Christmas Re-cap

Here are just a few of the pictures that we have taken for Christmas this year. Although I have a bunch of pictures, I was disjointed and unorganized in the taking, so I have missed getting a picture of everyone and there were non taken of the three of us together!! I missed getting any of my Dad or sister, only one of my Mom, hardly any of the adults with Leslie's family. Oh well, it was all fun anyway.
Christmas Eve was spent here at the house with Jodi. We all had a nice evening with a good dinner in our bellies and a roaring fire. Jodi brought presents and we had a stocking for her so we had a few gifts to open.
Christmas Morning- Ev was up at 7 am and neither she or I could go back to sleep- much to Leslie's dismay. We headed downstairs and the first thing that Ev wanted to do was to go check on the Dwarves the live in our basement (you know they keep the heat going, live under the house and brew beer), so we did that and then dove into the presents. I feel like maybe I went a little overboard this year but she enjoyed everything. The Mighty Masters Art Kit was a big hit and so was the Rocking Horse! Another fave was the Princess Leia costume that I found for 80% off and bought on a lark- she ended up wearing THIS all day at my Mom's instead of her party dress. After some play time with her new stuff, we headed down to my Mom's. Let me say that there was a veritable frenzy of presents there! It was chaos! We had a great ham dinner and then watched some of our old family movies that we hadn't seen in years. It was very emotional for me, to watch my parents young and proud and to see us as a young family.
Then on the 27th - Leslie's family came here for their Christmas shindig. We had 8 adults and 5 kids and that too was chaos. There was ALOT of great food and plenty of conversation. We let Scott and Aden join in with the adults to play Pictionary and they were quite good.
We have bee recovering ever since. The Leia costume seems to be just as enjoyable today as it was on Christmas and I now have several large art pieces to enjoy! This was a super Christmas and one of my favorites ever. I am still recovering but need to pull myself together for the New Year's Eve Feast that I have planned.....

Christmas Stuff-cont'd with bullets

• I finally have some Christmas pictures up. Blogger was acting up for awhile, by the time I got the slide show to work I didn't want to go in and add text for fear that an hour of work would go down the drain- so we have this addendum entry.....
• Decorating the tree was so much fun this year. Ev was really into it and was a helper with every stage. I always set out bits of fruit and snacks while we decorate so that's why she's munching on something in a couple of the pictures.
• I have a few pictures of our ornaments this year. Some ornaments Leslie and I have had from our first Christmas together so they are 15 years old! Hard to believe they have survived, as we have had many military moves during that time.
• The Polar Bear that Ev made is special to me. She just sat down last week and made it- all on her own! I love that it really does look like a polar bear and that it was her idea.
• My mantle forest is thanks to Leslie. I mentioned that I wanted a little pine tree forest up there and he went right out to his workshop and made those for me. They are all originals and I think they look quite pretty. Can you see the beeswax moose we tucked in?
• I have the panda ornament to honor China in a small way during our Christmas season.
• The octopus is from Hatteras- we love octopus around here so it's appropriate that we have one. We are not the only people I know with an octopus on the tree, Les' sister Jenny has one too!(they also have a panda!)
• I used to have alot more Christmas stuff about the joint, sadly we lost an entire tote in the last move and it was Christmas. I had alot of handmade things from friends and family in there so it's really bothered me that it's all gone.
• 2 days until Christmas!!!! I can not wait to see Ev's face when she sees her rocking horse! And her Mighty Masters Art Kit!!!!!

