Christmas 2009 and the year in review...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! We still have one more this Sunday at our house for Gary's Grandparents, with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom and the their family. We had a nice Christmas, very easy and not rushed.

We had our annual Christmas Eve get together with Gary's parents, and my parents, and my brother, and my other brother from Indiana and his family. Drank lots of wine and had really good food. Christmas day Gary and I get up and open our gifts from eachother and then go to my parents for breakfast. We take muffins and an egg souffle. We open gifts there and watch our nieces Jessica & Jodi open gifts. It was a lot of fun, and we got really nice gifts from everyone. A lot of nice gifts for Avery!! After that we come home and get our food that we take for dinner ready and go back to my parents for dinner, we only live 2 miles away. Had a mountain of food and tried some new recipes that everyone loved, had hardly any leftovers, which is good!

Later that evening we went to Gary's brother's house and checked in with them. We got a message this year on our answering machine inviting us up that evening for pizza, so we went up for some pizza, and we took leftover brownie trifle. It was nice to see Beth's brother Matt and his wife Katie and their son Ethan, and visit for an hour or so. We got to see what our nephew's got for Christmas and visited with Steve and Beth and everyone.

Then we went to Gary's parents for a bit, and kept dozing on the couch. I said to Gary we were great guests...I'd look at him and his eyes would be closed and I could feel my head start to nod. But it was nice visiting with his parents when they got back from their outing for the day.

We do Gary's parents Christmas the day after Christmas. We have a big breakfast and open gifts, and it's fun watching the Noah, Owen, and Sammy open their presents. We received many nice gifts from everyone, it was a fun filled day. Many nice gifts for Avery!! That evening my Mom, and Dad, and Gary & I, and my 2 brothers, Tom and Johnny, and my sister in law Liz, and our nieces Jessica and Jodi all went ice skating. Tom and his family were leaving on Sunday so we all went and had a great time. It had been years since I ice skated, and the girls had never been, but they did awesome!! Fun was had by all. We went to McDonald's afterward and had dinner and sundaes.

On Sunday Steve and Beth hosted a huge dinner for everyone, over 30+ people. A prime rib dinner, more wine, eggnog, and so much good food, and great company. A lot of fun!!! I was tipsy going home from the eggnogs and too much wine...  :)

It's always nice to spend time with family during the holidays. Avery got so many nice things from everyone. Her wardrobe just keeps growing and growing. I'll post some pictures of her presents later.

We would like to say to everyone a huge Thank you for all the gifts that they gave to Avery. For someone that is not here yet she is thought of in a big way. It makes us feel very lucky for the family we have and how lucky Avery will be to be a part of such a loving and caring family.

We hope and pray that this is our last Christmas without her. Please let that be the truth.

All in all a very good Christmas...it's always over so fast!!

A quick year in review...
•We made it out of the review room and into the matching room with our dossier.-Hooray!!
•Had our fingerprints retaken this year, and all medical documents updated.
•Had our social worker here again to write nothing had changed on our homestudy except Gary had gotten a pay raise.
•Gary actually got a new job, same place but a managerial position.-Hooray!!
•Gary's Dad and Mom have both retired this year.
•We have started a new business this year...the t-shirt printing business.
•My beloved cat of 20+ years now lives at my parents house, and I miss her terribly.
•We put new flooring in the breezeway.
•We re-did our upstairs hallway-still in process...
•We started work on the nursery, and now have the walls striped and the wainscoting up and maybe the floor by later today. Pictures to come...

I'm sure there's more but that's the highlights-the good stuff.

We have had a pretty good year. We wish everyone good health and good fortune in 2010.

We hope and pray that this is the year we meet our daughter and are able to start our family. We wish for the CCAA to get some speed in their referrals.-UGH!!!!

We wish for a lot of things for us and for our family and friends. Mostly love, family, happiness, and good health. May you always be surrounded by the ones you love!

Have a Happy New Year!!!
Happy 2010!!
The year of the Tiger


Love to everyone,
Alli