Christmas 2008!

I have become somewhat of a blogaholic as I wait for my sister's referral from China. It is fun to watch others joy as they add to their family and also I get some cool ideas. I came across a woman who did a Christmas tree to honor her daughter's birthmother. I do talk about the fact that all of my children have a birthmother that is not me, but they don't seem too interested in pursuing the topic just yet so I told them that this tree was to honor their birthcountries. I also included many adoption ornaments that I have gathered over the years. This tree sat in our entryway and our bigger tree was in the den where we spend most of our time. I liked this idea. We will do it again, in fact I just found a Chinese angel to use for our tree top next year.

Jack meets Miss Patty Cake!

Yes, we were all there for the show, but who couldn't wait to sit on her lap? You guessed it.

Santa and the Kids! Woo hoo!

I never had a photo of my children with Santa Clause or any other holiday character until Jack joined us! He loves Santa and everyone else for that matter. See: Jack loves characters! The other kids can now at least tolerate being in the photo. (This photo was taken at the Chippewa United Methodist Church Christmas Cookie Sale and Bazaar by BilDeb photography 724-775-4730.)

The pictures don't really tell the story . . .

We started out our day at Chuck E. Cheese in Ohio very late as I got lost and then the traffic due to a combination of construction and Black Friday was horrendous! I had to call and get further directions and to assure them that we were still coming. The hostess greeted us with, "We only hold the table for 30 minutes; you are too late!" Excuse me! Too late for my son's birthday party! The place was empty! They had 3 small parties set up and ours was one of them. But she had sent our hostess home. I told her that I had paid a deposit to hold the table and that I had called and that we had no intention of going back to Pennsylvania without a party. She said she would check on things . . . I meantime assured the kids that we were staying. She came back and said she had called the hostess back in. The hostess came, she was a delightful young woman who treated us kindly, all was well, until . . . as I was waiting to pay the bill and the kids were finishing up their tokens, Jack fell and got a nasty gash which utimately ended with a trip to the ER and 3 stitches! Guess what? They comped us the party and gave him a stuffed animal! I would much rather have paid for the party and skipped the ER. Tracy was jealous that Jack got a stuffed animal! Sheez!


Sammy talking on the phone with Chuck E. Cheese.

Tracy collecting as many tickets as possible for the elusive big prizes!

Samuel Khalim is 6!

Birthday cards are the best!

Looking good is a start!
School nametag which was worn out to dinner and earned him a bd song from the King's wait staff!

Cupcakes and family! All right!

Stay tuned for Chuck E Cheese coming on Friday!

Marney turns 10!

Just a small gathering of her closest friends and her siblings. I really limit the amount of kids that my children can invite to their birthday party especially when it is a sleepover! The surprising thing for me was that Marney invited the exact same girls that she invited 2 years ago. Just maybe these girls will be her lifelong friends! That would be cool!

The Many Faces of Marney . . .

I love taking pictures of my kids. Here are some of many . . .













And just in case I didn't have enough,Marney helped me out by taking some
self-portraits!