Here's a quick review of the many fun times we had over the last two weeks. We had fun decorating the house both inside and out:
We enjoyed a huge family gathering with Mark's Mom's family. She is one of 10 children and this year, most of the family was there. At least it seemed that way! Santa even stopped by for his second appearance of the season. After all of the youngest kids had a turn to visit with Santa, some of the older kids took a turn too. This is Mark's Mom with Santa ... can you see the resemblance under that big beard??
During winter break at Purdue, basketball tickets are offered at a discount to faculty and staff. We took advantage of this awesome deal to see the Boilermakers in person. They didn't disappoint! It's going to be a fun basketball season -- go Boilers! Boiler up!
On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed our tradition of watching movies and eating appetizers. There are three movies that I like to watch each year: Elf, Love Actually and A Christmas Story. And then ...
Finally! Christmas morning had arrived. Mark has been wanting this cookbook by chef Marcus Samuelsson. He is Ethiopian and was adopted by a Swedish family as a young boy. He has several books out and even has a CD of African music. You can count on my Mark to be cooking his way through this book this year. And by the way -- love the CD! We recommend both the CD and book.
One of the things that Mark and I try to pay attention to as we anticipate bringing home Baby Ailor is to look for children's books and toys in which the children have brown skin, just like our baby will. When we were driving to and from PA at Thanksgiving, we had the idea to write our own children's books. Mark is a great artist and I have a love of children's books. We jotted down some ideas while in the car on the long drive but (to my knowledge) hadn't done anything with it since returning from PA. Oh, except for the two characters, a boy and a girl, that Mark sketched to show me as a place to start from when we had time to work on a book.
Fast forward to Christmas morning. Unbeknownst to me, Mark WROTE and ILLUSTRATED and CREATED a children's book for us!! He took one of our ideas from Thanksgiving and created it into a book using his lab in Ohio that prints his photos for the studio. Of course I bawled my eyes out! I couldn't believe it. And now we have a great story to share with Baby Ailor. "Max" is one of the names we have always liked for a boy and so Mark wrote "Max Ailor: Underwater Adventurer." It's totally adorable and a really cute story. He did an awesome job! I also like it because I am the Mom character in the story and he gave me skinny thighs. : ) Anyway, here's a photo with the front cover of the book.
We try to think of little things to do to help us be more patient in waiting for Baby Ailor. So we decided to give each other a Christmas gift for Baby Ailor. I got Mark this classic Tonka truck and a hooded towel that looks like a frog. He has admired both every time we have been shopping at kid/baby stores.
And Mark made a toy box for me and Baby Ailor. He even did the punched tin of Mickey and Pooh on the front! Don't I have the most talented husband?!?
We spent Christmas day with Mark's family in Peru. Our great nieces Lily and Braylee were hilarious this year! The loved opening presents and kept us all entertained. We had a really nice day with all of the family ... lots of good food and many laughs. It's great that we can see them regularly. And here's a shout out to our niece Caitlyn whose high school basketball team is number one in the state! Awesome!
On Saturday, we drove to PA to see my family for a few days. The trip started out kind of icy but thankfully we drove into better weather. Here is our youngest nephew, Mason, showing us where he lost a tooth thanks to an accident with granite countertops in their kitchen. Ouch!
Brandon is our oldest nephew and is always a ham for the camera!
And this is Andrew, our second oldest nephew, sporting my Dad's new hat. The next morning, Brandon and Andrew put on quite the dance show for us! They get to do some fun dances in gym class these days ... lucky kids! We only ever got to do square dancing.
And this is my Mom and Dad. I love this photo of them! We're going to use it for the photo book that we'll send to Baby Ailor after we receive our referral.
We had a good trip to PA except for the 24 hour virus that I had -- no fun! But we did enjoy spending time with my family, visiting with Grandma, Aunt Barbie, Aunt Deb and Uncle Brian, my cousin Amanda and friends Rhonda and Mark. I was very bummed to miss breakfast with my high school friends! So if you're reading this, Tonya, Michele, Shelly, Kirsten and Kimberly -- I'm so sorry that I didn't get to see you! And Kimberly, please send new photos of little Eli ... thinking of you!
We try to think of little things to do to help us be more patient in waiting for Baby Ailor. So we decided to give each other a Christmas gift for Baby Ailor. I got Mark this classic Tonka truck and a hooded towel that looks like a frog. He has admired both every time we have been shopping at kid/baby stores.
And Mark made a toy box for me and Baby Ailor. He even did the punched tin of Mickey and Pooh on the front! Don't I have the most talented husband?!?
We spent Christmas day with Mark's family in Peru. Our great nieces Lily and Braylee were hilarious this year! The loved opening presents and kept us all entertained. We had a really nice day with all of the family ... lots of good food and many laughs. It's great that we can see them regularly. And here's a shout out to our niece Caitlyn whose high school basketball team is number one in the state! Awesome!
On Saturday, we drove to PA to see my family for a few days. The trip started out kind of icy but thankfully we drove into better weather. Here is our youngest nephew, Mason, showing us where he lost a tooth thanks to an accident with granite countertops in their kitchen. Ouch!
Brandon is our oldest nephew and is always a ham for the camera!
And this is Andrew, our second oldest nephew, sporting my Dad's new hat. The next morning, Brandon and Andrew put on quite the dance show for us! They get to do some fun dances in gym class these days ... lucky kids! We only ever got to do square dancing.
And this is my Mom and Dad. I love this photo of them! We're going to use it for the photo book that we'll send to Baby Ailor after we receive our referral.
We had a good trip to PA except for the 24 hour virus that I had -- no fun! But we did enjoy spending time with my family, visiting with Grandma, Aunt Barbie, Aunt Deb and Uncle Brian, my cousin Amanda and friends Rhonda and Mark. I was very bummed to miss breakfast with my high school friends! So if you're reading this, Tonya, Michele, Shelly, Kirsten and Kimberly -- I'm so sorry that I didn't get to see you! And Kimberly, please send new photos of little Eli ... thinking of you!
On New Year's Eve, our friends Chris and Brian and their son Sean came over to hang out for the evening. Chris and Brian brought all of the food and we pigged out! Meatballs, quesadillas, pizza rolls, chips, salsa, guacamole and best of all -- a chocolate fountain!! What a great way to ring in the new year. We also played a rousing (?) round of 80's Trivial Pursuit as we tried to stay awake until midnight. I think that 4 year old Sean would have stayed up later than all of us! Here's a photo of me and Chris indulging in the chocolate fountain that she got for Christmas (why didn't I think to ask for one??)
So there you go! A review of our holiday celebrations. Two more days of vacation until I return to work. Poor Mark has to work on Saturday. But we're looking forward to visiting with more friends this weekend and to all that 2010 will bring, especially Baby Ailor! So, from me and Mark, we wish you a happy new year!
So there you go! A review of our holiday celebrations. Two more days of vacation until I return to work. Poor Mark has to work on Saturday. But we're looking forward to visiting with more friends this weekend and to all that 2010 will bring, especially Baby Ailor! So, from me and Mark, we wish you a happy new year!
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