After our Christmas festivities, we spent the night with the grandparents in NJ. The Divine Miss Em had a fabulous time and enjoyed her first sleigh ride, played with her uncle Marc's blocks from when he was her age, opened Hanukkah gifts and as you can see created a makeshift stage where she sang with her new CD player. Quite the performer!
I am spearheading a project for my daughter's orphanage in China. While I did not have the opportunity to go there since at the time she was residing on the other end of China, I have seen numerous photos and listened to accounts from other parents as to the condition of this SWI. While the children are reasonably cared for they severely lack the most basic needs such as heat, winter clothes, toys and most of all shoes. Since the babies and toddlers spend so much time in walkers they need proper covering for their precious feet not only to keep them warm but also to keep them protected from the oldness of the buildings and allow them to safely walk about. So.....I have contacted a few companies to donate shoes or soled slippers for this purpose but am also reaching out to YOU, my friends, readers and family. Please consider making a contribution to this project to help orphans in China be able to walk safely and prevent any illness, injury or disability to their precious piggies. If you require a tax receipt one will be arranged through a registered charitable organization that does work in China. You can use the chip-in on this page and I assure you that all funds will go directly toward this project with zero overhead. In addition to 40 new winter hats/mittens I am packing to go this week, I will personally pay for the postage to get these items to China as quickly as possible. Of course if it more cost effective, I will wire money to my in-country person and the shoes can be purchased there to maximize every dollar raised. While this project will extend the next few weeks I will be sending product as frequently as donations come in to ensure we get these baby's feet covered for winter. Feel free to email me with any questions.
****** UPDATE
Another parent from the same orphanage has also been working on a shoe project so additional monies raised will go toward winter items such as blankets, clothing and other identified needs.
Emme and I along with friends had a holiday cookie party. The kids had a great time and we all enjoyed lunch, sugar highs and toddler dance antics. The gingerbread cookies are particularly delicious and I am partial to Emme's creation of a g-bread man with a belly button. Enjoy!
Emme spent the first night of Hanukkah with grandma, nana and Twinkie (her stuffed dog). She had fun lighting the candles, opening first gifts and eating MANY potato latkas.
Thursday afternoon Emme, MP (aka Ra-Ra) and I packed up the car and headed to Lake George for a little getaway weekend. We rented a condo with all amenities and as you can see the views from our decks were beautiful. We planned to relax, go snow tubing and head to Ben & Jerry in Vermont while there. Needless to say we got stuck in the Albany ice/snow storm en route but managed to arrive safely albeit with no food. We were able to find a place to deliver pizza (YUCK) and had fun watching cartoons and taking baths. While we were essentially snowed in the next day we managed to go to the grocery store a mile away. When Emme woke up she wanted to open the door to the condo and I told her it was snow. She yelled SNOW MOMMY and this quickly proved to be her favorite new thing. She bundled up, went out and helped clean off the car and threw a few snowballs while yelling SNOW!!!!! We swam and Emme and I cooked dinner and then baked brownies for our party of three. Friday night we settled in to watch Cars and Emme couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. She told us she wanted to go "night-night" and promptly shouted "WAIT" as she turned off the TV and DVD player. In toddler translation that means wait until tomorrow when I too can watch the rest of the movie. We didn't tell her we watched it without her but happily obliged the next day when she woke and asked to watch the rest of the movie. Sadly we never made it to Vermont as we drove 1/2 way there and but once we hit the Vermont highways, the roads were a huge disappointment and not safe for traveling back in the evening. Instead we headed back, went to the Sagamore for lunch and then stopped at a few outlets. While driving we saw a billboard with a child's photo that resembled Emme so we took a picture. Despite my horrid cold, the four degree temps and lack of mega toddler activity, we managed to have a really good time.
