This summer vacation flew by so fast – Maddie blinked and it was gone.  There were so many highlights which is great, but Maddie has found herself wanting more and more of the highlights.  Gee, life is hard.  Everything is so good and we just want more of it!  It was a year ago that we moved into our new condo and Maddie sat there singing a song at her reflection in the tv.  Now she sits and ponders…  in her words, she loves America better than Shanghai.  Why?  Because, in her words, she gets to love her grandmas and grandpas and brothers and cousins and, and, and.  She gets it.  She really gets it.

For this reason it was really, really difficult to leave home this year...

I can understand those people out there that but artificial trees… really! We have one in Shanghai and every year around the day after Thanksgiving, we open up the closet and find the tall brown box that contains the start of our Christmas cheer. HOWEVER, we do this because finding a real tree in Shanghai is not that easy and that actually makes finding a tree in Saudi Arabia look like a cake walk! So when we come home to Oregon for the holidays – we cut down a tree… especially since we are in our own home for the first time!

Amelia sat in the warmth of the backseat with Grandma Barbara, continuing to jetlag her little heart out while we went trapsing through a tree farm. Barbara watched the whole thing from the car which was apparently the best silent movie in a long time...