Christmas at home

It's the day after Christmas, and all through the house. Everyone is stirring, especially Hallie!

Yes, we had a terrific Christmas. Hallie really understood it this year, which is why we wanted to stay home, in our own house, this holiday. This is the first time since Brett and I have known each other, that we have stayed in Memphis for Christmas. It was important for us that Hallie wake up in her own home to see presents under the tree from Santa Claus. And boy, if you could have seen the look on her face when she came downstairs and found a toy kitchen set up and ready for action! We watched The Little Mermaid and ate pancakes and sausage and stayed in our pajamas most of the day. It was wonderful.

Brett was surprised when he opened his gift from Hallie and me--a digital frame. I knew he'd love it, he's such gizmo guy! He, of course, went upstairs and downloaded dozens of pictures on it right away.

I received just what I wanted--a new bath robe and the Jimmy Buffett DVD Live at Wrigley Field. Brett did good (I guess the subtle hints I left around the house really worked).

We went to our friends' house for Christmas dinner. Hallie played with their 2-year-old daughter while we visited and laughed at the girls. It was a perfect ending to the holiday weekend.

Welcome to our new blog!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Welcome to our new family blog. As most of you reading this know, I started a blog to journal our experiences adopting our beautiful girl Hallie from China. I started the blog right when we sent off our paperwork to China, in September 2004. Hallie has been home with us since May 2005. A year-and-a-half later, Brett and I thought it was more appropriate to have a new blog to tell our friends and family around the country (and world) what we are doing as a family. So, here it is. I hope you enjoy it. One of my New Year's resolutions is to post more often so I hope you will check back regularly.

Here's a brief update on our lives: Hallie is 32 months old and is a very active, energetic toddler. She still goes to school (day care) every weekday. She attends The Foreign Language Immersion Child Care. She loves it, we love it and could not be happier with her teachers. They are loving, caring, and she is learning a lot. Oh, did I mention it is Spanish immersion, so the teachers only speak Spanish to the children all day! She is on her way to being bi-lingual by the time she starts kindergarten. Hallie loves to read books, and must have 2-3 stories read to her each night before bed. I've never really counted, but I would guess she has somewhere around 100 books and her collection is growing. She has a complete collection of Disney Princesses books, which is also one of her favorite things. Leave it to Disney to take something old, put a new spin on it, and remarket it as something new. Besides books she has Princess videos, clothes, dolls, puzzles, coloring books, a backpack. You get the idea! We limit her television watching time to mainly in the morning when Mommy is getting ready for work, so she also has grown to love a new Disney show called "Little Einsteins." Hallie is a lefty (Grandma Zunk loves that) and likes to write and draw. She is very creative. I can't wait to get her into dance classes.

Brett is in his third year working at WREG, the CBS station in Memphis. He is still on the early morning shift, waking up at the wee hours of the morning. His favorite hobby (besides spending time with Hallie and me) continues to be brewing beer. He is getting quite good at it--in fact, he won a blue ribbon in the Mid-South Fair for his Octoberfest! He has put his new digital camera to good use this year as you will see from the many photos on this blog.

I continue to work at the Shelby County D.A.'s Office as communications directory, where I've been since 2002. My boss ran for and won re-election this past summer and I served as an active member of his campaign committee. It was crazy and hectic, but fun. Working in television for so many years, I have never been on the "other side" of a campaign before. Most of my time outside of work is spent with Hallie and Brett, but I do still enjoy cooking on weekends and reading.

This past June we spent our first family vacation at our Disney Vacation Club resort in Orlando. Hallie loved Disney World. We also took trips to Little Rock (does that count as a trip), San Antonio, Denver, Toledo, St. Charles, MO for a family wedding (Hallie's cousin and godfather, Mat, got married to Shelly), and a few trips to Vandalia, IL to visit Brett's mom.

We have a close group of friends we've made in Memphis with other families who have adopted children from China and we get together for dinner or zoo visits regularly.

Between all of that, Grandma and Papa have visited at least three times this year. So you see, we've had a very, very busy 2006.

I know I said this would be brief, sorry for lying! I hope you keep checking in to see what other adventures our lives bring us! Take care and Merry Christmas!