A Long-Thought-About Idea Finally Becomes Reality!

Tony has been wanting to create a different mailbox for several years.  He had an idea and never had/made time to do anything about it.  Back in December (when it last snowed!) the snow plow hit the mailbox and knocked the actual mailbox loose from the stand.  So, it was now time to do something.

I wanted a bigger mailbox.  He wanted to make it look like a drag racing Christmas tree.  He found a hood scoop online and painted it and cut out the front to hold the new BIGGER mailbox.  (I guess some people call this kind of hood scoop a "mailbox".)

For the stand he found reflectors in the right colors and right relative sizes to simulate a drag racing Christmas tree.  (Side note for the non-drag racing crowd, a quick lesson on drag racing:  A Christmas tree in drag racing is what the drivers use to start down the track.  The top 2 lights on each side are the "pre-stage bulbs".  The next 2 lights on each side are the "staged bulbs".  Then the next 3 amber lights on each side count down, and then when the green light goes on, the driver is supposed to start.  If the driver starts too soon, the red light lights up and they lose the race.)  So anyway, he built this over the course of several weeks as he has had time.  I never got out to the shop to see it but he kept saying it was pretty neat.

Yesterday, he finally got to put it up and finally replace that old, ugly mailbox stand with this one!  I went out and thought it was really pretty cool looking!  And if you know Tony, he doesn't do anything "half".  He goes all out and makes it so it will last and look good.

Today, we went out and took some pictures of our REALLY COOL LOOKING MAILBOX!

This was taken later in the day with the flash.  These are only reflectors! 

This is a real drag racing Christmas tree with the pre-stage and the staged lights on.  See how particular he was in getting it to look just right?

Packing!

I actually started putting things in suitcases yesterday!  Yeah!  I have most of Le An's stuff in one of the big suitcases.  We have to pack for two seasons because Henan will be cold like it is here and Guangzhou is like Florida.  This part is different than when we went last time partly because we are going earlier in the year.

So, anyway, when we got our final in-China itinerary, I looked up all of the hotels we would be at.  We'll be in FOUR hotels this time instead of just two.  We also will be on six planes and two trains, as well as a myriad of taxis, vans, busses, etc.  Here are links to the hotels we will be staying in:

The Xian Golden Flower Shangri-La Hotel from Feb 9-11.
The Zhengzhou Crowne Plaza Hotel from Feb 11-17.
The Guangzhou China Hotel (a Marriott) from Feb 17-22.
The Hong Kong Regal Airport Hotel from Feb 22-23.

They all sound quite nice but I have heard that the Crowne Plaza in Zhengzhou is quite smokey everywhere in the hotel and that we'll be glad to move on to Guangzhou!  Hopefully, the weather will be such that we can be outside some of the time.

Spoken By Meighan Tonight...

after she found puke from Misty in her room:

"Misty, don't puke in my room again!

You're on the 'naughty list'!

You puke in my room again, I'm going to tell Santa!

And the Countdown Begins ...

We leave four weeks from today!

We booked our flights last night!  Yippee!

We will be leaving on February 8 and returning on February 23!  We will FINALLY meet our son on February 13!

Our plan is to fly to Beijing, get through customs and immigration and then catch another flight to Xi'an.  That will be a LONG day!  We'll spend the night in Xi'an and then take a tour to see the Terra Cotta Warriors the next day.  We'll then spend another night in Xi'an and then take a flight to Zhengzhou in Henan Province on February 11.  We'll have the 12th free and probably take a tour that day.  We'll meet Le An on the 13th.  Then over the next few days we'll do adoption things and visit the orphanage.

On February 17 we'll flight to Guangzhou to finalize the adoption and all that entails.  We'll then probably take a train on February 22 to Hong Kong and stay the night.  Then we'll fly home on the 23rd!

We have a MILLION things to do between now and the 8th!  I can't believe we have finally made our flight reservations, though!

TA!

We'll have dates in a few days!

Cookie Decorating

Well, while we wait for our TA, I thought I'd post pictures of our Christmas Eve cookie decorating activity.  We cut out and baked the cookies earlier in the week.  Meighan chose which shapes to make and cut out ALL of them.  We had a very nice variety.

Then I made the icing and colored it on Christmas Eve and we started painting cookies!

Can't wait to eat some!

Even Daddy got into the act!

And was quite creative!

As time went on, we all got more creative!

Look out for the suger high!

!!!

The final product, Part 1

Part 2



Part 3

Part 4

These were bigger cookies so we did them last and kept them at home.

Our House, It Is A-Changin'

Tony took last week off and on Monday I found the style of headboard I wanted for Meighan's "new" big-girl bed.  It was a good price so we picked it up Monday evening.  We also found some sheets and comforter that she picked out.  On Tuesday, Tony put the headboard together and put the bed on it and made the bed.  She is now in a regular twin bed.

Mainly because... we needed the crib matress that she was using on the toddler bed for the CRIB that he also put up on Tuesday!

And then I draped a blanket and the afghan I made him on it.  He will be nice and warm!