Merry Christmas

This is the Christmas letter I sent out ....

I hope this letter finds you well and I hope this year has been a blessed one.
This year has brought forth many things for this family and probably for you too.
In May we packed up and moved to the Central Coast. We have been so fortunate to have a great house in the country.
Eric has a great job and I am home with the kids.

Kira turned four in April and has been such a delight. She is such a learning sponge. I love it.
She can write her letters and numbers.
She is constantly asking me how to spell things.
Kira is very eager to read, so we might begin basics in January.
She is excelling in her speech class and is getting all her sounds so much better.
She still loves to draw and is an amazing artist.
She got second place in a local coloring contest!
I really enjoy teaching her and she is such a helper around the house.

Enzo had yet another amazing year.
He was able to get transferred to therapy up here (did take forever though).
He loves his Occupational therapist (OT).
Enzo was receiving In-Home therapy through the school district.
When he had his evaluation at 2 and 1/2 he scored at 3 years and above
for many of the educational skills and therefore does not need it!
He did start speech therapy with a great teacher and I can already hear a difference.
At our Mommy and Me class just last month he had a major break through.
We were peeling clementines and he held it with his right hand(good hand) and started peeling with his left side(weak side). I was almost in tears. This is the hardest bilateral movement he has done.
We have been working on taking his shirt off with minimal to no help.
Well, he can do that too! He will initiate doing it too.
I think the light bulb has gone on and it seems like he is very aware of his left side and wants to use it without me coaching him to.
Praise God, for He is good!

We as a family have had a great year with lots of change, but good change.
We hope your Christmas is super and that you have a blessed New Year.

Christmas in the Air

Oh how I love this time of the year. It is cold and all I want to do is curl up in a blanket and crochet, knit or snuggle with the kids. But I have been doing quite a bit. I crocheted the cutest slippers and hat with ear flaps for Kira for Christmas morning. Made Enzo some Spiderman mittens and hat with ear flaps. I used a red skein and a blue skein of yarn together and crocheted Spiderman type of design. I am planning on making him slippers and her mittens so they each have the same set.

The rest of the list for handmade gifts is as follows:
Pajamas for everyone
Felted Knit Slippers for Eric
Finish the Dolls for the Kids-
*Pirate (Jack Sparrow)
*Pirate (Will Turner?)
*Girl (Lucy)
*Girl (Kira doll) Last year Kira doll had a few flaws and has been so loved but has holes so I am refurbishing her.

Doll Cradle (hopefully we will get this made but if not Her birthday is in April and we will do it then)

I think I am biting off more than I can chew but we will see:)

The past few weeks we have been busy making Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments for teacher gifts. We handed them out yesterday and everyone loved them. What an easy but beautiful gift for teachers. Inexpensive too and the kids had so much fun making them.

This last Saturday we went to see our friends who are here on furlough from Kenya for a month. What a blessing to see them and hear how God is using them to minister to the people there.

My parents are coming on Friday to visit until Sunday. They got an amazing deal at the hotel and Saturday night we are staying there and having a mini vacation with the kids.

We will spend Christmas Eve with Eric's parents and Christmas day we will be home all day at our house making new memories and traditions as a family. Breakfast will maybe consist of cinnamon rolls or something yummy and probably going to make a Honey Ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner. Lots of down time.

What are your traditions? What do you make for dinner?