Family Night.. Christmas Night

Mommy and Binky at our Christmas table


Oh yes! Mommy's 35 year old babydoll

Jesse opening up a putter that Riley wrapped up for him

So last night was Christmas Night. We got out my Grandma's old tree and our red and green tablecloth and Riley took stuff from around the house to wrap up as presents. I was going to make our traditional dinner,ham and mashed potatoes and rolls. But Jesse and I are starting a workout program that has a pretty strict diet, so we had tacos . I know, not really Christmas , but oh well. So we opened our presents and ate our tacos and then we made hot chocolate with marshmallows and watched the Grinch. We were up past 10pm. It was a good time.

The most exciting thing yesterday was the deal we found at Home Depot. We have always wanted to have holiday dinners outside, and Jesse has planned to build a long pergola out back that we could grow jasmine on to give us shade. We never knew how we were going to afford to buy a big enough table to fit everyone. Chairs are so expensive and sometimes we have 14 people for holidays . So we found 2 picnic tables in the front of the store on sale for 50.00 each. What a deal!!! I know that sounds silly, but I have always had this vision in my head of eating outside for Easter with the jasmine and roses blooming and the kids are playing on the swing set. It is so nice outside during holidays here. It would just be really cool. I wouldn't have 50 people in my kitchen while I was cooking.

And we never heard from our agency this week. Jesse is going to call on Monday to find out if they are planning to contact the Korean agency again. What we think is going on is that the parents want to keep him but have requested counseling in order to do this. So if they want to keep him, why do we still have to wait while they go through counseling. That just doesn't seem fair, if that is the intended outcome. We should be able to get on with our lives. I just hope there is news next week. I won't be able to eat chocolate because of this dumb workout thing.

I bought Riley's preschool curriculum and when I got it home I realized that they don't have any lessons or phonics or numbers. So I was really disappointed because I was really excited about this program. It is art based and really hands on which is what Riley needs. He loves art and has been so excited about it coming in the mail. I looked on the website and found that they don't start the phonics and numbers until kindergarten , but he is definitely not ready for full blown kindergarten. So I found another curriculum that is based on nature and is still really hands on and has a lot of reading with it. So I'm gonna return the other one and order the new one. Well, I'm off to make flag cupcakes and turkey burgers for tonight. Have a Happy 4th of July everyone!!