Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! We are so thankful to celebrate our very first Christmas together since Mika came home. We had a wonderful day and it was great to see Max helping his little sister understand the traditions of the holiday. Mika wouldn't touch anything or open her presents at first, so Max opened his gifts and would show each item to her. After a couple of hours, we decided that I would start unwrapping her presents to see if she would be interested. Well.....once I opened a couple of gifts and she realized there were TOYS in there, she jumped right in and started opening her gifts!! Her favorite toys are the play kitchen and the little pink piano. Max's favorite gift was a new digital camera that he was hoping for.
It was a very special day and it was wonderful.

Max and Mika exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve. he gave her a Disney Princess book and she gave him a snowman ornament.

This gift was sent from the translator/guide that helped us while we were in Taiwan. Mika was very happy when she saw it and recognized it right away! This decoration hangs in most Taiwanese homes and is very traditional.

Trying new foods on Christmas Day......

Almost time for Christmas.....December 2009

It's almost time for Christmas and we went to our first Christmas parade with Mika. She was very excited to try to catch the candy as the holiday floats passed by. This is the parade they have every year on Camp Kinser-which is the base we live on. It was lots of fun!

Mika was trying to fix Max's hat because he said his ears were cold.

Mika put her candy in Max's hood!
She's very resourceful.

Mika's FIRST time to visit Santa!!
He gave her a candy cane and she said "thank you Santa Claus, Mika go bye-bye now." Everyone laughed.

She did NOT like the candy cane.

Getting ready for our first Christmas together.......

We walked down to the East China ocean to enjoy the sunset and look at the Japanese holiday decorations. It's a wonderful time of year!
We've discovered that Mika's favorite Christmas song is "Let it snow" by Michael Buble. She sings and dances everytime she hears it.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009....it's a turtle?!

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Mika and we had a wonderful day. She didn't really understand what was going on, and she kept asking "Mommy, what you doing?" When she saw the turkey she called it a BIG TURTLE! We all had fun cooking together and she and Max helped to make the homemade rolls. Mika especially liked the mashed potatoes and the turkey. We ate lots of great food and then everybody took a short nap. Later in the evening, we drove over to Mihama Village in Chatan and walked on the beach and looked at the holiday decorations. This village is also known as American Village because it has a few American restaurants and is always decorated during American holidays. Thanksgiving day will always be special to us because that's the day the Taiwan judge signed our adoption decree! We didn't know that until we arrived in Taiwan and got a copy of the adoption paperwork. It was a wonderful surprise.

David's big news! November 23, 2009

We received great news today.....David has been selected for promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 3! (CWO-5 is the highest rank there is, so this is a huge promotion for him.) We're so proud of him and very, very surprised and happy. The other good news is that we'll definitely be staying on Okinawa until 2013 now. It's great to know we'll be staying in one place and won't have to worry about moving for awhile.

Mika was a little afraid of the balloons again, but after a few minutes, she liked playing with them.

Mommy and Mika Chinese cooking class- November 19, 2009

Mika and I joined a Chinese cooking class at Ryukyu Middle school to learn how to cook traditional Chinese foods. Today we learned how to make Chinese dumplings and pork fried rice with vegetables. We enjoy cooking together and she always wants to be with me when I'm in the kitchen cooking anything. We had lots of fun and Mika ate until she was STUFFED. She fell asleep in the car before we even left the school parking lot.

Mika was excited about wearing her new apron. It was a birthday gift from our friend Erika.
She liked the Taiwanese dolls that were displayed in the classroom. Mrs. Beall surprised us and gave one to her when we were about to leave.

Mika and Mrs. Beall. She is the cooking instructor and has become a friend since we brought Mika home in May. She's from Taiwan and they talk to each other in Mandarin. Mika surprised us on this day and counted to 10 in Mandarin Chinese! We didn't know she knew how to do that! Our goal is for her to keep her Chinese language and also use english.