"Happy Christmas to Ya'll

and to ya'll a goodnight!" This is Mary Clare's interpretation of the Clement C. Moore ending. I guess her little southern ears just hear in southern.
Like most parents of little kids we are exhausted but had the greatest day. Mom came and is spending the night as promised and Aa-Aa came for lunch. Margaret Rose just beams when Aa-Aa comes to visit. She brought blueberries – Mary Clare’s favorite- and Mary Clare had to classify each one by size before eating it. Margaret Rose enjoyed helping Baba mount pictures in frames for her grandparents. She loves tape and scissors! Margaret Rose got her wish for ponytails for Christmas. She’s got just enough hair to make 2 little cute ones on the side of her head. Her biggest tantrums since coming home have occurred when I did something with MC’s hair so having her own ponytails was a dream come true. I told her when I put them in that it was only for the day but they were so cute on her that we dressed them up with some hair doodads we got in China and let her wear them to church. Mary Clare insisted they both get festive Tigger tails so we had to pin gold tassels onto their pants. Mary Clare unwrapped her "pig in a skirt" ornament and nearly fell down she laughed so hard. She LOVES that Toot and Puddle book! At some point MR ended up in a dalmation costume. PoPo and the girls decorated Christmas cookies- MC mostly ate frosting.
We dressed the girls in their Chinese clothes for church. We started doing this with Mary Clare her first Christmas home and will likely continue until they protest. The girls gave PoPo her first Christmas present – a jacket we selected in China and a necklace that matched that they shopped for last week. PoPo looked beautiful and the girls were thrilled that PoPo matched them. Lee took them to church to practice for the Christmas procession. On Sunday after Mass our priest asked Lee if the girls would carry the baby Jesus for the blessing of the creche. Lee tried to offer just Margaret Rose but Father thought Mary Clare would be okay. We’ve been really stressing about this. I adore Mary Clare but she is a difficult child who definitely marches to her own drummer and generally speaking HATES dolls. If its got a face she is leery of it and sometimes reacts with tears. She got a cute little rag doll for her first Christmas which we later found buried in the dog toys. We were really worried that during the procession she’d shriek, "I no like a doll!" and dropkick the Lord right into the Holy water font. Well it truly is the season for miracles. Mom and I got to church and sat up front. The procession started and I looked back to see my precious girl with the little Lord Jesus nestled in the crook of one arm and her other hand in Father’s. Margaret Rose had Father’s other hand and was just a picture coming down the aisle. They got to the creche and Mary Clare handed the baby to Margaret Rose who gently placed him in the manager. Then Father blessed the creche and Mary Clare was just mesmerized by the smoke and the water and the words. I was so proud of both my girls. Margaret Rose has such poise and is such a remarkable child. Several people came up to me after Mass and said they were so moved by the children and that they just couldn’t imagine that less than 6 months ago Margaret Rose was still in the orphanage. It’s hard for me to believe too. After Mass we had our annual visit from Saint Nicholas and the girls played with their favorite church friend Tamsyn.
When we got home we put our own baby in the creche and sang Away In A Manger. We put on our matching pjs, put out snacks for Santa and the reindeer and unwrapped the stockings that PoPo and Sylvia made the girls. They LOVED them! They hung their stockings, we read The Night Before Christmas and finally fell into bed.