Obviously 2011 was a year where our prayers were answered with Zachary. It's hard to imagine that this time last year we were waiting on being matched....in fact, in 3 days it will have been A FULL YEAR since our agency contacted us about Zachary!!! WOW! How quickly time flies...
In our home, Christmas is all packed away. The last bits & pieces were the decorations in Zachary's room. He didn't seem to notice the Santa & his mini red Christmas tree were missing. But, when we mentioned them he looked around asking where were they? We told him Santa has gone bye bye for this year but he left behind his magic Elf!
Reflecting on our first Christmas here are a few Christmas Day pictures...
Matt & I discussed how we should start Zachary's full day! We decided to start very slow by making a big deal out of the stockings. We mentioned to Zachary how full the stockings were and that it was a sign that Santa visited his house last night while he was sleeping.
Stockings...
Waiting to begin the unwrapping, Zachary impatiently posed for Mommy. Notice the onsey Daddy found for Zachary. It says, "My First Christmas"
After the stockings were opened, Zachary jumped into Daddy's lap...a perfect picture opportunity for Mommy!
After stockings we ate breakfast (Breakfast Casserole & fruit salad). Then we took Zachary to look at the Christmas tree. I could hardly eat Breakfast, I was so excited to see his reaction to seeing all the presents! And, his face just lit up when he got on the floor to look at each gift. We wrapped each of our gifts in different colored paper. It made it so much easier so we could direct Zachary to bring a "red gift to Mommy, White for Daddy & Green for Zachary".
After his nap, we dressed Zachary in his traditional outfit from China. We picked this out in Guangzhou and we were told that the pattern on the silk set was very traditional and meant to be worn for a "very special event, like his birthday or Christmas". I tucked it away in his dresser and nearly forgot about it. PTL (Praise The Lord), when I was looking for an outfit I came across it and knew it was meant for Zachary's First Christmas! His cousins love to help take Zachary where ever he wants to go.
During the gift opening we all rotated taking turns opening a gift. Zachary seemed to love to collect any trash and bring it to Bop-bop who got stuck with the trash bag. It was cute!!
Zachary happily jumped into one of Nonnie's gifts (a 31 bag) to go home with Nonnie & Bop-bop! He waved bye-bye to us and it just broke my heart that he would willingly tease that he was leaving me...maybe I'm a little sensitive ;) But Nonnie & Bop-bop were tickled!
Elf on the Shelf...
We are waiting on getting the GREAT pictures of our Christmas day from my Father (Bop-Bop), I can't wait to see what he captured of our day. He took a lot of Family portraits and special pictures of Zachary in his traditional Chinese outfit. Once we get them I'll post some of my favorites! They are sure to be amazing!
Many Blessings to you & yours in this New Year!!
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