The Merriest Christmas Ever!!

Well, we’ve made the rounds, opened all the gifts, and ate way too much! Now, I’ll spend the rest of the week picking up the pieces and cleaning up the mess. And then we’ll do it all over again next weekend when we celebrate Lily Mei’s second birthday! Whew! My house literally looks like something exploded. But, we had the most wonderful Christmas ever! It was so nice seeing our families and friends and watching them all enjoy spending time with our sweet Lily Mei. She was the life of the party, the star of the show, and everyone just fell in love with her!!

Lily Mei’s reaction to Christmas is a little hard to put into words. She got the hang of the present opening pretty fast, but it was almost as if she couldn’t believe all of it was for her. She would open one present and be so proud and want to hold it and look at it. It took us over an hour to open Santa presents, not because there were so many, but because she wanted to take her time and savor each gift. Finally, the boys had to help her open them or we might still be there! And then, after her gifts were opened, instead of wanting to immediately get everything out, she went from one person to the next wanting to see what they got for Christmas. She loved passing out the gifts and I think she loved getting her new clothes even more than all the toys. I have never seen a child love clothes and shoes so much! Every new outfit she opened, she would ‘ooh and ahh’ and then want to try it on right then.
One time in the midst of all the Christmas morning madness, Steve caught Lily Mei in the kitchen all by herself just standing and staring out the window. It almost made us both cry. I just wonder what goes through that little mind of hers. Does she think about her time in the orphanage? Does she wonder where her little friends are? Can she possibly understand why these strange people came and took her away from everything she ever knew? Can she feel the love in our hearts every time we hug her and kiss those sweet little cheeks? Does she know that she is our whole world and we don’t know what we would do without her? She is the sweetest thing and sometimes I think she is an old soul in a little body……..

So we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and our wish for all our friends and family is that 2008 will see all your dreams come true. Ours certainly did!