I think its pretty
convenient that Family Day is the day after Veterans Day, a national holiday that I don't have to work on. Yesterday morning, I took Holly to Spokane for her seasonal flu shot, and then had planned to take her to the children's museum or some other fun activity. She asleep on the way there, so I drove further and went to her favorite restaurant instead. Her timing for waking up was perfect (as I was pulling in the parking lot!) and she was so excited to be eating at Panda Express. She had her usual rice &
potstickers.
When we got home, she took a nap and then we made some special treats together for her to take to daycare today. (
Here's a really good blog post where I got the idea for these.) We've been talking a lot about Family Day, what it is and why we celebrate it. I knew some of her friends at daycare would ask, so we practiced her answers a bit. She must have been getting sick of it because when I asked her "What are we celebrating tomorrow?" she said "I don't know," and made this gesture.
When I told her we were celebrating Family Day, she acted like it was a brand new idea to be excited about. She gasped and put her hands over her mouth in surprise. What a crack up!
Holly was so happy to get to help me make her treats. She loves to stand on the stool and do things like squish the bread, take candy out of the dish, and give me a heart attack because I worry that she will touch the hot stove.
She did a really good job of following directions and knew exactly what to do after I explained it once. Here she is putting the cake into the candy molds.
And then patiently waiting for 10 minutes while they were in the freezer so that we could start all over again.
While it took a while to do, since I was dumb enough to use a candy mold with only 4 candy holes, we had a lot of fun and they turned out pretty good. Not all of them looked this good, but these were the ones Holly took to daycare today.
I also didn't realize how many of them the recipe made. I'm thinking that we will be visiting some friends after dinner tonight to share the wealth! Of course, Holly & I both had to sample the treats before bed.
This morning, Holly woke up early and opened her presents that I bought for her in Taiwan. I bought something to give her every year until she turns 18.
Surprise, surprise, its a puzzle of numbers in Mandarin & English. (Thanks Jeff & Abby for the great idea!)
And another one of Taiwan!
After she ate and got dressed, she got to play with her puzzle for a bit before we left for the day. She also made a bee line to it this afternoon when we got home.
When I told her it was time to go to daycare, she yelled "Yeah! Family Day!" and out the door we went. She got to help hand out her treats at daycare and told everyone what they were for.
Holly & Mama both had a great two days celebrating Family Day. Its nice to know that I will always have the day off before our special day so that we can spend some quality time every single year celebrating a very important day in our lives! And we will always be sending a special prayer for her birth family in Taiwan.
My dad had seen me before Nana & Holly did, so he took my camera from me and took a picture of Holly's reaction when she finally realized I was there.
I got a huge hug, but then Holly went back to doing what she was there for: to make pies!
The day before, Holly had helped her Nana make the cornbread dressing and the pecan pie, too. She had also been out to the chicken coop every single day looking for eggs.
I can't remember if it was Thanksgiving day, or the day after, but I put Holly down for her nap as usual. When she woke up, she came downstairs and very proudly announced that she had found a binkie under the bed before she had gone to sleep! She said she bonked her head on the bed getting to it, but used it during her nap and wanted to keep it after she woke up.
She made all kinds of funny faces with her binkie in her mouth!
Some days Holly is super cooperative about her hair. She's willing to have it combed, braided, put in one ponytail, or two. Other days, she's not so cooperative. She still has to have her hair done, though! Sometimes in just turns out more like in the picture below - very crooked! Oh, well, what do you do?
I think it may have been Thursday night that Holly had a complete meltdown and cried herself to sleep. She looked so darned cute, though!
On Friday night, we went to Coeur d'Alene to the holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony. I wanted to go to the "North Pole," too, but we will wait and do that right before Christmas. Holly was so, so excited about the parade. I forgot her gloves, and kept trying to get Holly to keep her hood on, but it didn't work. She was cold, but happy the entire time.
One store that had a float in the parade was the comic store. Spiderman, Superman, and Batman all handed out free comics along the parade route. Holly "read" hers while we were waiting for the fireworks to start. She also ate both candy canes that she got during the parade.
Oh, my smiley girl! The guy next to her appeared grumpy in general, but had to smile when Holly would yell "Look! They're coming! Do you see the ____? (horses, dogs, Santa, band, etc., etc.)"
My pictures didn't turn out great because I forgot to change the settings to nighttime, but I got a couple of good ones of the Veterans' float and a couple of other things. I just wish the one with the cement mixer covered in Christmas lights had turned out! That is soooo North Idaho!
Holly especially liked the horse drawn carriage and also the animal shelter float with all the dogs on it.
After all the annoying speeches and singing Silent Night, the fireworks finally started. After that, all of the trees, buildings, and other decorations were lit up. They will stay lit through New Years. Its so pretty and it can't help but make you happy!
We got a picture of the two of us for a change, too!
On Saturday evening, we went to a neighbor's house to shoot some pool in the Man Cave they have. Holly played ping pong with Nana & Sue, and also had a lot of fun with the golf balls in the practice putting green. She kept herself busy for the two hours we were there, even though it was after her bedtime.
She also enjoyed the raspberry dessert that Sue made, too. It took her a while to decide to eat it, but when she finally decided to, she inhaled it! If you noticed my comment on FB last night, this is also when she guzzled half of my diet Dr. Pepper and stayed up until about 11:30 last night!
We had an absolutely fabulous time, as usual! We even got some Christmas decorating done when we got home. As I was putting the lights up in the windows, Holly would say "Oh my gosh! That's so cute! I love it, Mom! You are doing such a good job!" It was like having my own personal cheer squad for putting up Christmas decorations. I spent a lot of the time laughing as I was putting up the lights. Tomorrow, the plan is to decorate the tree together after school. Let's hope I have lots of energy and motivation!
Actually, she would only let me take three of them, so there weren't any good ones!
Holly was so excited to go trick or treating! She kept telling me to "Come on! Let's go!" She also told me she was going to "spell" me with her wand. So cute!
The first thing we did was to go to the fire station, where they have a chili feed for the community. I had a chili dog. Holly would only eat saltine crackers and juice.
