Dear Lillian.....

Our hearts are filled with love today as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Our arms feel very empty because you are not in them. The only consolation is that we know you are so loved by your foster family as we wait to bring you home. We are so anxious to meet you and the whole family wanted to include you in our Christmas celebration this year.

Santa brought you a pretty cool dollhouse.....your big brother Paul can't wait to help you play with it.

Mimi sent you this beautiful party dress for next Christmas. I can't wait to see you wearing this lovely outfit.

GranJo gave you these beautiful diamond earrings.....these were your great Grandma's earrings. Your middle name came from Grandma Gin.

Auntie Jen gave you some cool puzzles. I know that your big brother Paul will definitely play with these puzzles with you when you come home.

We will continue to wait "patiently" for you. We know you are so worth the wait and can't wait to spend next Christmas with you.

Christmas Day 2011

Rejoice......the Lord has been born today! What a blessing to celebrate such a joyous day with my favorite boys. Paul was up very early and we could hear him calling for Santa Claus this morning. We managed to keep him upstairs until about 6am and then we all headed downstairs to see what Santa had brought for Paul. His Santa gift this year was Day of the Diesel (Thomas the Train) themed. He got the Day of the Diesel book, a remote controlled Cranky the Crane and some wooden track pieces (he calls them couplers) that he has been obsessing about for quite some time. Needless to say, we heard lots of gasps and saw lots of smiles when he saw what Santa had brought. Paul decided he needed to wear his Bears hat and his Super Paul cape along with this jammies to open presents.

Getting the hang of the Cranky controls.

Then he found the pictures that Santa had left showing that he had been to our house. You could tell that his little mind was trying to process what he was seeing.....much more interested in these pictures this year than last.

He quickly realized there were other gifts that needed to be opened.

I love my pillow pet from Mimi!

Checking out his new trains calendar from GranJo. This was quite a big hit.

What's that I spy in Paul's stocking.....are those new Cars slippers that actually fit?!?!

Checking out his stocking loot.

This is how we started the day (notice it is still dark outside) and we stayed in these pj's ALL DAY LONG. I love Christmas Day in our pj's with no real compelling reason to get dressed.

Snuggling on the couch.

Loving a new Cars tattoo......

Then it was time for a yummy breakfast.....french toast with strawberries, bacon and REAL hot chocolate and special vanilla marshmallows - thanks again Auntie Jean for the Williams Sonoma treat! There was lots of chocolately goodness in these mugs......CHEERS!

Marshmallow face!

Did I mention how much this kid loved his new Cranky? He played with it for hours today.

Flying his new Lego helicopter.

Taking a quick break from his new soccer ball (yes, this is Bob the Bobcat from his Happy Feet class) to pet his pillow pet kitty.

Getting creative with his freight.....sock monkey was taking a ride!

This afternoon we took time to decorate our cupcakes. By then, Paul was done with his pj's and spent the rest of the day in his undies. That kid does not like to be dressed!

I wonder who decorated this one?!

We had a yummy Christmas dinner of turkey and all the fixings.....and then we sang Happy Birthday and ate our cupcakes. It was a great day and we are truly blessed.

Christmas Eve 2011

What a wonderful day it was.....we baked and baked and baked.....like serious baking. Paul helped with some and I handled quite a bit on my own. Jason handled lots and lots of dirty dishes. We all know our roles! One thing we do each year is make a birthday cake for Baby Jesus and make sure we sing Happy Birthday on Christmas Day. Paul got to pick the kind of cake this year - of course he picked chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. No surprise there. And then he decided he wanted to make cupcakes instead of cake.

My kitchen helper was great pouring the mix in the bowl.

And then the water....I love the look of concentration on his face.

Someone wanted to watch Polar Express.....I think he has seen it about 4 times in the last 3 days. He made himself quite comfortable in his new red chair.

After a full day of baking and prepping food, it was time to get cleaned up to head to Mass. Here's our family photo before we dashed out the door.....

We had a yummy fondue meal for dinner.....both steak in oil as well as veggies and bread in cheese. Nothing like 2 fondue pots going. Clearly I pulled out the plastic covered table cloth and boy and I glad that I did.

We even trusted a little someone with a fondue fork - for the cheese pot only of course.

The trains then had to join our dinner.....and someone had a nice bowl of cranberry ice. He is SO a member of this family to love him some cranberry ice!

After dinner, it was time to get the cookie plate ready for Santa. Paul had to pick out the perfect combination of cookies.

And then it was time for the reindeer treats.....someone covered all of the carrots with big pieces of celery!

Okay Santa.....I am so cute that you have to come to my house and enjoy these cookies and milk.....and then please leave me some killer presents. Thank you.

That Silly Elf!

