Christmas in January

Emma insisted that we leave the Christmas tree up so that baby brother could see her handy work. So we had a second Christmas in January when we returned from Ethiopia. We were able to celebrate with Yaya and Pappy and had a great time opening stockings and presents on "Christmas morning"

A Family of Four

While We Were Away

When we took the big trip to Ethiopia to get baby brother Emma got to spend the week with her Yaya and Pappy. She had so much fun and didn't cry once with us gone. My parents reported angel like behavior. Way to go Emma. Here are some of the fun things she did with her grandparents:

She ate spaghetti (though she won't touch it with us)

She had lots of movie nights (this is what she looked like watching movies...hmmm is TV good for you?) She went to the Children's Museum in Greensboro where she played "mom" and got ready for helping with Johnny....

Played Dentist with Pappy.....

Took some phone calls and got some work done....

Took a trip to the zoo...

And of course, a little pampering time with Yaya....

Thank you mom and dad from the bottom of our hearts. It was such a comfort to know that she was in good hands and being loved on while we were away.

Last Day as a Family of Three

The day before we left for Ethiopia we spent the afternoon with Emma and Yaya and Pappy at the park helping Emma ride her new bike.

We then went out to dinner for my 30th birthday.....(yes I am officially thirty...yipes!) We were packed and ready to go. One last dinner before boarding a plane to bring the missing member of our family home.

More Winter Fun

Christmas 2009

As I had already posted, this year was our first Christmas in North Carolina. We spent Christmas Eve with the Renslow family which was so much fun. We had a big dinner then went to Mass at the Catholic Church in our neighborhood. John has a lot of good memories of this as a child so the experience was great for him. Emma was a bit of a handful but I enjoyed myself as well.

Santa's handiwork on Christmas Eve...

Emma opening her stocking....

I almost didn't post our pajama picture as John and I look like a truck hit us the night before but, it was Christmas morning and it must be done...


Emma's Gift from Santa this year was a bike. She was so excited!!

Now you see her......
Now you don't....

We ended our Christmas day at TGI Friday's which was pretty much the only restaurant open on Christmas other than Waffle House and IHOP. We will never do this again. We are normally cozy in a warm home with lots of family around us so a restaurant was not what we needed Christmas night. We got through it though and had a wonderful Christmas.

Ethiopian Food

When we were in Raleigh with friends we decided to take advantage and try out some Ethiopian food. We were not big fans. I like lots of different types of food as does John and so I was expecting to like it. The main bread is something called injera which is sponge like and served cold. I am sure you could learn to like it but on the first taste we were not sold. Luckily the coffee was very good so we will just have to drink lots of coffee while we are in Ethiopia. We are both coffee lovers so this is ok with us!

Skating in Raleigh

Raleigh had an outdoor skating rink set up downtown so we took advantage of visiting our friends Jon and Kelly to check out the skating rink. Emma loved "skating". I tried to pick her up to skate around quicker but she insisted on having her skates on the ice the whole time.

The Happy Newlyweds

It was pretty cold but I think Emma would have skated for hours. We finally called it quits when our backs couldn't take it anymore.

Snow in the 'Boro

We had an extra special suprise in Greensboro this year for the Christmas season.....SNOW!! Snow on a Friday night that was still all over the ground on Monday. We had friends over for breakfast and then played in the snow.

Christmas at the Carolina

Emma was terrified of Santa Clause this year. I tried to get her to sit on Santa's lap and she kept saying "tomowow mommy, on the weekend" ... "he sarry, glasses on". I think she was trying to find excuses as she knew she shouldn't be scared but let's be honest....he is a big fat man with lots of hair and candy.....all other times of the year we tell our little one's to run away from men like this.

For some reason Mrs. Clause was not scary to Emma so this is her Santa picture for 2009.

The Carolina Theater downtown had a great program on a Saturday morning where they showed the Muppets Christmas and had Santa, an Elf and Mrs. Clause show up to entertain the kids. We had so much fun!!!