Happy Birthday Joseph

We had a busy day yesterday so did not get to post. We first went to my nephew Josephs birthday party...he turned 10! My sister had a nice party with sit down lunch. She made a Nintendo DS cake for Joseph this year which was pretty creative. We then got home to have Julia slip in a quick nap before we were off to Evans classmates home for dinner. It was a wonderful evening full of stories and laughter and good food/good friends I could not help but think of Sierra and her birthday celebration yesterday. Happy Birthday Sierra..Hope you had a terrific birthday with your friends and family!

Funny Christmas Gift

Kathie and Scott , friends of ours from our travel group, decided to send Julia a Christmas gift and said that she will like it but we will laugh. Kathie said she was sending me a hint before it arrived and to check my email. The background to this story is that while we were in China we all went to a restaurant called Lucy's where they serve fairly American food. We were all finished eating and John decides to place a lettuce leaf on Julia's head. I snapped the picture and Kathie sent this to me as a hint. On Christmas Eve Julia opened the gift that arrived and in it were two very cute cabbage patch babies with adoption certificates and bottles and change of clothing. I kept looking at the picture as a hint wondering what it meant and John was behind me and said...oh that gift is going to be a Cabbage Patch doll...what a very thoughtful gift!!

Thank You Long Overdue

I actually have some time to say thank you to one of the wonderful families that we met while in China....Kathy, Scott and David. A few months ago John was on a business trip and planned on meeting them half way and I so wished that I was there. He brought back gifts and one that is so special is Kathie and Sierra while in China and then while home as well as Julia and I in China and she told me to insert a current picture...well I have been unfortunatly procrastinating but I finally got a picture. The poem in the middle is special! I never expected to meet such wonderful caring people. It has been fun sharing stories and we were so fortunate to celebrate Sierra's 3rd birthday with them in the hallway of our hotel...they had a room next to ours which was perfect!!

Kathie has such a big heart and I feel as if I have known her much longer than a year!

Happy New Year! 2010

What a wonderful year 2009 was! I hope we have a terrific 2010! Our annual tradition is to get together at our neighbors home and ring in the New Year! It is fun since familes from the neighborhood come and the kids have as much fun as the parents! Two of our neighbors Tasha and Trony are moving to Texas so we wished them well ! Trony smoked ribs and chicken for our dinner which was really good! Julia actually rang in the New Year and I think she thought we were all pretty crazy. She was dancing in circles in the neighbors basement and enjoying all of the music .When it almost struck midnight I put her on a bar stool and put a hat on her and she was watching all of the noise makers and horns and streamers being handed out, and all I could imagine that she was thinking was those Crazy Americans!!! She was so cute in her party hat...she loved all of the Happy New Year necklaces! The kids also bring home grab bags with all sorts of fun things! Thanks Jim and Dena for another wonderful New Years Eve!

Happy New Year to everyone! I am looking forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year this year!