Christmas Day Celebrations!

Later Christmas morning, Granddaddy, Ben and Uncle Vince went outside to shovel the driveway so the Cook side of the family could arrive safely. One vehicle already slid off the side of the driveway the night before into the snow, and here are the guys trying to shove it over the rest of the way. Heave, ho!



Hi ho, hi ho...



Around four o'clock, Grandma Cook, Aunt Marg and Uncle Russ and Uncle John showed up with lots of cousins, and the festivities began. We took a few family pictures, and we hung out and caught up with relatives we haven't seen in a long while. Next, we ate a delicious meal as a family and then headed downstairs to do the cousin gift exchange. We were all to bring a present around $20 and draw numbers to choose gifts. A few steals are always part of the game! We all had a great time! We ended up fittingly, with a MagnaDoodle for Ava. Thanks, Nate!

A few formal shots! The Nibali siblings, Jenn, Ben and Vince.



Uncle Chuck, Auntie Jenn, Chase and Evan



Cousin Evan and Ava



Our family photo. Merry Christmas 2009!



Cousin Chase and cousin Evan enjoying their Christmas gifts away from the hustle and bustle upstairs.



Ava loved playing peekaboo with Auntie Jenn while Grandma Cook watched the fun.



A shot of the craziness of the cousin gift exchange. We never know what's going to show up. A VERY large bar of chocolate was stolen from Brent!



Evan opens a Snuggie during the gift exchange!



Oh, no. Evan's snuggie is stolen by Becca much to his dismay. :)



Uncle Chuck and Maxi share a peaceful moment.



All this craziness is a little much for me.



Ah, and at last, a visual of Becca in the Snuggie!

Christmas Miracle Morning!

It's Christmas morning!

Baby Jesus appears in the manger! At home, Ben always hides baby Jesus until Christmas morning. So, when I set out my three manger scenes, Ben sneaks around and usually hides all three! I still don't know where he hides them. It's a tradition in his family because on Christmas morning, a miracle happens!

Baby Jesus, God in human form, our Savior, is born unto US! He left His throne on high to come down to be with us on Earth, to know our sufferings and our weaknesses, to comfort us and to ultimately redeem us! When you accept Christ, all of his attributes become yours. That's great news for me - a very broken and non-perfect individual! Even if you were the only human on earth that needed saving, He still would have come! He SO loved us. Rejoice! I never tire of hearing the story.

Once we all woke up and came downstairs, we opened stockings! We actually forgot Ava's stocking at home during all of the packing and loading, so we let her put some toys and other things in one of ours to open. Uncle Vince's bean soup was, by far, her favorite! Who knew? :)









Hmmm... what's in here?



Bean soup! Just what I wanted!





Ava among the presents. Are there some in here for me?



Granddaddy and Grandma's present to Ava was a Fropper! It's a little scooter bounce toy she can ride. Go, Ava, go!



Granddaddy and Ava open a present together.



Ava was really into helping Uncle Vince with his presents.



I got some cool oven mitts from Vince that Ava liked wearing. We all thought she looked like a lobster.



Vince made Ellen pet crosses for all of the special pets they've had. Aww...



Vince is very excited about the hiking boots we got him!



Ben opens some sailboat clamp thingies and is being silly. :)



Christmas hugs from Daddy



What a special gift in this box! :)



When all of the unwrapping and gift exchanging was finished, Ava took a ride on Ben, Jenn and Vince's old horse. Giddy-up!



Christmas Day part two coming up next!

The Night Before Christmas

After thawing out from the snow, we showered and cleaned up to go to Mass to celebrate Jesus's birth. It was a beautiful service - the 10 or so minutes I saw of it! Ava and I spent the rest of the time with other parents and children on the stairs outside the sanctuary. That was a very popular place for rambunctious children to be!

This is our traditional family picture with Ben's family. We cleaned up pretty well! :) ha ha We were on our way to Mass to meet the other half of our family, Chuck, Jenn, Chase and Evan!



Ava goes downstairs to get a glimpse of the Christmas tree and presents one more time before Christmas morning. She's wearing her Christmas kitty pajamas.

Back to More Christmas Fun!

