So much activity in the past three weeks and I've kept you all in the dark. Yes, we're still here. Still healthy and happy. E's adoption was finalized on December 13th. It's a relief but doesn't change anything. He didn't realize that anything had changed, as we felt it would have been more confusing to try to explain that we hadn't been a "legal" family for the past 10 months. He's been thinking it was a done deal since he's been here and that's the way we wanted him to feel.

L continues to sleep all through the night and is now giggling and letting out little happy screams. D wants everyone to call her Lulu. The big kids are still out of school. Who ever heard of Christmas break going from December 21st through January 8th? We ran all over for the holidays, starting shopping and preparing about two weeks ahead of time and averaged about four hours of sleep a night. I have vowed once again this year to look for deals year round instead of trying to shop at the last minute. Xmas 2006 highlights included Jeff wearing a pink eighties prom dress to Christmas Eve dinner to make the point that nothing should be gender specific. I did not take pictures of that myself, but many were taken. The excitement of Christmas morning was neat. the kids seemed truly happy with the things we gave them. D says that her favorite gift was a fish tank and three fish. This time she is in charge of the feeding since Mom and Dad killed her last pet, a crayfish, by overfeeding it causing the tank to become putirified. E said his favorite thing was his Hot Wheels cars and track that attaches to his door and shoots the cars off a ramp through a ring of fire. From Jeff I got a new shower head, a new down pillow, a extreme heat pot holder, and a gift certificate to Zingermans - mmm. D got me a choker made of pink dolphin beads.

We made it up north on Christmas evening and the huge present deluge ensued. It took all day on the 26th to open all of the gifts with a couple of breaks in between. Too many cool things to mention. I got two GPS systems, one for the car from my brother and the other from my Dad for finding my way back to the car when I go walking in the woods. I should never be lost again! The kids had a ball with their cousins, friends and playing with all of their toys (see above pictures). Jeff and Mary went swimming on December 26th. The ice hadn't made it all the way to the end of the dock yet, but it has to be a record. We made gingerbread houses and played games and passed a lot of gas. For New Years our friends Flericaco and Josuleo and Karin came up and the serious eating fest began. Due to lack of ice and snow, fun exercise such as hockey and building igloos was replaced with distance running for the guests. I did not partake and I think that my body is still reeling from the calories consumed. As if swimming in the lake at the end of December weren't enough, Jeff decided we should go on a paddleboat ride. The boat didn't make the best icebreaker and it took Jeff four hours to chop through the ice with a mallet while sitting on the front of the boat. It's a good thing D, E and I bailed after only one hour of this nonsense. After all the work to get the boat into the open water, Jeff took Karin and E on a New Year's Ever paddleboat ride in freezing rain with no life jackets. That was dumb. I'm not so sure E viewed it as the cool adventure that his Dad did. L loved all of the attention and started grabbing toys and chewing on them this past week. She is drooling buckets. Could she be getting a tooth? E lost his first tooth but wasn't interested in a visit from the fairy and quickly lost the tooth somewhere outside in the woods.

Overall Christmas was fun, relaxing, exhausting and overwhelming all at once. I am kind of anxious to get back into the old routine again. Most of all I am happy to be able to say to D and E that their new favorite radio station "100.3 WNIC, All Christmas, All the Time" is now no longer broadcasting the same ten Christmas songs 24 hours a day. It started in OCTOBER and is sorely missed by only the 6 and 8 year olds in this family!