Paul has really enjoyed his last couple of weeks with Edward the Elf.....this is our Elf on a Shelf (actually some knock-off brand of elf which is really much cuter than the real Elf on a Shelf!). We knew we couldn't handle it this year for the whole month from Thanksgiving to Christmas, so we planned for just a few weeks of the fun. Every morning Paul and daddy would go looking for Edward and Paul would find Edward's newest hiding spot completely hilarious. Like insanely hilarious sometimes. While it was a small inconvenience for us to remember to move him each night before bed, it turned out to be kind of fun for us to pick funny and creative spots for Edward to hide. When we went back to the QC for family Christmas last weekend, we even smuggled him there. I told Paul before we left that I had told Edward the address where we were staying and we would have to see if Edward could read a map and find us. His response was classic when he asked if we should get Edward a GPS. That's my boy!

Mimi had been asking if we could sneak a picture of Edward hanging out in Paul's room while he slept. We weren't sure if we could pull it off - on one hand, Paul sleeps like a rock but on the other, we didn't want to ruin the fun of Edward if he woke up while the camera flash was popping in his face. Since Edward has to leave to go back to the North Pole and the morning of Christmas Eve would be our last time to find Edward until next year, we decided it was worth the risk. So, into Paul's room we crept. He just happened to have his Christmas tree (fabric with buttons) sitting near him already so we just used that to lean Edward against. Jason was at the ready in case the flash woke up Paul - he would snatch Edward and hide him quickly. How funny that we treated this like a covert mission......and even with flashes popping in his face, Paul didn't even flinch. He was clearly tired and we weren't bothering him a bit.

So, here is the result of our mission......

I can't wait to see what mischief Edward can get into next year....oh, and we'll have 2 kids to enjoy the fun!

Santa has been busy....

We started a tradition last year of taking pictures of Jason in a Santa suit while he is doing something in our home and then leaving them out for Paul to see on Christmas morning. Last year Santa was holding the cookie plate and milk mug as well as climbing out of the fireplace. We have to be sneaky in the angles we use so Paul can't tell it's daddy. Here are the 3 pictures he will find tomorrow morning.

Santa had to try out Cranky the Crane to make sure he worked.

Admiring the pieces of train track that Paul calls couplers....he's been obsessed with getting more of these. Many of the times he sat on Santa's lap he asked for new couplers. Can't wait to see the look on his face. The best part is this particular present cost about $8 and yet it will be one of Paul's absolute favorites.
Santa checking out our cool new tree ornaments.


I can't wait to see the look on Paul's face tomorrow......love experiencing holidays through the eyes of our child.

The Eve of Christmas Eve....

On the Eve of Christmas Eve (ie. Friday night) we grabbed a bite at our favorite Asian restaurant....the only one in town that serves any Korean dishes. The owner loves Paul and he likes to give her big hugs when we visit. After feasting on sushi, potstickers and some yummy Korean and Chinese food we grabbed some ice cream and made our way to the Jolly Holly Light Show. After waiting in a LONG line of cars (it took us over an hour to even get into the park to pay to enter) we finally got to see some lights. I was worried that Paul would fall asleep with as long as it took to finally see some lights but he made it through and really enjoyed it. We ended up spending about 2 hours total and didn't make it home until after 9pm!

The light show runs throughout the month of December and benefits the local Make a Wish chapter.

Of course this was one of Paul's favorites.....
With a funny elf crossing and everything.

Underwater theme.

Gingerbread house.

Neat ending to a cool show.

Family Christmas Day 2.....

I must admit that this post is slightly delayed, but it has been a pretty busy week! We spent last weekend in the QC celebrating Christmas with our family. Saturday was Jason's side and on Sunday we spent the day with my family. Our visit started as they all do.....setting up the train tracks and spending some quality time with Paul's trains!

Paul got creative and made the track cross from the table to the ottoman......he would giggle and giggle when it would make its way across.



We spent the morning with GranJo and Auntie Jen.....and as soon as Uncle Chris arrived you can only imagine what Paul wanted to do - OPEN PRESENTS! We started with a tower of gifts and he topped it with some fun reindeer antlers.

After opening a few presents, we took a quick break and Paul had some grapes to boost his energy!

Then it was back to opening presents.....someone got a new game for his Leapster!

Thanks Auntie Jen for my new game! He had to show her how it works.

Maya rarely gets to be in the photos these days......such a pretty girl.

Uncle Chris settled on lots of cool art supplies for Paul this year. Of course he couldn't wait to try out the finger paint. He got this cool little tabletop easel.....

Someone was pooped out from all the excitement.

GranJo made Paul this cool cape......with his very own logo......SUPER PAUL!

And here is Super Paul in action........

We had such a fun weekend - we were exhausted by the time we got home on Monday!