Our First Christmas as a family of 6!

Too Much Christmas

Lia by the tree

My New Suitcase

All the Grandkids

Santa Lia

We had a wonderful Christmas with our family. The most memorable part was when Lia started singing "Happy Birthday, dear Jesus....." It was very emotional for me as I kept thinking about what a wonderful blessing we have this year and how far Lia has come since we brought her home.

Lia was so amazed at all the presents and was even a little overwhelmed at times. There was one point where we gave her another gift and she said she was too tired to open it. Imagine that - too tired to open a present! Our kids, as always, got too many presents. We always try to cut back but it never seems to happen. Our big family gift was a Wii. They were all surprised as they didn't even really ask for one. Maybe that was because every time they have asked for one in the past we quickly would say "No way - you already have a PS2" Needless to say they were shocked and thrilled to get it. It has been going nonstop since they opened it.

It is a little sad to see the holidays come and go - it seems to happen so quickly. We hope it was as wonderful for everyone else as it was for us!

Love,
Colleen

More Christmas Pictures

Merry Christmas

Our family would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. This year will be extra special for us as we will be able to spend it with our daughter, Lia. It is her first Christmas and boy is she excited. I really think she "gets it". Last night she was singing "Happy Birthday dear Jesus, Happy Birthday to You". She understands who Santa is and she is actually a little afraid that he is going to come in our house when we are sleeping, but she knows mama and baba will keep her safe. She has certainly come a long way this year and has been such a blessing and joy to our family. I will post a couple pictures of our family putting up our tree and decorating cookies, Grandma Rahe made Lia's cute apron. I'm sure I will have more pictures and maybe video in the next couple days.

Meijer Gardens and Mommy and Me

Lia and I spent Friday morning at the Meijer Gardens with our Mommy and Me group. We had a smaller group this month which was fine since the gardens were quite busy. There were over 100 Christmas trees decorated from various countries. We spent about an hour looking at the trees and then all went in the coffee shop for lunch. It is really inspiring to get together with these families and hear their adoption stories. It is amazing how God works to connect families with their children and to connect families to families. We have met so many wonderful people through Lia's adoption and have made lifelong friendships that we cherish.

Polar Express Train

On Sunday morning Charlie, Aaron, Lia and I got up bright and early and drove 1 1/2 hours to Owosso, Michigan to ride the Polar Express Train. The train is the train that the author of The Polar Express wrote the story about. They also used this train to record all the sounds of the train used in the movie. It was a lot of fun and the kids both really enjoyed it, as did Charlie and I. We rode the train North for a little over an hour and then got off the train and went into this large heated warehouse. The warehouse had Santa, a magician, a carousel, huge slide, dumbo type ride, small train ride, small train set, and food booths. All the activities were included in the train ride price and the kids could do them as many times as they wanted. Lia even went up and told Santa she wants an Elmo for Christmas (I bet she gets one too!) She wouldn't sit on his lap though, daddy had to hold her. We were there almost 2 hours. The train ride is so popular it was sold out for the season by early November, and they even added an extra passenger car to each trip. If you live in Michigan I would recommend this ride for your children. After we arrived back to the station the snow started up. Our drive home took almost twice as long as our ride there, but at least we arrived home safe and sound.