well i still haven't caught up on posts for the fall and now christmas has come and gone!

christmas is my absolute favorite, and i'm always a little depressed once it's over. but now it's even more special to me since we have a little one in the family. no one tells you that christmas is even more fun as a parent than as a kid.

i love making traditions with jia and teaching her about the true meaning of christmas. i also tried to hunt down all the fun activities in the area so that we could have a lot of holiday fun!

here's a photo run down of our season!


snow palace


dallas children's parade


santa's helper at the mall


jia's first ginger bread house


petting zoo at santa's village


vitruvian park


tuzer's nutcracker


decorating cookies


and of course meeting santa!

whew! we were busy!

on christmas eve jia actually came down sick, which was a big bummer! she had a high fever so we stayed in all day and just snuggled. thankfully her temp had dropped by christmas morning though, so we were able to really have fun and join family for some celebrating.


gifts at home


christmas with granna

jia was really getting into the whole gift thing, so i'm sure that by next christmas she'll be completely out of control now that she's caught on to what presents are about.



so farewell christmas...see u next year!

and happy new year to all!

i love the 4th of july in our neighborhood.
every year there is a neighborhood parade. we got together with friends, loaded up the kids, and picked a nice shady spot to watch.





jia was pretty excited about the candy this year, and the next most exciting thing was a guy sitting next to us to brought his pet bird to the fair. that was more interesting than most of the parade in my opinion.



in the evening we decided to have a little party at our place for international student friends so that they could experience an all american holiday.

we had a potluck, watched an american tale in the outdoor theater, and then we for a fireworks show.





jia managed to stay awake for the fireworks too. so all in all i'd say it was a pretty happy 4th for all! :) this may be our new regular tradition.

happy independence day everyone!

we enjoyed a hometown parade through our neighborhood this morning, and now we're about to head out to see some fireworks!



so merry 4th of july!
...i sure wish that was a real snowman.