Happy Holidays!

We had a great Christmas day yesterday. It was nice to be home and not traveling on Christmas. While we missed seeing our extended family it was very nice to have a quiet first Christmas home with Halle. I don't think she realized anything was too different from an ordinary day. She got a Dora kitchen set that she saw first and didn't really get into the other presents. She helped open a few but I still don't think she got it. We didn't try to introduce her to Santa partly due to time, not wanting to mess with the crowds at the mall and mostly because I think she would have been terrified. She was saying ho, ho, ho when she saw pictures of him and trying to say Merry Christmas but I think only a loving parent would be able to recognize it :) Halle also received a miniature trampoline that Paul & Jacob set up in the basement. She seems to be enjoying it. The weight limit is 100 pounds so none of us can demonstrate it for her! The big kids did fairly well considering it was supposed to be a smaller Christmas due to the trip to China. I'm afraid Jacob was a little less than thrilled with all the clothes he received. He is growing so fast that he is outgrowing everything. He and Paul are going to see the Buckeye's basketball game tomorrow so hopefully that will make up for the socks and at least I didn't buy him any underwear!

Halle's vocabulary continues to increase every day. She is starting to put together simple sentences now. She says good girl to herself and the dog quite a bit. Yesterday she didn't really take a normal nap so around 4:30 she was tired. She was trying to tell me something but I couldn't tell if she wanted to go to the bathroom or she wanted a bottle. We walked into the kitchen and an old bottle was sitting there. She pointed to it and said - there it is!

Her favorite activity continues to be dancing. She knows how to turn the radio on and will start waving her hands. Now she has added a pretty cute bottom wiggle too :) She's still not too interested in books I'm afraid. I'm trying to get her to look at them when she is sitting on the potty - a very long process sometimes so I've got a captive audience! She loves her cartoons. The Noggin Channel is very good. They have lots of singing and dancing. Most of them are above her level but she definitely gets her groove on with some of them. They even have a new cartoon out about a little Chinese girl. The show incorporates words in Chinese. I've only seen it a few times. I hope it catches on more.

We are hoping to get to the zoo to see all the lights. Unfortunately it has been too cold. Today it has finally warmed up but now we are getting a ton of rain. It was even thundering today much to Keisha's dismay.

We are heading to Elyria for a late Christmas dinner with Paul's siblings. It will be nice to see everyone and introduce them to Halle. With all the cousins it should be quite a gathering. I wish we lived closer to everyone so we could see them more often.