SNOW

After working on it for more than a day, we finally awoke this morning to a nice blanket of snow!!! Olivia runs to the kitchen door, looks outside and yells with glee "s-no, Mommy s-no, I wan som" So I go out and get her a bowl of snow which she eats for breakfast... along with her oatmeal!

This evening, we played and did a little sledding. Daddy and Olivia were just finishing shoveling (great timing on my part) when I got home. After saying hello, in her over sized, hard to manage mittens, Olivia gathers up some of the powdery snow and "throws" it at me. It cascades to my shoe where she then brushes it off and starts all over.

Two Great Giveaways!

So, I see giveaways pretty often on websites, and if the product really interests me, I enter. You can usually get an extra entry for blogging about it, which I rarely do, but this time I must because I really, really want to win both of these:

First, over at Simple Mom (which is a fabulous site even without this cool giveaway) she is giving away Choffy - a brewed chocolate drink. It sounds wonderful and I would love to try it. Go to this post for details on the giveaway.

I do not know how people find these cool things - but this looks awesome: Red Sox Mommy
is doing a giveaway for

The giveaway is in this post - I would really love this stuff to have fun with Olivia!

Random Acts of Cuteness

Here are a few pictures I found on the camera while I was looking through the new year photos - all are from the last week or two.

Lunar New Year, Pt. 2

It was my initial intention to have a somewhat traditional Lunar New Year celebration at our house and invite family and our dear friends. But, the more I thought about it, the harder it was to get all the details to work out, so we opted for a wonderful, fun lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant.

There were 18 of us in all - and I meant to keep it, but Olivia's fortune cookie said something about being surrounded by caring people. It certainly could not have been more true.

Lunar New Year, Pt. 1

Our first new year celebration occurred at our 2 year olds or so (and their siblings) from China playgroup. We got together, the kids played and played and played and the mommies sat, visited, and checked on kids here and there. After sufficient play time, we had a Chinese themed lunch. Lots of fun was had by all, and it was a very nice get together.

Were You Needing A Picture Fix?

I certainly was!

Olivia and her new best friend! Oh, and notice the boots - I was planning on regular shoes to go with the dress, but Olivia insisted on wearing the boots!

All but the last one were taken this morning before church. The last one was after dinner tonight. Fortunately, you cannot see the mess on her shirt from the lo mein.

Lunar New Year Card from Qingliu

Today, we received a Lunar New Year card from the director of Olivia's orphanage. It was very fun, although not completed unexpected to receive as I knew that a few people had received them last year. The interesting coincidence is that earlier in the day I sent money to a friend in Guangzhou so that she can send a Lunar New Year gift to Qingliu on our behalf. I am going to ask around to see if I can find someone who can read Mandarin to translate what has been written. Of course, if you are reading this and know, please share with me.

Front of card

Inside of card

Four Years Ago

Last year I posted my all time favorite photograph from our wedding and told a bit of the story behind it. While this photo is not nearly as good - I still like it a lot. And, as a way to recapture some of the memories of that wonderful day, I will tell some of it's story. This picture was taken the moment we walked into the reception from the wedding - about 15 or 20 minutes behind our guests. You only get to see a bit of the wonderful decorations here, but the story about them is that they were a repeat! A friend got married eight days prior, on New Year's Eve - we shared the expense of buying the decorations and helped put them up and then left them up through the week for our wedding. We each had our own personal touches and it worked out great.

After Michael and I made our "grand" entrance to "Winter Wonderland" being played, we greeted guests as they arrived, then went on to have a wonderful evening.

This is fun, I wonder what picture and story next year will bring!

Grandma's Day to Babysit

Sometimes a picture really, really is worth a thousand words:

The toenails, fingernails, eyeshadow and lipstick (already cleaned off) were all done with a washable (thank heavens) marker while Olivia was supposed to be napping.

A New Year and A New Blog

Some of you already know that one of my life's passions is cooking and other know that I have not been doing as much of it the past few years. So, to celebrate the new year, I have started a new blog as a spot to keep recipes that I try or come across and a place to keep links for food related sites.

Kiy and D, make sure you check out the introduction where I pay homage to both of you!

Recipes and Reviews

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at a fun party with lots of kiddos! For pictures and a video of part of the event, check here: New Year's Eve with Mutha Mae Olivia had an amazing time - she ran and played and ate awesome cake and generally had a fabulous time. As we were leaving, we walked out the door onto the sidewalk and said, without prompting "I had fun". She must have been pretty keyed up because she stayed awake for the entire drive home - which was actually good because we had forgotten her sleeper and overnight diaper anyway. She was a little fussy on the way home, but not too bad!