Whip my hair back and forth

Candace and Sarah got a much needed trim on their hair yesterday. After the cut, stylist Jesus asked me if I wanted him to blow it out... my initial reaction was "heck, no!" There were two reasons for this: 1) I love their curls, and want them to love them, too; and 2) there is no way I can duplicate this style at home... just thinking about the potential for future breakdowns when I am unable to do so at their whim. In the end, however, I caved; but only after Jesus explained to them that this was special holiday hair for New Year's Eve and it would be gone once we washed their hair.

I have to admit, it was funny watching them run their fingers through their hair and toss their adorable little heads around. I will be ready for my little curly heads to reappear though.

Merry Christmas 2010!

Here are the kids before Mass on Christmas Eve: not a very good picture, so I tried to spruce it up with some fancy edging.
Just go with it.

Candace and Sarah were very much into the unwrapping of presents this year.

Court date!

And the magic date is...
March 4, 2011. It seems like a long way off, but hopefully it will be here before we know it. Spring will be just around the corner!

Tidings of great joy

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.

Behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

Waiting... and happy birthday

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Although it hasn't been long by international adoption standards, it seems like we have been waiting forever for Thomas. It's really only been five months, but for that entire five months we have known who our little boy is; we have seen his face in two blurry photos. Only two photos... we had dozens of the twins after five months and we brought them home six months after referral.

I know this is perhaps the one pitfall of adopting a child from the "waiting child list". Almost everyone agrees that the wait is harder after you have a referral, and with a waiting child, you have that referral from day one.

Today is our new son's birthday. He is four years old. I know that the birthday is just a guess, and I also suspect that Thomas is perhaps older than four. But this is the day we will celebrate his birth, and right now we think he's four. And we're missing it.

What would really make me happy would be to receive word that we have a court date. I'm praying for that this week.

The Nativity

I love nativity sets, and I have quite a few. I like to have them around the house at Christmas time to remind everyone about the real reason for the holiday. Plus, they are beautiful!

Here is the small display in our dining room:

And here is one in our family room:

(Note: this picture had to be substantially cropped to eliminate the clutter residing on the next shelf down!)

Here is a close-up of my new favorite. I bought it in Addis Ababa on my recent trip to Ethiopia.


These are my favorite decorations for the Christmas season, and it makes me happy to place them out each year. Some of them have special sentimental value, some don't; some came from far away and some came from around the corner. Some can be played with... but most can't!

I love them all. :)

Ho, ho, ho!

There was great excitement at the prospect of visiting Santa Claus this year. Both girls could hardly sleep last night; and (alas!) got up early this morning. They were well-prepared with ideas of what they want Santa to bring them for Christmas. This is in contrast to last year, when they were fairly baffled and uncertain about the whole thing.

Candace (above) and Sarah (below) visiting with Santa

It was very nice that our bank hosted Santa today, so we didn't have to wait in a long line, there were delicious free cookies and hot cider and a generally relaxed atmosphere. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their visit, although you might not think so based on Sarah's expression in the next photo:

She looks like she's trying to escape, doesn't she?

A great career!

Some of you have already heard about this on Facebook. It was career/jobs week recently at kindergarten, and this is my darling daughter Sarah's interpretation of what I do in my career as a "stay at home mom":

That would be me laying in bed...yep, that pretty much sums it up.