Our Blessed Family: More Christmas Pictures and Adoption Update

Well here are a few more Christmas pictures. I have been really busy this last weeksince I had to drive to Raleigh (3 hours away) for the 2nd time in a week! For international adoption documents you need to get a state seal called an apostille on the documents. This is done at your state capital's secretary of state's office. It is basically a state seal that says that the document has been verified by the state. (So they have checked out the notary or whomever certified it, etc.) Whatever state that was done in needs to apostille it. We have had to send some of them to Sacramento (like our marriage license) and this is the fourth time that one or both of us have made the trek to Raleigh. Once we mailed them, but that takes longer. I went up on the Friday before Christmas to get the (hopefully) last of our paperwork taken care of and unfortunately they made several errors in the apostilles and I had to go back as soon as they reopened after Christmas (Thursday) to get them redone. Luckily I was able to speak to the supervisor and we will get a reimbursement for all our troubles. (In about 6 weeks of course :D). Hey, you take what you can get.

I have also been really busy getting ready for our New Year's Eve party. We are hosting a murder mystery party for our church small group. It is a 20's theme and I think it will be really fun. I post pictures of Kev and I in our costumes soon.

The tree. I really need some drapes, don't I?

Kevin tries on his new beanie while opening his stocking. Can you believe that beanies are called toboggans in North Carolina? Where we come from a toboggan is something you ride in the snow... not that there is snow where we come from.

Me holding my favorite present. Well, the box my favorite present came in. My favorite present was taking the picture. Isn't it lovely? ;) Now we will have pictures of our kids that aren't blurry and/or yellow.

Some of the aftermath. Keaton really likes to tear up wrapping paper so it always looks like a tornado rolled through when we are done unwrapping.

It is really tiring though. Little dude takes a nap.

I will spare you most of the Christmas morning pictures since I am not a morning person and they are not very exciting anyway.

Here is one more though...

My village. I get a new piece or two every year and this year it kind of outgrew the space. I didn't get to use all my trees, lights, and bushes because it was just too crowded. I will have to find a larger space for it next year. I am thinking there will be more space for the cords on the air hockey table, but then it will be upstairs. We'll see.