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Just a quick note to thank everyone for your prayers for our family. Emerson was able to come home today. He did an amazing job at the hospital and the surgery went well. Thanks be to God!!!!

Surgery

If everything goes as planned, Emerson will be having surgery today, Wednesday, December 22, to repair his palate as well as have ear tubes put in. Please pray for his well being before, during, and after the surgery. He tends to panic at the site of anything that looks medical. So, we fear that even going to the hospital will be rough on him let alone the surgery and recovery. Please, also, keep our three other children (Max, Sydney, and Veronica) in your prayers as they will not be with us. Granted, they will be at their grandparents' house; so, they probably will not even notice we are gone. Ha, ha! :)

Silly pictures (photo heavy)

Yep, that is a sippy cup in Sydney's boot.
Veronica had to try it then too, plus make a silly face.

Nothing says sibling bonding like a DS.

Don't you just love his heels?!

That poor snowman does not have a chance against the giant tongue!

Veronica has crazy hair!

This is not really silly; but, it is quite a milestone. Emerson never liked doing this!

Christmas fun (photo heavy)

decorating one of the trees
trying to figure out how to hang the ornaments

one of Enzo's favorite Christmas resting spots

so tired after the Christmas program

visiting with Santa

large light displays

the gingerbread house Sydney made at school

Max's gingerbread house- made today at home

Sydney's gingerbread house and snowman- made today at home

Veronica's gingerbread house- made today at home

Emerson's gingerbread house- yep, made today at home

an "aerial" view of our village

Emerson's Baptism

Last Sunday, December 12, Emerson John Shan _____ was baptized. It ended up being a private baptism. There were suppose to be two other families; but, they postponed due to the nasty weather. The ceremony was short and sweet. We had decided to not have a party afterwards. We just felt it was not fair to ask everyone to give up a couple more of the hours they are already lacking this time of the year. Plus, this was sort of a last minute decision to have him baptized this month. We felt it was important to do before his surgery on the 22nd.

It all worked out in the end; but, there was a moment of panic on my part. We had decided to not take our camera. After all, we would be standing up there and would not exactly be able to take pictures. Plus, we usually always have a gazillion cameras flashing at family events. Everyone likes to take pictures. Guess what, we were not the only ones to leave our cameras at home! Thank God, my father-in-law did have his and was able to take some pictures and our niece was kind enough to take pictures with her cell phone (What did we do before those things?!). So, thank you to both of them for "saving the day". I thought for sure we were going to end up not having any pictures of our little fella's big day!!!!

Emerson did a great job. He was entertained with the missalette during the beginning of the ceremony. He thought it was quite funny when our deacon blessed him with the oils. When it came time for the Holy water, I thought I was going to have to go in the font too. He was not a huge fan of that; but, he really did not cry or anything. He just tried to get back into an upright position. Afterwards, he touched his hair/head like "What just happened?" It was quite cute. Emerson looked absolutely adorable in the Chinese outfit that we bought specifically for his baptism while we were in China.

Thank you to Tom and Jenny for agreeing to be Emerson's godparents and thank you to Janet for standing in during Jenny's absence. Thank you to all our loved ones who joined us for the ceremony despite the yucky weather. You are all very special to us!

I am not going in there! Must get back up!

What just happened?!

How many more pictures do we have to smile for?

Sydney's birthday party

Sydney's 7th birthday is coming up soon...December 24th. Yep, she is a Christmas Eve baby. We had a birthday party with some of her friends this past Saturday. It was a blast! Sydney, Veronica, Max, Aunt Janet, 9 of Sydney's friends, and I went to see the new Disney movie "Tangled" in 3D. Too cute!!!!

We had a terrible time with the theater at first because for some reason it did not make sense to them to put aside their special "Tangled" kids' packs for the party. These packs included reusable cups with removable character toys on top. They knew we were coming! They sold out! They were okay with giving us "The Chronicles of Narnia" cups/packs. REALLY?! We were scheduled to see "Tangled". Why would we give the girls special cups/toys that were from a movie they were not even seeing. After a lot of tweeting and emailing on Ron's part (Thank you, Love!), the theater overnighted what we needed from another state to our theater. Yippee!!!! I cannot even tell you how excited I was to see the correct supplies. As Ron said, "It may seem trivial; but, it made all the difference for the party." The girls were thrilled (as were we!).

After the movie, Ron and Emerson joined us in the party room. The girls finished making their beautiful crowns that looked similar to Rapunzel's in the movie. They, also, drew wanted signs just like the one for Flynn in the movie and did a maze. We then took pictures in front of the huge "Tangled" theater display and Sydney opened her gifts. She got so many wonderful things from her friends. It was a very memorable day for our princess!

Again, thank you to Ron for his help in getting the cups. I do believe they were worth all the stress and hassle. Sydney has used her cup every day since the party.

Thank you to my sister, Janet, who once again helped supervise the party and take the pictures. She cracks me up. After every children's party she helps me with, she says she is going to just be "that crazy cat lady" and never have her own children. Something about 13 children running around crazy hitting each other with balloons just pushes her to that decision. I am not sure why though. :)