Celebrating Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration today! My best gift for Christmas is definitely Maya--I am soooo very thankful for her! I started the morning out by destroying the Carmel Pull Apart's that I had tried to make (i had to make the rolls from scratch because we don't have frozen rolls here, so this was a significant investment of time). They didn't really rise well, and then I burned the dickens out of them . I didn't really follow the directions word for word on the pull apart's or on the recipe for the rolls, so that may have contributed to their failure, but either way, they were INEDIBLE! Thankfully, our friend Laura shared her tea ring with us, that was hand carried here by her brother who is visiting for Christmas. They stayed the night with us last night (Christmas Eve) and we opened some gifts this morning and ate my Dad's favorite breakfast casserole, along with the tea ring and some irish cream flavored iced coffee! So delicious. Mrs. Doubtfire was on TV and we all enjoyed watching that and laughing at all of the adult humor in it that we had missed before when we were younger.

Then Laura's neighbor and our friend and her son all arrived and we worked on cooking dinner. We made BBQ chicken, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans, Rolls, Salad and a Birthday Cake for Jesus. The girls loved all of the food and we had a great time fixing everything together then eating! After dinner we read the story of Jesus birth together and cut the cake, followed by the opening of gifts. Our friend's son was so sweet and so appreciative and amazed by the toys and gifts we got for him. All day he loved kissing and holding and admiring Maya (who was a great sport and allowed us to pass her around from person to person all day). It is common practice among some groups here to promise your children in marriage to the children of your relatives from the time they are very young. Because our friend's son has grown up in this culture, he's used to this practice and has already told us that he plans on marrying Maya when she grows up! After the gifts and cake our friend and her son had to head for home, but we got to sing a bunch of Christmas carols with Laura's neighbor (she just left about 30 minutes ago).

Now we've washed all the dishes and picked up most of the messes and the guests have all gone home and we're chilling with Laura and her brother, watching A Christmas Story and eating left-over sweets.

We are so thankful that Jesus put on flesh and became a helpless human baby in order to make a way for us. We have so much to celebrate and be thankful for!

Christmas Eve

I think she's seeing visions of Sugar Plum Fairies . . .

Doesn't she look like her daddy?!

Bath Time

Hiccups

Maya and Daddy

This is my test run to see if I know how to post videos. This is not the best quality, and for most of you, not of much interest, but for family, hopefully it's good to see your newest relative in live-action . . .

What We Have Learned

Today is Maya's 2 week birthday and her Nana and Grandpa leave in the middle of the night tonight. We wanted to recount the things that we have all learned about her in the two weeks they've been here. . .

1. She has 4 major "expressions":
Creepy stare
Concerned
Chill
Content

2. She doesn't like to be naked

3. She doesn't like it when you hold both of her hands

4. If she's frustrated, she shakes her head back and forth furiously
(like a dog shaking)

5. She has already stopped doing the cry that she cried at first, which
we called the Velociraptor cry. Now her cry just sounds like a normal
boring baby.

6. We think she has 2 dimples. One we're certain she will have
when she smiles, the other we think we've seen when she's passing gas, but we're not sure.

7. She likes to poop right after you change her diaper.

8. She will poop or pee on you as soon as you leave her exposed without
a diaper or wipe within reach.

9. She's an extremely content baby--when she's not wet, poopy or
hungry she is happy as a lark.

10. She's a great little road-trip baby. She's already been on a
long road trip that included lots of changes in elevation, and she only cried once and it lasted all of about 15 seconds.

11. She likes the ocean and the mountains (she's already been to
both).

12. She can recite the declaration of independence (just curious to see if someone actually read all of these).

13. She holds her head up a lot already and likes to look around.

That's about all. We will all cry a lot when Nana and Grandpa leave
tonight. . .

Maya Has Been Busy

This is our beautiful baby girl. She is the most easy going baby you can imagine. We are the most grateful, thankful parents you can imagine. We have been so busy with Nana and Grandpa, showing them the town. Maya has done more in her almost two weeks of life than lots of people do in a lot longer. We've seen the famous Cedars, and some of the most amazing ruins in the world (the largest cut stones and the largest and tallest column pillars). We've eaten a late lunch on a clif overlooking the setting sun on the Mediterranean. We have spent time with our precious friends Dave and Sara. Tomorrow we are celebrating Christmas with Nana and Grandpa. We have watched White Christmas. We have been having a great time.