Hannah was hard at work preparing for Santa’s arrival! She baked cookies for him, added some candy cane popcorn and poured him some egg nog. She also left this cute note! (This is where I see her French Immersion schooling coming through. Spelling will improve with time once English is added later.)
Der Sateu,
tahek you for my geisti. i hope you liek the eeg neug and coerks and candecne pop courn. Love Hannah
(Interpretation)
Dear Santa,
Thank you for my gifts. I hope you like the egg nog and cookies and candy cane popcorn. Love Hannah
Before we left to celebrate Christmas Eve with friends she carefully placed 2 baby carrots out for each reindeer as well as spread reindeer food on the driveway to guide Santa to our home.
I will still say that after over 8 years together I am still in awe and daily blessed and thankful that God created our little family!
Trying out her new sleep masks.
After enjoying a morning of gift opening, breakfast treats and watching the Disney Christmas special, we headed off to mom and dad’s to join the rest of the family.
Hannah and Makenna in their matching Christmas dresses.
Kallen joined them
Bec and Keenan
I love this pic of family, mess, smiles, laughter and so much more captured in this one moment in time.
Grandma and Grandpa with 5 of their grandchildren.
Just wish I’d thought to take a picture of my brothers, SIL and I with mom and dad. First time we’ve all been together at Christmas in a few years. Hopefully next year!
It was another wonderful Christmas day and we are blessed beyond measure!
Hannah’s school offered a ballet option this year and she’s loved it! It’s such a treat to see my sweet girl spreading her wings and trying something new!
Her class also sang. LOL – not sure what they sang but it was very pretty and she was having fun!
Hannah was excited to graduate into the ‘big kids’ choir this year and with that came performing an entire Christmas musical. The kids did great and Hannah was in her glory!!
My little princess didn’t miss a beat when her crown fell off!
One of our favourite activities each year is trimming the Christmas tree and talking about all of our favourite ornaments and the stories that go with them!
This year was a little crazy at the beginning of December so tree trimming took place over 2 days about a week apart.
Night 1 was beads plus traditional Christmas balls. Wonky strings of beads have become our new tradition and I love it!
The following week was our favourite part as we pulled out the decorations that Hannah has made over the years or those we’ve purchased to remind us of special people or occasions.
This year Hannah made me a beautiful love note of post-it notes that read, ‘Hannah, Love, Mommy! you love I’ (lol – It may be backwards but read right to left it reads, ‘I love you Mommy! Love, Hannah)
Making sure each part of the tree is properly adorned from top
August 21st is a special day to Hannah and I as it commemorates the day I received Hannah’s referral call on Aug 21, 2009! She was just 5 1/2 months old at referral!!
A photo montage of referral day memories followed by our referral day videos at the end.
and her chosen costume…Mulan! She even did her own make up.
Which I will say is far more subtle than the first time she did her makeup at 4yo in 2014!
We are Disney fans through and through as I’m sure you know so it was an easy decision of a costume and pumpkin pattern. Secretly I’m SO thankful she’s still into a princess phase as sadly I know these days are numbered. When we found this costume at the Disney Store in the summer and she mentioned wearing it for Halloween I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough! *sign* I’m pretty sure it will be the last princess dress I buy for her. Time passes far too quickly!
Back to last week’s activities!
Sunday afternoon we cleaned and carved our pumpkins. Well, Hannah cleaned it
but then I kinda lost her when she got to the pumpkin guts. She wanted nothing to do with carving and only wanted to squish and squash the pumpkin guts. LOL – she even added sparkles to them! Must say I’ve never thought of adding sparkles to pumpkin guts!
She’s come a looong way since this video taken in 2011 when she was 2 1/2. Oh my heart!
Tuesday night we followed tradition and went trick-or-treating with her friends Noah, Grayson and Owen.
Upon returning home it was an adventure in sorting and recording her candy tally. It was late but far be it from me to turn down the opportunity for some spontaneous math time!
Another Halloween is in the books and I can say with confidence that we were both happy to say goodbye to the scary decorations in the stores and welcome the beginning of the Christmas season with open arms! We bought Christmas bows on Saturday and our home will be decorated (at least on the outside) shortly!
Single Mommy to the most amazing baby girl in the entire world! We were blessed to be brought together through the miracle of adoption. My file was logged in China on March 23, 2006 and life changed forever in a wonderful, amazing way when Hannah was placed in my arms in Hunan, China on Monday, November 2, 2009!!! This site is created to welcome family and friends to follow along with our family's fun and adventures.
'The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.'
Psalm 118: 23
