Answers And A Little of This, And A Little of That

With Thanksgiving in a few days, I am reflecting on our family, friends, our many memories from 2008 and of course, Christmas!!
What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?
I would love to have a professional photographer to take some pictures of our family at our "Friday Family" Thanksgiving dinner (we are celebrating our meal on "Black Friday"!). We take a group picture every year. I need to give, friend of the family, Phyllis Redman a call!

Several post comments involve asking us questions; here's some answers.
Joannah asked (I don't think very seriously!) how do we get anything done each day with little AA running around and having so much fun? Because there are two of us, we get to tag team her. She always runs to both of us and one of is always talking and playing with her. Since I go back to work soon, DH will discover his own routine with her during the days.

Mommy of Kelly and Allison: we wold love to visit you near Orlando (we are south of Jacksonville, west of St. Augustine and north of Palatka!). Send us your email by our blog email link!

Several asked about our marriage certificate; JBOO, Dale at Fetching Frances, Don at Pregnancy by Adoption, The marriage certificate is not the official one issued by our county government. This certificate was provided by the Justice of the Peace who married us as a special memento. We have always loved the size, the Bible verse and ornate Bridal flowers (we planned our wedding vows less than a week in advance).

Elyssum Earth (read her latest post on China's One Child Policy) asked about Alyzabeth's name: What are we calling her? I did mess with the spelling of her name with only the intention of beginning it with an "A". Then I thought changing the "i" to "y" would match with my name too. I plan to call her Alyzabeth or Lizzy. DH has other ideas...... (I don't plan on calling her little "Aly").
Dawn at Courtney Mei invited us to Charlotte for a race! YAHOO!! We are there, just name the date in 2009!! Didn't think we would come? We would love to explore Charlotte and get race fever up front and center!!! Hope AA is ready!!

Lea at Oh My #6 asked about taking time off from work. DH is retired so he is the SAHD. I saved my paid vacation time and have been off work since September 10th (we flew to China on 9/11/08). I go back to work the 24th (today!!)! Boo-hoo!!

Monica at Dumplings, Three, commented about DH telling me to go talk to the NASCAR "guys". Actually, DH is the more chatty, conversationalist than I am, he just knows I am nuts about NASCAR and might actually go talk to the strangers (not me!!). So that is why I asked him to leave the table first from our dinner so that he would naturally talk to them while waiting for me (I know him pretty well); he can always strike up a conversation and is very friendly (I am not so!).

And last comment answer: CCAI travel family, Brian and Melinda, adopted Savannah, stated that time has flown! So true! We can't believe how well we have settled in with a 2-year old running around the house. It has been especially nice while I have been off work. They are growing!! AA grew 1.25 inches in the six weeks between Doctor's appointments. She weighed about 20 lbs in China, now weighs 23 lbs!

And to help everyone with their Christmas shopping, click over to 5 Minutes to Mom and enter in all their Christmas giveaways! Most are very cool and with only a few hundred entering, you have a great chance to win. Another giveaway is here: 3 P's Mama.

Another helpful Christmas Gift list is on Julie's organizing blog. I think the list includes some very thoughtful ways to say thank you and Merry Christmas! She stated:
"Here is a list of some fun, inexpensive, and cute Christmas gift ideas for neighbors, hostesses, teachers, and friends. As I have said before, consumable gifts are my favorites for this type of gift-giving! No clutter! Practical gifts to help out are a great (and novel) idea as well." Check out her very long list.

Don't forget to enter this raffle and help out Mia Hope's adoption fund! Ends November 30th. Plus buy some really cute homemade clothes.

And to spread around some more toddler beauty, look at the pictures of another little girl, Karsynn, who came from the same orphanage as AA. She is beautiful!! Love the pictures on Fairy Tales Do Come True, from the post dated November 13th.

I enjoy our comment chats!