Christmas Stuff

Home Movies-or some run on sentences from a still medicated Mother

I sat last night with my husband and my daughter. We were all on our couch, one of us legally stoned on muscle relaxers, and we were snuggled up and talking. One thing lead to another and the family videos came out. So we sat on our couch, while the snow fell outside and we watched our movies from China.
We aren't like many adoptive families. I haven't shown these videos to Evelyn, except once when she was around a year or so and then she had nightmares for three nights. Most adoptive families have Gotcha Day videos- we don't. Most adoptive families watch these videos on a regular basis- we don't. I am not saying that they are wrong and we are right. I just felt that with Ev's personality and some of the things that we were going through with her that it would be best to just establish that she was ours and not focus so much on the adoption. We talk about China and I answer her questions any time- anywhere. She also has certain stories from China that she loves to hear and she will ask to hear them- when she wants. After we first got her and she was old enough, we weren't shy about bringing China up, but as she got older and I knew that it was established with her and I knew that SHE knew we were proud of her and where she came from- I backed off. Now, all of the China and adoption talk is instigated by Ev. I like it that way. I think it works for her.
There we were last night..... She wanted to watch the China videos. Bad. She really wanted to watch. So we started them. AND SHE LOVED THEM. I was so happy. You never know which emotion that the children will grab onto while watching those videos. I held my breath for a bit because when I got Ev, she was crying. I knew that she would notice that (duh) and I wasn't sure if that would make her nervous or sad now. She did notice and asked "why is she crying?" I just told her that she had, had a long day and that she was hungry and hot and tired- she said "oh- how little was I?" Then she sat there, watching those first moments and the smile on her face was a mile wide. She sat there all cuddled up next to me and watched as we became the family that we are. She had a million questions and she was happy the whole time that we watched. I sat and cried and cried.
My emotions were all over the place. Now that I know Ev so well, I could look at that little face and see how afraid she was at first. I watched the footage of me rubbing her all over with lotion for the first time and how she just laid there, mystified and loving it and looking at me as if to say "what is this?"and I knew that no one had ever touched her like that and she was amazed at the way it felt. I watched as she drank her first few bottles after we had gotten her used to a smaller hole and her meals started lasting more than 45 seconds and I knew that she had never had that luxury. I cried for all of those reasons, and more. I cried because I have this , almost muscle memory of how it felt to clutch her to me for the first time and how I am sure that my heart had never taken a beat until that moment. I cried because that tiny, hungry frightened little baby was now a bright, funny, chatty, sassy, sturdy little girl -right next to me. I cried because , quite frankly, she is the best thing that ever happened to me. I am glad to be her Mother. I am glad that I can call her mine.
I have the sweetest cutest girl.
And I went to China to get her.
And now she's here.
How cool is that?

HALT!!!!!!

I have impeccable timing , as always. I raised my head off of my pillow this morning and, apparently this outrageous feat of physicality has pulled a muscle in my back. My upper back on the left side. This is the same muscle that was always hurting with my herniated discs so, for awhile I was panic-y and teary. Thankfully it IS just a muscle pull and I have plenty of narcotics and muscle relaxers on hand to help. Yes, I believe in better living with pharmaceuticals.
Any hooo- this means that I have to stop all forward motion for a day or two. I have already missed a second viewing of Twilight with Jodi, and I had to NOT bake today. The upside is that I get to float around in a drug induced state while Leslie makes me wonderful Dagwood Sandwiches and checks the heat on my heating pad and Ev brings me pieces of gum and scraps of paper (it's her way of helping).
I had some posts about the decorating of out tree and some other things, but it will all have to wait until I am not hurting and I don't have a head full of cotton candy.
For now? I am off for a round of Darvocet, muscle relaxers and some tacos that The Dynamic Duo are now cooking......oh! and don't forget hours of sitting on the heating pad holding my head at a funny angle......

Tree Acquisition

Pretend Santa

Last year, Ev made no secret about her disdain for Santa. She marched about the Hatteras house and locked all of the windows and doors on Christmas Eve. We took her to a Breakfast with Santa thing and she just LOOKED at him, for 10 seconds and then she was pale and shaky for about 20 minutes. This year things are a bit different. Santa is allowed in the house, but he is not permitted to do any wandering about the joint, he has to come down the chimney, put the presents down and then go right back up that chimney. She's seriously considering the Santa Snack, as that would mean loitering if we leave a snack but she doesn't want him to get hungry either. She did absolutely refuse to do another Breakfast thing with Melissa and Brevin last week.

Today, however, she wants to go to the mall and tell Santa what she wants for Christmas!!!! I am shocked at this new development but, remain skeptical...... We had to have this long talk about Santa and WHY he would be at the mall and HOW could he be there if he had so much work to do before Christmas. I had to fess up that sometimes Santa had special helpers that pretended to be him so all of the kids could get a visit in, but that the pretend Santa's used special Christmas Magic to get all of the messages to the REAL Santa. She thought about this for a minute and said "yepurs a pretend Santa will be just fine. I don't really want to meet the Real One-he's freaky out."

By the way, she said that she would ask for two things- a Mighty Masters Art Kit (an easel with the required art tools) and a Rocking Horse. I have the art kit- better get on that Rocking Horse thing.......