This year for Christmas Eve, and every year for that matter, we were so busy visiting family, immediate and extended. Losha was dragged along- and I can say that he was none to thrilled to shuffle from one house to the other. We did explain to him that's what families do. He did manage to get some type of gift everywhere we went, so I think in his eyes, it made it a little more bearable. He still enters into shy mode immediately when surrounded by a group of people he doesn't know. However, if my parents were there or John's parents were there, he did do a little better with smiling. Side note- he has really warmed up to both of our parents. John's parents kept him for us last Thursday- they played wii all day (poor them) and Losha had a blast. He apparently called my mother-in-law a "cheater" all day....hmmmmm.....wonder where he got that from {John}. They filled his belly with 2 hot dogs plus fries from Shells BBQ and he was in hog heaven. They said they really enjoyed their time with him, and I know he sure enjoyed his day with them too. Its amazing how quickly he warmed up to both sides of parents. He must have felt very safe and secure with them- because he took a little longer to warm up to us. But regardless, its such as blessing that he did! He just fits into our family like he's been here all along. By the afternoon, when we got home, John's aunt and uncle had left a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper by our garage. His eyes locked on that Dr. Pepper and he tried to escape the car before we had stopped trying to get to it. John had to hit the locks really fast and told him to stay put. As soon as the car had stopped he was outta there in record time and scooped up "Pep-aire" and was as happy as a clam! Christmas Eve he opened one gift from us early, and appropriately he chose to open his new wallet. The boy had managed to get $30 cash from various family members and loads of gift cards as well. He busied himself putting his loot into his wallet and by the time he was done, his wallet was about 6 inches thick. Not really- but it is so thick he can barely get it out of his pocket once he puts it in.
Back to Christmas--- well, someone must have been a very good boy this year, because Santa visited him in America. Santa's elves got up at the butt-crack of dawn to make sure Santa's gifts were all displayed and stockings were stuffed. When his eyes hit the tree and his presents, his entire face lit up. Unfortunately the part captured by my camera was the part where he was still trying to focus his eyes, so this endearing part was missed completely. The "houston" in me made him recreate it- but it was nothing like the real thing. The rest of the morning was filled with Russian squeals and laughs. He took FOREVER to open his gifts, because he didn't want to tear the paper, so he carefully undid all the tape and tried to preserve the paper the best he could- even after we told him just to rip it to shreds. After he would open any article of clothing, he would take it and hug it to his chest, and close his eyes. This made me tear up. He got lots of clothes, a hat (he picked it out) a radio control Jeep, a howling sling-shot monkey, a wallet, model car, loads of money and gift cards, and lots of other things......... He said he liked Christmas in America! I can't imagine why!
We went up to my parents for the annual Christmas morning breakfast and more gifts. He ate really well- two eggs, a sausage patty, about 20 pieces of bacon, 3 glasses of Dr. Pepper, a biscuit and just a taste of grits. He didn't like them- we'll have to work on that!! He is in the south, after all. He opened up more presents and he loves to get his picture taken. I was so busy taking his picture with our camera, and his disposable camera, that I forgot to open my gifts. Its funny how that happens..... It had started snowing as soon as we got to my parents. By the time we finished eating and opening our gifts the ground was completely white. We came on home because the roads were slushy. We had plans to go to John's parents house that afternoon, followed by dinner at my Memaw's......but we got snowed in. Losha spent most of his afternoon in his room putting together his new model car, then we all spent Christmas night watching movies by the fire. It was a very low-key Christmas, but a special one. We had a wonderful time with Losha and it snowed on top of that. A white Christmas!
Sunday morning after Christmas was over, we were, of course, snowed in. 7.5 inches of snow and counting! Losha decided to play a little prank on us this morning. I had woke up early and started to clean up the house. John woke up about 9 and went in to wake up Losha. Well, John came out to me and said "Where is he? Is he not in here with you?" with panick in his eyes. We went back to his room and his bed was made up, but he was no where in sight. I knew I hadn't seen him all morning, and I honestly thought he had ran away. My heart sank and then Surprise! He jumped out from behind his bed. We told him that was NOT funny, that it scared us to death!I made a pancake breakfast and we all snuggled by the fire. Since we couldn't go to church we had church in our living room. John read the story of Jesus' birth. We asked Losha if he knew the story, but he acted like he didn't know what we were talking about. I prayed while John read, for God to make John's words understandable to Losha. I hope God answered my prayer! Later that afternoon we got him back for his little prank. He was so fixated on the wii, that we were able to sneak up on him and cover him with Silly String. He squealed and ran, and I threw him a can, and he joined the fun. The only problem with this, is that I didn't think it though very well. I definitely didn't think about how big of a mess we would have to clean up....... And a huge mess, we had. Silly string was ALL OVER the living room and kitchen. I wasn't able to capture too many pics of the fight, but this one sums it up.....John is hiding in the laundry room- his can was empty and Losha went after him with a vengeance.
The point of that picture is to show the silly string- not to show you the mess that is my house. Just nevermind the crap in the foyer, or Banjo's blankie!
He is such an enjoyable kid. The past couple of nights when we pray at bedtime and hug him goodnight, I've been saying "I love you" to him. He hasn't said anything back yet, but last night when I told him I loved him, he just beamed at me! He knows what that means :)
im loving the silly string fight pics!
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