Our Huazhou Wonders: 2008

The bitty twins have been christened Tweetsie ("It is the most perfect name, you know.") & Rose. No one is too surprised by the choices. Margaret Rose just adores Rose and feels a bit sorry for Tweetsie as he is not loved quite as much. Mary Clare will play with him some but reminds us when we mention that his feelings might be hurt that he is not real, duh.

Mary Clare makes her own fun with yet another stocking stuffer- this one is acutally Margaret's. Guess how I can tell.

Margaret Rose is preparing Rose's breakfast. Rose likes cereal just like MR. MR does have a few doubts about the twins' shoes however. She found paper down in a pair and told Lee that she didn't think the elves made them but that they were bought at a store instead. Lee's a quick thinker and reminded her of the Elves and the Shoemaker story and so they decided that Santa's elves got the shoes from the shoemaker elves. Magic still intact!

Here we are on our way to the marionette theatre's production of The Wizard of Oz. It was the girls' favorite book this summer and Lee ended up reading it several times. They especially enjoy Robert Sabuda's popup version. The show was adapted from the Baum book and so the girls had a distinct advantage in following the plotline. They spoke up several times and were able to inform those around us that the wizard was just a "humbug", that those funny looking puppets popping out of the floor were hammerheads and that Quadling country is where Glinda lives. We were very proud of our little bookworms. They have never seen the movie as right now the blue tarantula story in Max & Ruby scares them. I don't think they are quite ready for that nasty old witch.

Someone needs to have a word with Santa about leaving fragile objects like those punch-balloons. Mary Clare's popped and we thought the tears would never end. Luckily Baba remembered the stash of chocolate covered cherries and cheered his girl right up.

The Wonders and the twins enjoy a bedtime story. We wanted photographic evidence that Mary Clare actually plays with Tweetsie who is seen here in precious Panda pajamas.

We'd promised to hold the girls at bay until 8:00 especially since Aa-Aa had to drive nearly an hour to get here. It turned out not to be so hard since they slept until 7:30. Mary Clare was very disappointed and worried that Santa had not been there since she didn't see anything under the tree in the living room. We'd told her the night before that Santa always leaves the presents next to the small tree in the den since that's where the fireplace is but she wanted her way and thought Santa would comply. We'd put off showering as their beds are opposite the bathroom wall so Mom and Grumpy got to keep them occupied while we cleaned up. My mother's relationship with the girls always amazes me. She was and is a fantastic mother to me and is even a more perfect PoPo. She took the girls to their room to play and I swear she could have kept them their entertained all day. We actually had to go drag them out to eat breakfast. At that point they really wanted to get to what Santa had left them but the fresh cherries and blueberries that Aa-Aa brought were enough of a temptation to get them to the table.

Chipmonk cheeks

Baba finally carried the girls into the den where there Santa gifts awaited. Like last year they both just stood there for a few minutes with these looks of wonder on their faces and then MC started breathing again and just kept saying, "I always wanted one! I always wanted one!"

How does Santa do it?

Quiet out there! We're about to do our show!

A minor costume adjustment

The girls loved their stocking loot- punch balloons pink for MR, blue for MC

Pez dispensers. When I went to get them for lunch today I found them working on a new show and when asked if they were hungry MC said, "No thanks, we had pez."

Small, musical tops- again pink & blue

Yoyos- and you guessed it, pink & blue

Time for a puppet show. We had lots of fun with their puppets and they were kind enough to let me participate.

Since Aa-Aa doesn't like to see herself in bloggyland this is a picture of MC's precious feet. She's sitting on Aa-Aa's lap while Aa-Aa reads Mary Clare's new joke book to her. I think she was coerced into reading all the jokes. We're just glad that Santa provided new material for our little comedian.

Margaret Rose LOVED the new clogs Mary Clare gave her! They had fur and jewels on them!

Margaret Rose picked out a chocolate Santa for Mary Clare.

The new Christmas bear from PoPo allowed to wear MR's new shoes.

The girls both got cow jumping over the moon ornaments from June- one of the cowettes. Up the road from where we stay in the mountains is a cow pasture and the cows routinely end up lined up in something that resembled a Rockette kick line. Years before we had the girls Lee and I made a song that we sing to the tune of Mr. Sandman.

We're the cowettes.

We'll entertain you.

We give rich creamy milk and we moo.

We've got an udderly fantastic show-

just watch our hooves and our tails go.

Swish, swish, swish

The girls thought this was hilarious, promptly learned it and demanded more verses. So this summer we sang the original verse followed by

Meet the cowettes.

This one is June.

She can jump right over the moon.

Here's another -

her name is Shannon.

We load her up and fire her from a cannon.

Kaboom!
MC has already asked if she can have a Shannon ornament next year. Any ideas?

Fuzzy slippers for the girls- pink and blue

And the pink and blue theme continues with matching fleece outfits.

And here is our Mary Clare who liked hers so much she stripped off and put it all on. We were all reminded of her second Christmas with us when she unwrapped a Winnie-the-Pooh potty and promptly pulled off her diaper, lifted her dress and sat down.

Margaret Rose helped PoPo open the necklace we had made for her. We hope she likes it as much as we did.

Christmas joy!

Aa-Aa made Barbie closets and stocked them full of gorgeous clothes! She also gave her 2 beautiful Asian Barbies, some great furniture and the most amazing Asian miniature food.

Santa left those bitty twins almost as many clothes as the girls have. The thing is it was Willie elf's job to put the clothes under the tree and he must have gotten distracted. The girls found those little clothes packages all over the house - in the fridge, outside in their wagon, under their pillows and I think I've spied another set behind the toilet but they haven't seen them yet. Here's MC who just unwrapped the fleece outfits that were left in the fridge. She said, "Oh I love this! I'm going to put it on right now." Lee and I shared a silent moment of triumph as we thought she was going to go and play with the little boy doll that was left especially for her. She had other plans. That's a stuffed cat that PoPo gave her.

We had a lovely Christmas day. The girls enjoyed absolutely everything they received! Often they had to be spurred on to open the next item because they just wanted to play with what they'd unwrapped. Who can blame them? Our evening ended with the traditional Christmas cupcakes- frosting for Mary Clare, cake for Margaret Rose.