Christmas in review

We had a really nice low-key Christmas this year. We've been so busy with trying to work on the basement that it was nice to stay home this year and just relax. We celebrated with close friends on Christmas Eve and then had Christmas day all to ourselves. We opened presents, played, had a Christmas morning picnic by the tree and fire, and then played some more. It was nice to celebrate quietly and really absorb our last Christmas as a family of three.

Claire had the pleasure of opening Ren's gifts. I tried to emphasize that once he's here, she won't get to open his presents anymore! Here's a picture of his loot, followed by a photo of an ornament I forgot to include in the first shot:

Most of the gifts are from friends and family. The little silver fortune cookie, though, is from us.

We gave one just like it to Claire too, when we were waiting for her. Ren's fortune, just like Claire's says, "You will soon meet your forever family who will love and cherish you always". Once, while dining together at a Chinese restaurant, my dad suggested to me with some degree of seriousness that if I didn't get into law school (which thankfully I did), I could use my English degree to write fortunes for fortune cookies! I scoffed at him then but who knew that 10 years later, that’s exactly what I would be doing - for my children at least!

My mom is visiting us right now, which has been absolutely wonderful. Claire is enjoying her company so much. With Mom watching Claire, I've been able to catch up on some chores around the house. I had such a productive day yesterday - something practically unheard of in my world lately!

Today is day 91 of our wait for our Letter Seeking Confirmation. Our good friends (and travel-mates from our 2007 China trip for Claire) who sent in their LOI a week ahead of us got the call TODAY that their LSC is in. Such wonderful news! I am so happy for them, and am feeling optimistic that our LSC should arrive somewhat soon too (though who knows whether the week that we are behind them in terms of our paperwork will amount to a week in waiting time - probably not.) At the moment, I'm not too stressed: just revelling in our friends' good news.

Tomorrow Paul and I are actually going to have some alone time! Mom is going to watch Claire while Paul and I go for dinner and a movie. I better sign off this post so that I can look up the movie listings right now!