My Angels & Decorating Triumphs

Kai in front of the tree

My first ever bows

"What good fortune to have each other."

Chinese cloissone ornament bought in Guangzhou

Wow, what a year this has been! Last year at this time, we had been home with Kai for a whopping 2 weeks. That Christmas was wonderful yet crazy trying to adjust to a new toddler in the house and fitting in his numerous medical appointments (no lie, I kept an Excel spreadsheet called "Kai's Doctor's Appointments".) This year, it feels as though Kai has been with us forever. He is smart, funny and (unfortunately) 100% American. The only reminders that he was indeed, adopted, are his Asian features and his English pronunciation (which can definitely use some work.) He is truly my angel.

Which brings me to my newest angel, Cooper. Oh how I wish he were home to spend this Christmas with his family. Of course, he has no idea who we are or what he is missing but I yearn for him nonetheless. Two years ago while we were waiting for Kai to come home, we bought a Hallmark Christmas ornament of a Chinese take out box. Beside the box is a fortune cookie holding the message, "What good fortune to have each other." I will always treasure that ornament and the meaning it holds for me.

I guess you can infer that we did decorate the house last week (although last week would really be pushing the truth since it actually ended up taking us 3 days to complete the job.) And I have something to admit - I learned how to make a bow. Many of you are thinking, "big friggin deal, Heather, so you made a bow." But that would come from those of you who are crafty. I am NOT crafty. I hate crafty. However, David wanted some garland in our new great room. So, being the fabulous wife that I am, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a string of garland (bang, Wife of the Year award coming my way!) I got home and instructed David to put some nails above the back door so I could hang the garland, and voila... it looked sad (pathetic might even be a more appropriate word.) It needed something. Something like bows! So, still working for my Wife of the Year award, I headed back to Hobby Lobby for some bows. Unfortunately, the only bows they had left after their 60% off weekend sale were U-G-L-Y. All of a sudden, the super strong "I can do anything" part of me jumped to the surface and decided that I can make my own d@nm bows, thank you very much. Fast forward to 8:00pm tonight and J.D. and I are at the computer googling "How to make a bow." We didn't do too badly either. Just a few discards before we got 2 that looked moderately decent. No, they don't look exactly like the ones in the stores. No, they don't exactly match. Yes, one is definitely bigger than the other (see photo above for proof.) Big deal. I made them and they're beautiful to me.