Christmas!

Being away from family, friends, and traditions was tough, but we still had fun! Here's the run-down:

Christmas Eve: Christmas story, snackeroos, and white elephant game. We ended up with a giant bottle of Paul Mitchell conditioner (the giver cheated and gave something over the price limit, but I sure didn't complain! She wasn't using it anyway...) and Michael gave his gift away because it was what we brought. :)

Christmas morning: We opened gifts in record time because we were in a time crunch. We got Josiah some new toys. His new faves are the book Grammie and Papa Mueller recorded reading to him and his mini basketball goal. He now says "gooooooal!" all the time. Michael already knew it, but he got an iPhone. (used) This may change our lives in China. It has an app where he can draw a character and it will tell us the meaning. Why is this so important? Think of living in a place where you can read zero of the signs. You don't know what stores are, what road signs say, if there is a warning to not do something--NOTHING. Now we will be able to find out. :) And Michael surprised me with a kindle! I had been throwing around the idea of getting one because books are just too heavy to carry back and forth in a suitcase. Glad the kindle will solve that problem. :) AND he gave me spending money to decorate our home! I've been holding off because we were supposed to move in a month. But, that got called off, and now I want something on the walls! IKEA, here I come!!

Christmas mid-morning: Then we headed to Christmas with our team. We ate breakfast and opened presents from our secret santa. Always a blast with them!

Christmas afternoon: Then we all went home to cook up a storm. I made sweet potatoes and seared chicken legs. Both turned out just how I wanted them to. (Quite a success here...)

The next day, we skyped with both sides of the family. It was a bit overwhelming--each family had at least 10 people--but so nice to see and hear everyone.

There are just TOO many pcis to upload. Click here if you want to see them.