Xin Nian Kuai Le - Happy Chinese New Year

Saturday we celebrated Chinese New Year with 100 plus adoptive families. We enjoyed a buffet lunch, live traditional Chinese music, a shadow puppet show, and faux firecrackers (100 plus kids jumping on bubble wrap). We had a wonderful time catching up with friends and celebrating Paige's unique culture.

Yesterday, New Years Eve, I spent cleaning house to sweep out (or vacuum up) the old and start the year clean. Today we took Paige's teachers oranges to wish them prosperity in the new year. We also put together red envelopes of chocolate coins to give to her class mates. Traditionally the parents and grandparents give children money in red envelopes on New Years Day. This money is meant to be saved for the future.

I hope all is well with you and you are happy and healthy. Below are pictures of Saturday's celebration.

Amy

All dressed up. Mom even let her have some lipstick.

Thanks to Auntie Kim for the dress.

Ready to party!

Traditional erhu and flute musicDragon parade. Paige just watches this part. She does not like the dragon.
The best part, jumping on the bubble wrap to pop the bubbles.
It really does sound like firecrackers

Ice Skating

It's been very cold here for the past few days. Temperatures have been in the low teens or less during the day. Yesterday morning the car read -9 as I was taking Paige to school. Given the cold we've been choosing to stay inside where it is warm. OnThursday we were inside, but at a ice skating rink. It was Paige's first time on skates and she did great! She had a few falls, but figured out how to get back up first with some help from mom then on her own. We stuck to the edges so Paige could hold onto the boards and my hand. She even ventured off just holding the boards. We made it 5 times around the rink in the 45 minutes we skated. We stopped each time we came to the team box and she would send me out to skate by myself so she could watch. Below are some pictures of our adventure.

Today Scott and Paige are off on a date. I have some work to do while they are away and a few errands as well.

Take care,

Amy

First time on the ice.

Penalty to Paige Harris. 5 minutes for cuteness.

I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Look at me go!

Just a little fall.

Harris Family Christmas

See the post below this one first.

Here are the pictures from the Harris Family Christmas.

Paige in front of the mound of presents. 8 grand kids equals lots of gifts.

The stockings hung with care. The blank one on the right is for Mei Mei.

The grand kids.

The chaos of opening presents with 8 kids and 8 adults.Paige modeling the dress up clothes and wig she got.

Happy Holidays!

We hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season! We had a wonderful Christmas morning where Paige tore through the paper on the gifts. Santa fulfilled almost all her wishes including the Hannah Montana guitar, a Leapster2, and a makeup doll. Her only request not filled was a remote controlled airplane. We told her perhaps Santa felt she should be a little older for that toy. After breakfast and some playtime we headed to Scott's family for more presents and dinner. After dinner we played with all the kids new toys. Scott and I had to wait until today to get our new toy. We got a new Dell computer. It looks great and everything but the Internet is working so I'm writing this post from the old computer. I guess we will be spending some time with Comcast and/or Dell support tomorrow.

Paige has been enjoying her new toys. The easy bake oven has proved to be a bit of a challenge. Everything that she has tried to make has burned. First it was the cake she and the babysitter tried to make, then the cookies she and Scott tried to make. It seems the cooking times given in the directions need to be cut in half. The Leapster2 has made a few car trips and the make up doll has had several session for both her face and hair. The guitar also gets played and she sings along with it. The guitar was a popular toy today when we had some friends over.

The other day Paige was putting on a bracelet she got from Santa and she saw it said "Made in China" on it. She asked Scott and I "How come so much of the stuff Santa brought says made in China?" She's 4, she cannot start questioning Santa yet!!!!!!! We told her Santa has workshops all over and that sometimes he has to buy some things he cannot make. The answer seemed to satisfy her for now.

Now since you really want the pictures, there a some in this post and the next one down. Enjoy!

Amy

Paige in front of the Christmas tree.
Reaction to opening the guitar she really wanted.Rocking out with the guitar in the High School Musical Cheerleader outfit
Playing with the Leapster.
Applying eye shadow to the doll.