We were surprised to see the remaining snow on Christmas day. This was the first time for me to see a white Christmas in Dallas. We were not used to such a cold Christmas ... We opened the gifts in the morning and cooked in the afternoon. We had planned to see the Christmas lights in Deer Field neighborhood since it's just around the block. But both Emily and I were sick later on Christmas Day. It was Emily's first ever sickness and it was my first after pregnant. I guess the flu shots really didn't protect us. David didn't feel well either. But his symptoms were the lightest. David's aunt Joyce and cousin Gregg's family came to visit the day after Christmas. We had a good visit with them.
David and I didn't do much gift exchange for Christmas. The main gifts we gave to each other were to sponsor four kids in China to go to school for one year, as we did in the past. We started "shopping for the kids" right after Thanksgiving (we used ocef.org to do this). But it was so hard to pick out four kids from the thousands that are in the database. Every one of them needs sponsorship desperately. Almost all of them had parents who lost their ability to provide for the kids. About half of them are orphans who live with their aged grandparents or other relatives on the farm. In the end we just randomly picked four, knowing that to all the needing kids, we couldn't do much; but to the four we picked, it means a whole world ...
Emily wasn't into the gift business yet. When we all opened the gifts in excitement, she'd rather run around the house and play. Since she was having some running nose for the first time, it took a while for her to get used to us wiping her nose. Her new words are "Putao" (means Grapes in Chinese) and "Xiezi" (means Shoes in Chinese). One big achievement we had was that three quarter of her nails got trimmed! Kendall was able to trim her nails when they were here. Go Kendall!
Below are some of the pictures that captured our Christmas this year:
Emily gave "Merry Christmas" kisses to her stuffed animals one by one on Christmas morning in her pajamas:
Uncle Kendall gave it a try on trimming Emily's finger nails:
Succeed! We got to hurry ...
It took a village to trim the nails for both hands and one foot
A white Christmas
Emily was watching the snow on Christmas day (Thank you Amy Wilson for loaning us this red coat. We loved it!)
Chloe and Emily were both fascinated with the snow:
Chloe and Emily were both fascinated with the snow:
Group family picture with Joyce, Gregg, Shannon, Lexie and Ryan
Lexie was so good with babies. See how attached Chloe was with her:
The Hatcher family: 
After our guests had left after Christmas, we started cleaning the house. Monday after lunch, David went out to meet Tony for lunch and see Sue in the hospital. I was washing the dishes while Emily was minding her business. Suddenly I saw Emily was scrubing the floor with the towels that she found from the utility room. Once I realized that she was helping me to clean the kitch tiles, I couldn't help laughing. She has seen David doing that so many times so she was imitating David (using one foot to scrub the floor)... She worked the whole area in the kitchen. I had to give her a hug and kisses!
The Hatcher family: After our guests had left after Christmas, we started cleaning the house. Monday after lunch, David went out to meet Tony for lunch and see Sue in the hospital. I was washing the dishes while Emily was minding her business. Suddenly I saw Emily was scrubing the floor with the towels that she found from the utility room. Once I realized that she was helping me to clean the kitch tiles, I couldn't help laughing. She has seen David doing that so many times so she was imitating David (using one foot to scrub the floor)... She worked the whole area in the kitchen. I had to give her a hug and kisses!
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