Christmas

I thought it was going to be incredibly hard to have an amazing Christmas while our sweet boy was still living half way around the world. So, instead of getting down, we stepped up to the challenge. We had four, yes -four, days of celebrating with family and friends and this holiday was every bit as wonderful as the past. Only one thing could have made it better, and we found comfort knowing that he would definitely be home for Christmas next year.

Zoey had a rough start to the festivities with her belly issues and the emergency GI visit but that couldn't keep her from having fun.

She had a very special gift to open from a very special person :) and she LOVED it. Belle has been at her side every.single.day since she opened her on Christmas Eve morning. They sing together, read together, have tea parties and dinner parties, and just about everything else my very busy girl does. ♥
                      Zoey had the important job of opening her baby brothers presents too. We know that James will be very overwhelmed when he comes home, so instead of keeping his gifts wrapped, we decided to open and assemble them so they will be ready and waiting.

This was the first one she opened for James and she was very excited. Thanks to all those who thought of our sweet boy on the other side of the pond. He has an amazing extended family here who already loves him so much and for that we feel so blessed.

Baby girl opened her 5th Christmas ornament
from Mom Mom Carol who always finds the perfect Hallmark ornament for every occasion. It is just amazing to me that we have celebrated five years of Christmas with our little girl. Really, where has the time gone?!?!  It seems just like yesterday she was coming home from the hospital with her big  monitor and wires and now she is growing into her own little independent person.

 
This year she upgraded her tree from 2 feet to 4 and from purple to pink. She took such pride in her tree and we loved to watch her marvel over it each morning. Zoey also loved to set up the nativity under her tree and talk about baby Jesus and his mommy Mary.


 She also made this gingerbread house all on her own and I have no idea how I am going to dispose of it. I feel so horrible disposing of something that means so much to her...something that she put so much time and effort into...something she was so proud to present me. But, the thing weighs 10 pounds and could feed an army of rodents if I pack it up in the attic till next year.

So, this cute little house has a limited time here at the Wong's and will be relocating to the curb in the near future.

Anyway, now that I am way off track, lets get back to the Christmas festivities.

We had a wonderful Christmas eve celebration at our house.

We lit candles and had yummy food and celebrated with family and friends.

We toasted....

We conversed....

We ate....

We opened gifts...

and we were all very merry.

Cousins played together all through the house....

They "fed the reindeer" a mix of oats and sparkles incase Santa's sleigh pullers were hungry during the night.

The little ones took the task very serious while Janie helped to give them some pointers. Afterall, she has quite a few years of experience on them.

... and they ate lots of desserts. 

....lots and lots of desserts.

Because it was Christmas, and special rules always apply on Christmas.

These two little ones really know how to do dessert well :)

Can't you tell?!?!?

                                               But wait.... this little one isn't too shabby herself.

Present time....

The newest addition to Christmas Eve...

But before long it was late and time for evebryone to go home and get ready for Christmas Day. 

Zoey was so tired she fell asleep in about four minutes.

Like for reals.

and while she was sleeping Santa came.

and the next morning daddy recorded... as a sleepy but excited little girl, made her way downstairs... to see the Belle tea cart that she wished for Santa to bring... right there under the tree.

Zoey loved all of her gifts - but her favorites, after the tea cart of course, were the easy bake oven ....

and her "ipad"...

            and her "Cafe Barista" that both of her Grandma's are trying to get out of the package behind her.

and ALL of her board games.

And for James - Zoey says his favorite is this train set.

Perhaps it is "big sister" intuition.

We spent the rest of the day struggling to get toys out of packages and assembling them. We played every board game santa could have possibly carried on his sled, we made cakes in the easy bake oven, and played and played and played some more. Then we had a nice dinner with family and did it all over again - well the playing all the new toys part.

It must have been a pretty good day because Zoey totally forgot that she asked for Santa to bring her baby brother home... and no matter how much pull Mama has at the north pole... it just couldnt happen. So, even know we were misisng our little boy, we were happy knowing that Zoey's last Christmas as an only child in the house was happy and that she didn't have any worries about adult things like when her little brother was going to get an EP and make his way to his forever family.

Today, Christmas made its way back to the attic.

The house is slowly returning to its normal clean and organized state.

And this MaMa is happy to have made another years worth of memories

And even happier thinking 2012 is coming - and next year -

 both my children will be together on Christmas morning.