Sunday, December 25, 2011

Yay! Christmas day!

What a lovely day it's been! Happy Birthday Jesus!
Merry Christmas everyone!
We're so blessed!
I can't stop using the exclamation point!
I'm just so happy!

We had to send Kobe back to bed this morning...he always wakes up too early on Christmas. How can you blame him, he can't wait to start celebrating this amazing day...



...and he can't wait to dig into his gifts.

I love that the first gift he opened was a Christmas card from World Vision informing him that four chickens were purchased in each of our childrens' names. The chickens will be given to another family for Christmas.
It was a good way to keep our holiday in perspective right from the start.




I also love how my little boy was as excited about magic tricks and radio controlled cars as he was about skinny jeans and tweeny things...



My children's' happiness brings me great joy...



Mia asked, "are there any stores open today?"
"There may be one or two, but not many." I answered.
Then Mia said, "well, I feel bad for the people working. They can't celebrate the true meaning of Christmas...spending the day with your family!"

She's really such a thoughtful girl...



Kobe attempted to wake Lula when he first got up this morning by saying, "come on Lula it's Christmas...let's go..."
Lula yelled back, "NO IT'S NOT KOBE...
LEAVE ME ALONE!"
She's not a fan of being awakened before she's ready.
A little later... I went into Lula's room before heading downstairs, "Lula, Merry Christmas, let's go downstairs and celebrate!"
This time she just turned her back to me and plugged her ears...

About a minute and a half later she turned to me with a big smile on her face, jumped out of bed and said, "come on Maxx {the dog} we got you a gift!"




Jude had a great first Christmas!


He was quite interested in being right in the middle of everything. He's five and half months old and is sitting on his own...it's so fun to see him explore his new toys.


I had fun "playing " with his gifts too!
He wasn't so excited about me squeezing him into this cute little suit that Mema and Vince bought him...




Merry Christmas!


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Family trip to D.C...

We went on a family trip to D.C. last weekend...thank you Uncle Mike!! We love you!
It was great fun and had it's challenging moments.
I find it so interesting to people-watch when we travel and I often notice that we are usually the biggest family out and about {although I did see a family of eight as the Natural History Museum}.


The big kiddos are used to traveling, but this was our first time taking Jude on a trip.
He acted just like a Zere...our children were born to travel...



We had a whole day of sightseeing planned for Saturday although we didn't get to see everything we had planned...




We went to President Obama's house and saw what I thought was the national Christmas tree, but then saw them putting it up on the news a few days later...ha!


It's kind of a Zere family tradition to "hit up" an Ethiopian restaurant when we're in the city {any city}. So we decided on a place, asked for directions, got lost, then got really lost {on foot with a giant stroller and a bunch of hungry, cold, and tired kids}. So after walking about 20 blocks out of the way {I'm really not exaggerating here} we finally made it! It was so small, and quaint and clearly not set up for a family of six schlepping a giant stroller. The hostess gave us a sad, yet uncomfortable look and said "awww I'm guessing you didn't make reservations tonight"...to make a long story short...they gave us a table, great food, great service, a discount, and lots of leftovers. Danny even got a chance to brush up on his Amharic. Everything worked out pretty well, we ended up breaking a glass, but hey...it was all in good humor.


So Sunday we split up. Danny and Kobe caught the Jets game and the girls, Jude, and I caught up with great friends at a Lebanese restaurant...yum! {Sorry we missed you in the picture Lily}





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