Happy New Year!!

Sorry we have not updated the blog for a while. We have been in a frenzy trying to get ready for our trip to China.

Christmas was a lot of fun. DD put out cookies and soy milk for Santa and also a carrot for the reindeer. It was so cute!!!! Ankie, Nana, Popa and DD went for a Santa swim on Christmas Eve. The rest of us were quite sick with a nasty cold that is still hanging on so we had to watch the fun from the poolside. Afterwards we had a snack and DD got a very nice butterfly tattoo on her hand (temporary of course). Christmas morning was so much fun and DD helped everyone open their presents. She was so excited. It was very special for all of us to see Christmas through her eyes; it made all of us into kids.

We are in the midst of a packing frenzy. There are so many things we have to bring. The packing is complicated because the luggage allowance for the in China flights is 1/2 of international flights so we are going to have to leave part of our luggage in Beijing when we fly on to Changsha. As soon as we get to the hotel in Beijing on the first night we have to part with our suitcase that will be going on with us so that means we will have to carry all of our overnight stuff onto the flight to Changsha in a carry on. Getting complicated?

The in-China flights have random seating assignments so if we want to sit next to each other we have to track down the person who is assigned the seat next to us and hope they speak English and are willing to trade seats. The livestock in the back of the plane is usually a hit with the kids.

While in China there are many important documents that must be collected at various government agencies and losing any one of them would mean a major disaster (including not being able to get Sophie out of China). To complicate this some of the documents look alike and do not actually say what they are in English.

We are going to be traveling with about 10 other parent's to be so it will be nice to share the joy (and stress). We will be doing an overnight stop over in Vancouver on the way to China and we will be meeting some of our travel group there. It will be nice to get to know everyone before we get our children.