A lot of you have asked about our holiday celebrations, so before I get "back to basics" with some info and pictures about daily life and our place, I thought I'd show you some Christmas Highlights.
It WAS lonely and it WAS hard -- even in the midst of all the fun and new friends. We really missed our loved ones at home (as well as traditions and special foods/events), but it was really nice despite all that. We were really thankful to get our first two packages -- meds from Matt's mom and some WRAPPED gifts (a real treat!) from mine. It really helps us feel less lonely to get ANYTHING from home! (Thanks SO much to those of you who contributed to the packages on their way!!!) Even though we missed "normal" things (like Eggnog and turkey and friends and family!) we had lots of chances to be reminded of the real reason for our celebration!
I also really enjoyed being able to get the girls some things to play with (although what we really wanted to get them was a PUPPY -- maybe next year!) and to pass out gifts to new friends and explain why we do it!
Matt's main gift to me was getting a wooden kitchen made for the girls. I'd been wanting it for "center time" (i.e. to keep Laney and sometimes Emma out of my hair during school time!) and I knew it would go a long way. We'd been told it was really easy to get things made, but turns out it's a bit more difficult when you don't know much language (go figure...). Matt maxxed out his language capabilities, but he did a great job -- and what we ended up with was good enough to get them really excited and occupy even Chloe for hours on end. (Amazing how even "baby toys"can become appealling in a hurry when they're the only option!) I even found a few little cups, bowl, plates, and glasses (all real and breakable) and a set of that really great wooden food with velcro that you can "cut" (a rare gem in a place with no quality toys -- occassionally they rip off some of the higher dollar toys they produce. Not sure about lead paint, but luckily we don't have any mouthers anymore!)
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