Christmas Day

Christmas day began at 5:45 when I heard Paul (19 years old) in the baby monitor trying to wake Faith up to go see what Santa had put in her stocking. Thank goodness he was not successful in waking her! He insisted it was family tradition that the kids be up before the sun to open stockings! We did finally wake her around 7:00


and as she was waking up sitting in my lap on her bed we were telling her it was Christmas day, she looked around the room, blank stare and said ... "now what?" It was not long before she figured out ...'what'! We had a great day with my Mom and Dad and Uncle Jim here for the day. She had lots of presents to open and enjoyed having Grammie here to read to her whenever she asked! Her favorite gifts seemed to be her toy blender and mixer from her brothers for her toy kitchen. Paul got some more climbing gear for work and Ben was excited to get some new Chef's knives. I got a new ipod and now need to get the boys to each me how to work it! Steve got me a new food processor and now Ben and I are looking for things to chop and shred in the kitchen! The boys got Steve a new cordless circular saw which he is looking forward to using. We finished up the day with a big turkey dinner with all the fixin's and Grandmas apple pie for dessert!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is so much more magical when there is a three year old in the house! We went to Church and then returned home to hang the stockings by the fire, and then off to bed, so Santa could get to work! Faith was very excited and we were pleasantly surprised when she went right to sleep!

Our Christmas Angel!

Waiting for Santa to fill her stocking!

Nursery school Christmas program

This is Faith's first year in Nursery School and therefor her first Christmas program. She was if I do say so myself ... the cutest little sheep I ever saw! She wore her costume, went up on cue and sang her songs! I was so proud of her! They then had fun decorating cookie houses with lots of candy and we enjoyed a yummy lunch together.

Thanksgiving

Two and a half years ago when we traveled to China our lives were changed forever in may ways. Our family grew in many ways, we knew we would gain a daughter but we never expected to make such dear friends with the other families in our travel group. These families will forever be a part of our family and part of who we are. Our girls refer to each other as 'my china sisters'. These 7 girls were all from the same orphanage and all within 2 weeks of each other in age, and it important to us that we keep these connections alive for our girls. This year for Thanksgiving we had the privilege to travel to Alabama to spend the holiday with some of our China family, the Cardwells. We drove the 17 hours down to Alabama for a week and had a fantastic time. It was great to see Faith and Maddie playing together, and we just love them all so much. We got to do some sight seeing, eat some great BBQ, try fried okra (and love it), worship in some amazing churches, shop, Watch some Alabama football..."Roll Tide!!!" and just have an all around awesome time. We also got to see Maddie's Grandmama and Memama who we had not seen since we left China! We Thank Josh, Teri and Maddie for their awesome southern hospitality and love! We had a Great time and can't wait to see them all again!

Faith loving on Paul

Ben and Maddie having an early morning snuggle!

Faith and Maddie playing kitchen

Cardwells and Rathjens watching the Alabama
football game.... "Roll Tide!"