Cool shirts!

Zora and I wore one of these shirts in China and we have received so many positive comments about them.   You can go to this site to check them out:
http://www.gotloveadopt.com/

Chinese New Year

We traveled to Independence, Missouri Saturday to attend the Families Blessed with the Worlds Children Chinese New Year party.     The year of the Snake starts February 10th.  

The girls love to dress up in their "Chinese" clothes.   I think that they always look so beautiful in the  silks, but I don't like hand washing them.   The last few trips to China I have found that they have some really cute outfits that are more of a cotton material that doesn't unravel like the silk.    I really love these dresses too as the frog closures are just for looks and not to keep the dresses closed.   The dress zips up the back.   Black and white was the only colors they had in these dresses and I really think they look nice, but would have loved to get some other colors too.   And the girls dolls received new outfits for CNY too!    Yes, I am a couple of girls short.   They were busy doing their own thing!

Crafts are always fun.   Just wish that we had more time to work on them.  

They had all kinds of entertainment too.   Chinese musicians played, kids danced, played drums, danced some more, older girls danced, and the lions danced.   The one thing that I had really looked forward to seeing again was someone who did a demonstration with a Chinese yo-yo.   Unfortunately, he had to cancel last minute :(  

It was really fun and worth the 90 minute drive.   The most fun is seeing all the Chinese American kids having fun and dressed up!

Sledding

The girls were elated when we received enough snow for them to get their sleds out.   Even though it barely covered the ground and the temperature was 10 degrees they donned their coats and hit the slope.

Tessa was having a great time trying to get her sled to go backwards down the hill.

It always surprises me that they really go as far as they do!

Going private

I am going to make our blog private again.   If you want to continue reading our blog please leave me a comment with the email address that you want to use and I will add you to the readers list.   Or you can email me and let me know.   I will change the settings in a week or so.   

My dolls

The girls were playing with their dolls before bed tonight.  

Here is ZoraLin and Kanani.

Tessa and Piper.

Kendalan and Roxie.

Jordis and Jordan.

Ho Ho Ho!

Hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone.   After Santa and Mrs. Claus visited opening the present was kind of anti-climatic.   We opened the gifts on Christmas Eve day as I had to work Christmas Day.   The night before we did our traditional one gift of Mom and Dad's choice.  Even though we have done this for years, the girls always forget that the gift is pajamas!   I bought them all H@nna And*rsson jamies this year and they were so soft and warm I wish I had a pair myself!

Today we headed to the closest American Girl store so Kendalan and Jordis could cash in on their gift certificate from Santa for their choice of doll.   Tessa and Zora each took their dolls to get new outfits. The store was crammed full of girls and their dolls!!   I would love to see what the total sales were in the store today.    Jordis came home with her doll who is named Jordan.   Kendalan has Roxie.   These two girls join Zora's Kanani and Tessa's Piper and they are all a well dressed group!!

Visitors!

We were getting ready to start supper last night when the door bell rang.   All of a sudden I heard "It's Santa!"   Sure enough, Santa and Mrs. Claus were at our house!   The girls were pretty much in shock.  Their manners went out the window as they stood and stared at the pair.    I suggested that Santa and the Mrs. have a seat.   The girls sat stiffly on the couch while Santa asked them if they had been good this year.   He also mentioned that an Elf named Dasher had come to see him with some information.   They looked a little nervous when Santa asked them if they know Dasher!   They told Santa that Dasher had left last night and we hadn't seen him since.  

With Mrs. Claus helping, Santa read "The Night Before Christmas." to the girls.   After the book Santa invited the girls to take turns telling him what they wanted for Christmas.   The girls were very shy and we chose RaeAnne to go first as it was also her 13th birthday!   She told him she wanted either a laptop or a video camera.

Jordis was next and she told the man in red that she wants an American Girl doll with a purple dress.

ZoraLin finally sat on his lap and wasn't shy about telling the duo, "I want it ALL!"   One of everything in the Justice store that is.  

Tessa is still under the weather.   Even though Santa tried his best to coax her, she remained laying on Dad's lap.

Kendalan told Santa that she wanted an I-pod.   She has her brother's old I-phone but she can't get new apps for it.

Evidently Santa must dance in China as Linzi was all excited when Santa arrived and showed us many times how to wiggle your hips and head.   She made sure that Santa was the real thing by pulling his beard and she told him something in Chinese.

Soon it was time for Santa and Mrs. Claus to go back to the North Pole and see if the Elves are getting everything ready.   They weren't gone a few minutes when I heard a chorus of  "I'm hungry!"   Santa forgot to ask me what I wanted for Christmas!!