Happy Holidays!

Greetings from our home to yours.

We hope the holidays have been as stress-free as possible for our friends and family. The fire at Nana PoPo and Papa GongGong's house in Alabama last weekend has added a little bit of stress to this Christmas, but they are good at making lemonade out of lemons, and with unexpectedly helpful insurance personnel and kind and caring neighbors, the situation has not been as dire as one would expect. So, other than that and a few meltdowns on Maggie's part, it has really been a pretty relaxing holiday season thus far.

We are a little sad not to have Ella with us, but I keep reminding myself that she will be with her family for all her Christmases henceforth.

Some of my favorite moments from the past few days:

Visiting the SF Zoo, seeing reindeer and ice skating with Hetti and Lena:



Maggie playing "pirate" at preschool and falling asleep with her eye patch on:



Making and decorating cookies for Santa (Maggie in her Hello Kitty scrubs again!):



Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning:



The look on her face when she saw her pink castle alarm clock from Santa:



Reading her new books:




and fun family time:





(including making "reindeer antlers" in the background of Maggie's self-timed photos at dinner!)



We wish a safe journey to those families departing tomorrow to be united with their new children in China, and hope to be following soon in their footsteps.