The Holidays are upon us! Zoe is completely in the spirit!!!

The spirit of the season.  Crazy people fighting over the latest Saturday morning door busters, parking in the back forty so you can wait in line at the check-outs and the once in a year drivers are out in full force trying to get their last minute shopping complete. None of this has at all phased Zoe.  She has her eyes locked and loaded on her pile of gifts.  She keeps reassuring us and herself that those are indeed her presents. Everyday, she asks if we are going to open up the presents today and when we say "no, not quite yet, she says tomorrow?" The good news is that we are so close and she is so excited. Zoe has had the opportunity to take holiday pictures twice. I was a little worried about dear old Santa!  The other night I asked her if she was going to sleep in her bedroom and she said "No I am scared!" Normally she says she is scared of monsters or rabbits, yes rabbits!  But this time she said she was scared of Santa.  So, I was scared that when she was to take pictures with Santa that it might not go so well.  That was not an issue. She had on her new dress and mom was their to make sure Santa was nothing but nice to out little girl. When Santa asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said "a new car"! Let's see how he manages that.

Th other day, I showed Zoe her gifts and she immediately counted her packages. Now she goes down each day to see if that number has changed.  I am not sure if she is scared one may walk off and leave or if the pile will grow. What she does not know is Santa should be bringing her a few more early Christmas morning. Zoe is a lucky girl because she also gets to celebrate Hanukkah which started tonight. So, she will get to open up her first gift tonight.

The other day, I got a chuckle out of a story Sonja shared with me. Zoe is definitely a momma's girl. Anytime she wants something she runs to her mom.  However, Sonja mentioned that Zoe was mad at her about something and said "Ba pa"daddy is fair, Nathaniel is fair but mommy is not fair!" So for once the boys won...

Much like all boys and girls at or around the age of four, this time of year is magical! We hope this is an exciting time for her as we are not sure whether she has had a christmas full of family, food, fun and most of all piles of presents! Should be fun for all of us!

Nathaniel is in the midst of finals. he is sweating his English grade. He teeters between an A and a B. He seems to have a good grasp of his other classes. Oh, if I could only have had the aptitude he has in math and science.  Wrestling is going well. He is wrestling JV and is 4-4.  Three if his 4 wins has been by pin. Not bad as a Freshman. When he started the wrestling season he was 129.  Now he is 123 and is 3 pounds away from his desired weight.  As soon as he gets their baseball season will be getting started and I now he cannot wait.

All is well here, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a warm and happy 2012! Stay warm!

We Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with their family!

The Holidays take on a different meaning this year with all the changes that have occurred within our family. Personally, I wasn't quite in the same frame of mind or spirit as I have been in the past. We typically would do two Thanksgivings, one at Sonja's families house (usually Aunt Brenda's and Uncle Jack's) and one at my parents house. How things change. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

Zoe had a great time when we celebrated Thanksgiving at home, it was a very simple menu...she ate turkey, loves mashed potatoes, corn and pie but wasn't overly crazy about the stuffing. I am sure it isn't the most eye appealing item on the plate...as she said it, "Bapa, I don't like it!" so I told not to eat it of she does not like it.

Here are a few holiday pictures we had taken of Zoe and Nathaniel....

Well this week we started looking for presents however this was the first time I purposely slept through Black Friday until all the craziness was over. I did go out and still found some great deals at many of the stores advertising their door busters. I found several really cool gifts for Zoe but am finding Nathaniel and Sonja to be more challenging.  Every time Zoe sees a wrapped (no matter where we are) gift she says, "A present for me?" If you remember, when we first met Zoe, she only had one very small backpack with a change a clothes and few pictures, a favorite book and that was about it. Zoe was well loved by a number of people who took care of her but she did not have much to call her own so this should be fun for her. Although she understands presents and knows how to open them up as demonstrated when she received so many nice gifts when we first brought her home. So she has some practice. It should be a lot of fun watching how she responds to all the traditions of the holidays. Can't wait.

Zoe achieved her first skills achievement ribbon in gymnastics. She successfully demonstrated loco motor skills, the tuck hang on the rings and three skills on the parallel bars.  We are so proud of her as she is learning/practicing with a number of other children who have been exposed to tumbling/gymnastics much earlier. Many adopted children are behind on their motor skills so its great to see that Zoe is catching up quickly and is enjoying gymnastics.  She also looks so dang cute in her gymnastics outfit (I want to call it a singlet but Sonja has to remind me they are leotards). 

Nathaniel has hung-up his football cleats for the year and is in the second week of wrestling practice. It has been long and grueling practices.  He comes home from practices both tired and gripey. Ever so often I ask him if he still likes it and he says he does. Nathaniel hopes to wrestle at 120 pounds this season as a Freshman in high school. We already know he will wrestle JV which will be a great challenge for him, he may also get a chance to wrestle varsity but personally I think he needs at least a year in Freshman/JV wrestling before he wrestles juniors and seniors.  He has to lose another six pounds or so...we are waiting to see what weight class he ends up wrestling at! Nathaniel did great at school his first semester with one B and the rest A's.  His grandfather would have been very proud of him.

Nathaniels High School sponsored a trip to Washington DC.  He went to the Holocaust Museum, Smithsonian and all the different monuments/memorials including the Washington/Lincoln memorials, Korean, Vietnam, WWII/WWI  and the newly erected Martin Luther King Jr. monuments. He went with 35 other freshman classmates and said he had a great time. Very enlightening.  I am glad his school has sponsored these events.  Really adds to the educational experience.

Sonja is now in the midst of retail hell! She now has expanded hours and days.  We will hardly see her until the Christmas shopping season is over. So, I may have two gripey people on my hands (Sonja and Nathaniel).  All is well otherwise.  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!