Christmas Eve morning, we awoke to a wintery wonderland, and we barely finished breakfast before we bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow!

I've uploaded a lot of pictures to share because I couldn't decide which ones not to! :) We had so much fun playing in knee-deep snow with Ava.

First, the bundling - We came prepared!





Having a look at the snow with Grandma.




I could not resist making a snow angel! It had been a LONG time!




Uncle Vince braves the cold the capture a few pictures.





Ava lost her balance and fell backward into the snow.



Ava's snow angel :) This is the imprint she made in the snow.



Snow dog, Maxi!





Daddy and Grandma try to help Ava maneuver in the ice! It was very slippery!




The very cool snow shelf.



Whee!!!!



Our family sled ride.



We're very cold and are going to call it a fun morning!


Whew! That was a lot of pictures in the snow!

Quick China Update!

Before I load the rest of our Christmas pictures, I wanted to quickly let everyone know where things stand with our China adoption.

We were in Atlanta yesterday morning for our federal fingerprinting - round four and hopefully final! It went very well, and we always get to see a melting pot of people from around the world when we go. I'm always reminded of how big and diverse our world really is! Beautiful people.

On another note, we found out earlier this week that China has now processed into the month of April of 2006! They have processed referrals for families logged in through April 3rd, 2006. Again, our log-in date is April 28th, 2006. So. We still have a ways to go, but we are closer than we ever have been, and I can't tell you how good it is to finally see APRIL when I check their progress!

What is a realistic estimate? At this point, Ben and I are hoping for August-December. I'm guessing October right now. Anyone else have a guess? :)

When we get the referral for Maia, she will likely be close to 1 year old, and Ava will have turned two in late August.

The next step is to probably renew our US approval to bring her home. That won't be until late spring. So for now, I'm busy cleaning up Christmas decorations, caring for Ava's fever of 101.4 and preparing for the Arctic blast that is supposedly on its way! Bread, milk, need those!

More Christmas pictures very soon! Love to all!

Emily

There Will Be Snow

Next, we left Tennessee to head to snowy Maryland. When we crossed the Tennessee/Virginia line, we started to see a winter wonderland all around us. As we kept driving, it got deeper and deeper. I couldn't resist "playing" in the snow at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in the heart of Virginia. I remember these kinds of snows from when I was growing up, but Tennessee hasn't seen this much snow since the blizzard of 1993. We keep hoping!

Christmas Celebrations

Whew! A lot has happened in the last few weeks! We're home trying to catch our breath and think about what's ahead in the new year! I'm scheduling these next several posts to appear every few days so it won't be Valentine's Day before they're all up! There were many celebrations this year, so it's going to take a few days to get them all up. We hope you enjoy the photos.

We had a wonderful Christmas season and are looking forward to a brand new year! Maia Grace will be coming home this year! We're leaving this Tuesday to spend two days in Atlanta to get refingerprinted for the fourth time. Hopefully, that will be IT!

I'm beginning to unearth the China stuff that we've carefully packed away because it will be needed soon! We are closer than we ever have been, and China is now processing the month of April of 2006! That's our month!! All this time, and here we are. At last. Our log-in is 4/28/06, so we have to wait each month to see how many days worth of log-ins they've processed. Right now, they've procesed through March 31, 2006. Everyone is anxious to see how much of April they'll get through this month. 2 days? 6 days? Who knows! To look forward many times, I have to look backward to see where we've been. One thing is for sure. I'm never in the same place as I continue this journey.

Now, back to our Christmas celebrations!

These next pictures show where we've been in the last few weeks, celebrating a Savior born to us, celebrating family and friends and looking forward to 2010!

The God who held me firmly in His right hand through the past years will continue to hold me with what's ahead this year. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what unfolds next and content to just be where I am at the same time.

Aunt Jill, Aunt Syd, and my cousin Lacy came to wish Ava a Merry Christmas before we left for Maryland. I rarely get to see my cousin, Lacy, so it was very special getting to spend some time with her.

Aunt Jill and Ava







Aunt Syd and cousin Lacy with Ava





Ava giving Saki love - undoubtedly one of her favorite things to do!