My Special Christmas Gift

Of course Emma is the most special gift I could ever receive.
I had to share the gift I received from my brother. An ornament - Cousin Eddie's RV from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We have watched this movie every Christmas. Many memories have been made because of this tradition. We loved watching it with Uncle Eldon and Auntie Lois. I was in Hallmark many times and never saw this ornament or knew it existed. It was a great surprise.

Christmas pictures

Christmas Eve at church.

Christmas Day with Grandma Winone
Christmas DayChristmas Eve with Anton and Buster

Christmas with Auntie Jess, Uncle Ry, Meenah & Eryn. We were able to spend a day with them. It was wonderful! Emma learned how to say Ry. She was saying Ry all night after they had left.

Oh My, Auntie Jess!

Christmas time spent with her Godmother Nicole. She loves "Elliot" the dinosaur/dragon. She figured out very fast how to push the button to hear him roar.

Christmas morning - admiring the tree. She is wearing special jammies from Grandma Winone.

Christmas Day with Auntie Carol & Uncle Bob. Notice, she is holding a basketball. Uncle Chad got her a basketball hoop and ball. She loves it!! It is just the perfect size. She has been playing with it constantly.

She can even put the "sign" on!

Emma had enough pictures and commotion on Christmas Day and she just wanted mom. Well, I was getting dinner ready so she was able to find comfort with Uncle Bob.


Uncle Chad changed her into some comfy clothes. She was very happy!

Enjoying her Christmas toys.

Unwrapping presents at Grandma's on Christmas Eve. She took her time and loved every present.

Seeing one of the gifts Santa left in her stocking - a Goldy Gopher rubber duckie

We all had a wonderful Christmas. Emma received too much! She loves it all! What wonderful memories were made

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! We have had a very blessed year! We are thankful for all of our family and friends. All of you are blessings in our lives! Thank you!

Go Gophers!

Grandma Winone sent this picture with her Christmas cards.

Visiting Mrs. Claus

We took Emma to a local floral shop to visit Mrs. Clause. Emma enjoyed her visit. She was a little shy at first then was willing to have her picture taken. Mrs. Clause was very nice. She walked us around the store and showed Emma many things. Emma also got to make an angel. She loves to glue so she enjoyed this craft.

Visits

We visited Great-Grandma this past weekend. We are not able to be with her on Christmas so we had an early Christmas with Grandma. Emma loves all the attention Great-Grandma gives her.

Emma and I had a wonderful visit with Great-Grandma, Aunt Sally, Aunt Shari and Cousin Wanda. Grandma had an appointment in Virginia so they came over for lunch. Wanda came from Minneapolis so she could see Great-Grandma. It was a quick visit, but sure nice. Emma loves Grandma's walker.

We love the special picture we have of Great-Grandma and Emma.

Special dresses

Emma's Godmother, Nicole, received a very special dress from her boyfriend, Kyle. It matches Emma's red Chinese dress. It is amazing how closely they match. Kyle, you did a great job shopping!

Fun!

Emma loves sitting in the laundry basket. She also loves sitting on the kitchen stools. She is climbing on them herself! In the picture, she is enjoying her Auntie Carol's jewelry catalog and wearing an orange sherbert container!

She also thought Daddy needed help cleaning the bottom of the fridge and leveling it. It is fun to see that Chris has a helper.

23 Months

Emma is 23 months today! She wouldn't sit long enough to take a picture with Belinda. Hard to believe that Emma will be 2 in a month.

Happy Birthday Shannon Kay! Hope you had a great day!

Emma is wearing the sweater Auntie Shari knitted.

A Year Ago......

It is hard to believe that a year ago we were waiting for news about our child. Where does the time go?
It was 6:15 when I checked the internet and the Rumor Queen site mentioned that our log-in date of February 23, 2006 was included in this batch. We were excited, nervous and very anxious. We shared the news with Chad, Jess & Ry. We were all on pins and needles. I knew I would receive a call at work. Finally at 11:00 I called our agency - they had our information and were waiting for our local social worker to contact them. I called Chris and we both left work and headed for home. We wanted to be together to hear the news. I left work so quickly, my co-worker was nervous some happened.
We got the call and heard about our Emma......... Some fun details of the day....
Uncle Chad was the first phone call to hear about Emma
Grandma Winone was coming to our house to get ready for her annual Christmas party, she looked very confused that we were both home in the middle of the day. She was carrying in her jello salad when we shared the news about her granddaughter. I took the jello salad from her so she wouldn't drop it.
Auntie Jess opened the email while on the phone with me, while she was at work.
Auntie Carol was at Bath & Body Works when we called her
We ordered Chinese take-out. We were both to nervous and excited to eat at the restaurant.
Many, many pictures were printed of our beautiful daughter

We had a red yarn chain of the remaining log-in dates until ours. This chain hung on the Guess How Much I Love You picture we had for our child. It was hanging in our bedroom. We were so excited to take it completely down today!

Waiting to open the email to see our daughter for the first time!

Picture of our call.

A year ago, three families became connected. We were excited to learn about Megan & Anna. We keep in touch with the other families. We have a special bond.

Megan & Anna both turn 2 in the next week. Happy Birthday!

Visiting Santa

Emma's first visit with Santa! What a dream for us. I know I was more excited than Emma. We have talked about Santa. When she hears the name Santa she says "Ho, Ho" We decided to take her to the Rosedale Mall. We thought it would be special since her mom and dad first meet at the Rosedale Mall. She was quiet, but didn't cry. She made some cute faces. This was the best picture the photographer took.

Emma & Her Peeps!

Kids On Broadway

Last weekend we attended Eryn's "Kids on Broadway" performance at her School. She was in "Bye Bye Birdie". She did great! We were hoping Emma would enjoy the performance and not be too wiggly. We left Friday morning at 7:45, went shopping at the Rosedale Mall, ate lunch, she took an hour nap in the car on the way to Auntie & Uncles, had supper, then we were off to the performance. We didn't know what behavior to expect. Emma loved it! She loved watching Eryn, dancing to the music, clapping and of course, sitting on her Auntie's lap. It was a fun weekend.

Emma thought it would be fun to play a duet with Meenah.

Daddy treated us to Caribou hot chocolate's with our breakfast (Jess & Ry live very close to one, it is great!). Emma felt she needed to be included and wanted a drink sleeve.

Decorating

Last week was a busy week! We decorated in stages, we didn't want to overwhelm Emma. First, the nativity scene, it is definitely out of her reach on top of the entertainment center. Then, I put up some other decorations in the house. We have a couple of stockings hung on door knobs. You never know what she is going to put in them. I found her cup in one!
Finally, the tree. Emma acted like she knew just what to do with the ornaments. We have let her touch a few of them. She loves her dad's chicken dance ornament. She plays it all the time. She tries to dance the chicken dance. It is cute! We did catch her using her golf club to reach for some ornaments. Needless to say, the golf club was put away for a while.

Emma hanging her first ornament - a Chinese knot from Beijing.Emma helping Daddy hang a Minnesota Gopher ornamentEmma helped Daddy with the angel. Admiring the angel
We were very excited to have 3 stockings hanging this year!!!!