Love those carts!

Wherever there are carts, the girls will ride! Here some pics in the grocery store and Target:

Festivus 2009

On the 27th Chris's family came to visit us in Tivoli to celebrate Festivus -- here Jasmine and Monica and Marcus help make the Festivus cupcakes!

Once made, all the cousins decorated and had a chance to sample:

For the Feats of Strength, we went bowling.

At dinner Jack found the hidden nut and became the King of Festivus -- he chose Deb as his Queen. Monica and Brian got Festivus hats as well, as the high scorers in bowling!

It was great to see everyone. Thanks for making the trip to Tivoli!

Christmas Afternoon 2009

We went over to Gigi and Grandad's for Christmas dinner in the afternoon and joined my sister Amy, her husband Aaron, and her three children there. The girls watched some TV with their new cousin Henry before dinner, as well as watched Amy feed the twins.

After dinner, MORE presents!

Christmas Morning 2009

Though Wendy and Fer woke up around 11 complaining of heat in their room, they did go back to sleep and didn't come in until 6:30! First we opened their stockings:

When we came downstairs Fer checked out the tree:

Out of order, but here they are opening their big presents from us, a baby doll for Wendy and "baby doctor Barbie" (!!) for Fer:

While we waited for Gigi and Grandad, the girls watched some of their Christmas videos:

Then Gigi and Grandad came over for breakfast and we opened presents!

The girls also got skates, which they will be able to use at the sports day camp when we go back to Colombia:

The girls spent much of the morning playing with their new dolls:

It was a great Christmas morning -- they were so happy with their gifts and really stopped and played with things along the way. More in the next post about the rest of Christmas day!

Christmas Eve 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Gigi and Grandad. The girls were very excited to dress up and to drink their chocolate milk from wine glasses, which they enthusiastically clicked with ours to toast the meal. After dinner, they opened two presents: new pajamas and 2 Christmas videos (Frosty and Rudolph):

Time to go to bed and sleep so Papa Noel can come fill the stockings!

December 22, 2009

The girls came to KIPP and did some classwork with my 6th graders:

When we got home they were totally excited for another Christmas present, from KIPPTia Blanca: jewelry making and mug decorating kits!

Oops, this one should have gone first, but couldn't resist showing the gorgeous wrapping!

Dec 21 -- 4 days til Christmas!

It was a really good day today. The girls stayed with Valentina while we went to work, and then we came home at 3:00 for a meeting with our social workers -- Kidsave requires a certain number of meetings during the holiday visit. The girls were wonderful during the meeting -- they served us a full play-doh dinner of arepas, chocolate candies and soda water, complete with a post-it for us to review the meal and choose our favorite item! Afterwards they got to open one of their first Christmas presents, from KIPPTia Alaina:

They loved the hoodies and scarves and the coloring books were also a big hit. Then, we made cookies for the KIPP 5th grade play cast party.

After a "rico" taco dinner, the girls read some books with Padrino, watched 2 Kittys, and off to bed! Tomorrow they will come to KIPP for the morning and then stay with Valentina for the afternoon while I am at school for the 5th grade play. And then, Wednesday, my last day of work until we return from Colombia! Chris and I felt that it was just too hectic for the girls to spend another week shuttling around as they have been since they arrived for the holiday visit. So I am officially beginning my leave on January 4 and hope I will return to work in early March, assuming the court process goes smoothly and the girls transition well to school etc. here when we get back.

Tivoli Weekend Dec 18-20

We took the girls up to Tivoli this past weekend and had a great time! They really seem to love it up there. They spend part of Saturday with Gigi and Grandad while we raced around trying to finish our Christmas shopping (we mostly got it done). Then, Chris shoveled snow while the girls and I put up the tree and our stockings and some other Christmas decorations. We watched some Disney holiday videos which they enjoyed and had dinner on Saturday night with Gigi and Grandad. On Sunday we got to see the pageant at St. John's, which the girls liked even if it was all in English! We really appreciated the warm welcome we got from everyone there.

Some pics of holiday fun once the decorations were done: