We're Home

We're Home!

Well we've been home for 6 days! We arrived home on Thursday Dec.18th at 12:30pm. The flight home was painless. Ava didn't make a peep the entire flight. She slept 6 out of the 11 hour flight.

We arrived at LAX and were greeted by our family. I spotted my brother first and that was it for me. I was a blubbering mess. I didn't expect my brother, Salli and the kids until the 19th so I was so surprised. The kids ran up to us caring one red rose each. Ava was very quiet, just taking it all in. Dave picked her up and put her on the ground. That was the moment she became an official US Citizen. We had two limos waiting for us outside for a relaxing ride home. Everyone came over the house and my mom and uncle had dinner waiting for us. We were able to stay awake until 9:30pm. We had been up since 6am the previous day! Ava woke up at 10:30pm and she and I stayed up playing until 3am. I slept until about 10am, woke up feeling great. No jet lag for me! But now we are all down and out with colds and sinus infections. Yuck!

I have to say the entire trip was flawless. We were prepared for glitches or bumps along the way, but it never happened. We both are easy travelers who just like to go with the flow and I think that helped. The hardest part was catching the train to Hong Kong. There were 7 families and our guide wasn't really helpful. We had so much luggage and so many children and didn't have a clue to where we were going it was slightly tense. Once we boarded the train we all took a deep breath and enjoyed the scenery and each others company.

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again... we could not have had a better travel group. We all got along so well and had so much in common.

Hong Kong was beautiful! We arrived about 7:30pm, checked into the hotel, dropped off our luggage and headed out. When in Rome... right? We went to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner and then walked the boardwalk. What an amazing view! Missy had been to Hong Kong before so she was kind enough to stay with us and give us the tour! Thanks Missy! We walked through the famous Peninsula Hotel and then called it a night.

So since we've been home we have been very busy. We had a neighborhood party on the 19th. Ava did great. She sat for a moment on Santa's lap (enough time to snap a picture) I had our family party at my house on the 20th. Note... Ava loves tamales! We went out to dinner on the 21st to celebrate Dave's birthday. The 22nd it hit us. We were all exhausted and napped on and off all day. We finished our shopping on the 23rd and wrapped all the gifts. Today is Christmas Eve. I have to go grocery shopping for tomorrow, then it's off to church and over to Cathy's for dinner and dessert.

Ava appears to be content here at home. She is a very friendly, social, little girl who knows exactly what she wants. Most of the day she is happy. She seems to be acclimating to the time difference just fine and she slept through the night last night. (Yeah for me!)

She likes...

Noodles
Yogurt
French Fries
Mama
Baba
Toys
Christmas lights
To be Bossy

She doesn't like...
Bath time
Rice
Eggs
Bed time
The Crib
When she's not the boss