Christmas Day

Christmas was quiet and just perfect for us. Julia managed to open one of her presents, and only one, before we picked up Cheshire at the airport, and still be very happy. She did scope out all of the packages before we let her open one and she knew which ones had her name on it. I okay her opening the biggest box with her name on it and sure enough, Santa had brought her the little pet town that she had been asking for since the early fall. We could have stopped there and her day would have been complete! Driving the the airport for Cheshire and bed time were the only things that stopped her from playing.

Most of the pets that are on the 'town' are from Julia's collection and yes, there are many, but they represent that amount of home work she has done since last Easter. She had needed to get 10-16 stickers for each pet or pet set. So her collection is such a look into her work and our time together.

Cheshire arrived home and were we ever happy! Her play took off and landed on time, but they sat on the tarmak of our little Madison airport (very pretty place, BTW) for almost 45 minutes waiting for a gate to open up. Once we got her home, we closed ranks, ate, talked, and walked the dog a few times.

Julia was so excited to see Cheshire, but she had a minute or so of not being able to look at her. She walked a bit away, flapped and figited, and then went to give her a hug and kiss. I want to know what this feels like -- I know it is uncomfortable -- and how and when to work to change it, but only if possible and only to make her more comfortable (and more acceptable when that is really important). Julia chattered on to Cheshire for ever! Much of what she said made sense but most of the time she talks without context, making it almost impossible for anyone not living with her to figure out what is going on.

We opened gifts and ate our antipasto after Cheshire got settled. Julia was thrilled to get the game Operation (but it seems to be too hard for her, we'll try again today before putting it away for a little while), she was not thrilled with a new dress. This is a real change from her old Chinese girl mentality. Our American Julia did not hug the dress to her and thank us over and over, she was very happy with her toys.

Julia gave us each presents that she made at school. She had three little wraped packages and one slightly larger box that was wrapped with brown paper, drawn on, and topped with a green 3D gingerbread man. So, she have out the smaller ifts -- I got a beaded key chain and a little piece of non-representational art painted on wood; David got two fairy/animals that seemed to be appropriate to hang on the tree. Cheshire's gift was 6 narrow sticks -- like pick up sticks-- that were painted in pretty pastels. For some reason, I really love that sticks -- so simple, so neat. Julia also decided to give the larger box to Cheshire -- she was kind of confused when we asked her about it. We didn't know why, but when Cheshire took the wrapping off the package, she found an empty box. Julia could not explain and we could not figure out the why of the empty box, but it was wrapped very well. LOL. I was so very proud of Julia for sharing her work with us, and even if the gift making and giving was totally prompted by her teachers, she understood the concept and seemed happy at all of our praise.

Julia has been off any kind of schedule for a few days now, and behavior at the end of the day is not easy at all. I am hoping to get back into gear today, even though it will be mostly an indoor day with more snow expected to start falling soon.

I took only a few pictures, mostly just enjoyed our time, but I did snap some of David's figgy pudding. I post those later and give a bit of explanation.