture for Christmas and I just love it. I have no idea if the jacket (is there a more appropriate term?) is for a male or a female and I don’t know what the writing in the background says. But, I just think it’s adorable. I’ve hung it just above my kitchen desk, where my laptop sits, so I can look at it as I work (ha!) on this website. A little reminder of a child in China waiting for us.

For those worried about us, yes, we did find the house! We are unpacked from our trip and undecorated from Christmas. Whew.

Welcome, 2007!! I hope and pray that this is the year we meet Lainey. Or, at the very least, that we know who she is and can gaze at her picture, anticipating a trip to China. It’s hard to explain, but my heart can almost “see” her. Like, I’ll just undoubtedly know it’s Lainey when I see her for real. God has already chosen her as mine…I can find peace in that while we wait!

We had a grand Christmas that stretched across 9 days! We had Christmas here at our home with just the 6 of us, and then made our annual after-Christmas trip home to see our families. We just got home last night! Days and days of seeing family that we dearly love! My kids were so happy, spending time with 10 of their cousins. They are all such best friends and they hated to say goodbye. To all of our NC family, we love and miss ya’ll already.

So, what does the title of this post mean? Well, before we left for NC, we managed to take down the very wilty Christmas tree in the front room. But, ALL the other Christmas decorations were waiting for us when we walked in last night. Add bags and bags of gifts, and the luggage and bags from 6 people, and I’m literally trying to “find” the house. So, why am I posting instead of tackling all this? Hey, I needed a break!! Okay, break over. Back to work.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ll share a few pictures from our trip when I get another breather.

Today has been a day of memory-inducing…foods! First, my sweet cousin Peg in NJ sent us an absolutely wonderful Christmas gift today. First a little explanation. I grew up spending summers in South Jersey visiting my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. One of the highlights of our trips (other than family, of course!) was always the food…Philly soft pretzels, italian ice, and Tastykakes! Fast foward to today…the box that arrived was filled with authentic philly pretzels (vacuumed sealed and ready to warm up!), Tastykakes (chocolate, my fav!), Herr’s potato chips, and Goldenberg’s peanut chew candies! Oh my!! Those pretzels were GOOD! For those interested, go to www.phillymemories.com. Thanks again, Peg!

Here’s the second treat for today! These cookies come from a recipe that came with my Mom’s cookie press that she received in 1963 for a wedding present. I can’t remember a Christmas without these cookies! I now make them with my kids (with explicit instructions to share with my Mom!) I bought a new press last year, thinking it would work so much better than Mom’s screw-type one. Wrong. I’m back to using Mom’s and it works like a charm. I lost count on how many we made! Abbey posed for this picture…and, then grabbed a cookie!

What a nice surprise to receive our December Secret Pal present for my CCAI group! Look at all the goodies…

The kids were so excited to be included in our December gift! They each received a bag of Jelly Belly jellybeans (absent from the above picture because they were immediately eaten!) and those great big lollipops! Don’t they look happy?

Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see Lainey wearing those pretty hair clips, tights, and socks.

Wasn’t it just yesterday that she lost her first tooth?? On 12/10, Abbey lost her LAST baby tooth. The very last one! That tooth joined her other ones in the little jar I’ve kept them in since that first little one fell out. Here she is, proudly showing the tooth in her hand and the gap it left. Just another sign that she’s growing up. Sigh.

My friend Jessica tagged me for this one! Her blog is under Life Is Goodunder my “Adoption Friends” links.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Summer camp counselor
2. Clerk for accounting office at the local power company
3. Teller for same company above!
4. Current job; homeschooling momma / stay at home mom

Four Movies I have watched over and over:
1. The Replacements
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Notting Hill
4. The Princess Bride

Four places I have lived:
1. Raleigh, NC
2. NJ (city? I was a baby!)
3. Chapel Hill, NC
4. Jacksonville, FL

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. House!!
2. Supernanny
3. American Idol
4. Monk 

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. San Francisco, CA
2. Myrtle Beach, SC
3. Orlando, FL
4. Williamsburg, SC 

Favorite foods:
1. Mac n’ Cheese
2. Chicken and Pastry (it’s a southern thing)
3. Chipped beef on toast (I know, kinda weird)
4. Anything involving chocolate

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. at a spa, having a massage
2. on vacation anywhere, with just my husband
3. on vacation anywhere, with my husband AND kids
4. In China, meeting Lainey!

Hey, if you answer these and post them to your blog, let me know! :)

Thought I’d share a few photos of how we decorate for Christmas. You won’t find anything worthy of a magazine layout, but we love the things that we’ve collected over the years.

We seem to have a few snowmen, so I put them all together on the sleigh!

This is the table to the right of our front door. The Christmas cactus is in between blooming. We got a Thankgiving bloom and now there are tiny ones for Christmas!

This is my new Heartwood Nativity scene. I hope to add more figures to it. I bought this on clearance after Christmas last year. Gotta love a good deal. The Santa / Jesus figure we’ve had since before kids. One of our favorites.

The kids Nativity scene. They’ve had it for years and they love arranging the pieces.

The real tree in our front room. Hard to tell, but it’s nearly 9 feet tall…and FAT! No presents yet…guess I’m a “last-minute wrapper” this year.

Artificial tree in our family room. This one belongs to Randy…we call it his “NC State” tree. All the lights and ornaments are white and red, in honor of his college. The presents under this one are ones from my oldest daughter to us.

All those stockings! One for each of us, our dog Jack, and we’ve hung one in honor of our daughter-to-be, Lainey. See the Santa bottom right? A true Florida Santa in shorts and beach shirt! Another Nativity scene…we have lots of those (it is the reason for the season, after all).

It’s a little hard to see, but the ornament says “waiting for Lainey”. It’s hanging from her stocking that she’ll use next Christmas (at least we pray it’s next Christmas!)