It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It has been almost 4 months since Miss Abigail became a part of our family.  And we are in full Christmas swing -- decorating the house, putting up lights, baking cookies, and so forth.  Christmas music rings through the house.

Okay, maybe not Currier and Ives postcard perfect, but still...  We won't mention the batch of gingerbread cookies that didn't quite turn out, or the almost catastrophes from one too many cords strung across the floor (but mom! you should watch where you are going!).  Sigh ... good times.

Tony and Abigail had a blast putting up the outside Christmas decorations.  Abigail was disappointed that she couldn't actually go inside the Snoopy Sno-Machine to play.

We recently had an ice storm hit (I say the word "storm" very lightly as growing up in Colorado, it really wasn't much in the way of a true storm).  But nevertheless, we were pretty much confined to the house for four days because of the sheets of ice on everything outside.  Because Abigail had plenty of snow in Bulgaria, white stuff on the ground was not a novelty, but she still enjoyed throwing snow (I mean "ice") balls at Tony.  She hasn't quite got the knack of a true snow ball fight yet because she kept trying to get Tony to stand in a certain place with his back turned for perfect throwing distance.  I tried to explain that you just gotta grab the snow and throw it, but then the ice started flying my way (I was hiding out by the door of the house to run inside real quick if necessary), and I decided to stop trying to help Abigail with the art of snowball throwing.

I hadn't realized how much of an inside the house person I had become because recently Abigail has asked several times to go outside to play, and my first instinct is "it's cold" or "it will be messy".  I guess I'm going to have to get out of my comfort zone a little there because I do want Abigail to keep her desire to be active and healthy.  Something I can learn from her to be sure.

Abigail is progressing amazingly well with the English language and only seems to struggle a bit when she is tired from a long day.  We have learned to not try to communicate much of importance after 8 p.m. at night, or before 7 a.m. in the morning for that matter!  We definitely have a night owl on our hands which makes bedtime and mornings quite interesting when school is in session.  We had quite a peaceful time of it when we were stuck at home and could wake up any time we wanted.

I hope everyone is staying warm, and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!