Xinyu sisters at Christmas

A highlight of any trip to Saskatoon is to visit there with two of Claire's Xinyu sisters and their families. Our travel-mate Shea graciously invited Paul, Claire and I, as well as another family, Rae, Girard and Bryn, to her home for coffee one morning. We were also thrilled to see Shea's mom, Darlene, who had travelled with Shea to China. Darlene was so kind as to take many, many pics of us, hoping for at least one good shot. This one is the best from my camera.

We had a tough time getting all three girls to look at the camera at the same time for the following photos. Only Bryn was willing to share some smiles with us. In the above shots, please pardon my faux-pas of forgetting to put Claire's special panties on her to match her dress. I completely forgot until I saw these photos!

Alas, our visit couldn't last all day and we had to say our goodbyes. The girls all exchanged smooches (none of which I captured very well on camera). The funniest smoocher was Caia, because she'd approach you for a kiss and would very quickly kiss the air in front of you and then move away to the next recipient. Paul and Claire are saying farewell in the photo below to Rae and Bryn.

Shea, thank you so much for hosting our visit yet again, and thank you to both families for accommodating our schedule. We had a wonderful time with you!

More family fun

Paul's brother Dorian and his wife Sylvie had the clan over for dinner one night. Claire loved going up and down the stairs with everyone, but especially Baba (Ukrainian for Grandma). Here are Baba and Uncle Dorian walking with Claire to the table where a wonderful dinner awaited us.Claire loved their island in the kitchen. It was the perfect spot to sit and be entertained by Baba and others.Claire really enjoyed the process of opening gifts, saying "more, more" after almost every one. We all observed that she is meticulous when opening presents. Each time she ripped off a piece of paper, she'd hand it to somebody before continuing. Even when she could see the gift inside, she would keep her attention on removing the paper until every last piece was off. Then at last she'd examine her gift. She was also a great little elf, handing out presents to family members and helping them unwrap them.
One of Claire's gift from Auntie Sylvie and Uncle Dorian was an awesome tent set, complete with an igloo-shaped tent, a teepee-shaped tent and a tunnel to crawl from one to the other. She spent hours playing there. Here she is taking a break in the tunnel while Auntie Sylvie looks on.

Grandpa loved feeding Claire strawberries, so much in fact that now when she sees a strawberry or a picture of a strawberry, she says "Dido" (Ukrainian name for Grandpa). I love these types of associations; she also says "Marianne" (our friend who built a gingerbread house for her) whenever she sees something gingerbread related.

Claire's first Christmas in Canada

Claire's first Christmas in Canada was a whirlwind of fun. We spent nearly a week with family in Saskatchewan, and if you can imagine how many gifts this cutie received, multiply that by a gazillion to reflect the amount of love and attention lavished on her. Needless to say, she had a ball!

This post contains photos of Claire with Mama's side of the family. Pics with Daddy's side, as well as pics with some of her Xinyu sisters, will follow.

One of the favourite past-times of grandkids at Grandma K's house is bowling in the hall. Here's Claire contemplating her bowling technique while cousin Liam (modelling Grandma's vest from the 60s) lines up the pins.
Below, Claire cuddles with Auntie Betty-Ann.

Here's Grandma K with all the grandkids who were in town for Christmas.
Claire received a couple of aprons from Grandma K. to go with her kitchen set from Santa. The photo below captures Claire's ability to multi-task: not only is she cooking Christmas dinner, but she's learning from Uncle Stu how to throw a football. Nikki, the oldest grandchild at the old age of 16, hangs out with Claire, the youngest grandchild.

Excuse me but I was having a "moment" with Santa

Seconds before this picture was taken, Claire was looking up at Santa with a huge grin on her face. This photo captures the moment the photographer called out Claire's name and she turned to face him. Doesn't she look disappointed that the moment she and Santa were sharing is over?

Deck the halls

These photos are from a couple of weeks ago when we decorated the house for Christmas. I had planned tonight to post Claire's first official photo with Santa but I'm having problems with my scanner.

We bought a new artificial tree this year, and as usual, our cat Kitsya was quick to claim the box as her own. While Paul and I figured out how to put the tree together, Claire engaged in one of her favourite activities: trying on gloves and hats from a little chest we keep near our front door. As is the case whenever I'm more than a few feet away from Claire, Kitsya "babysat".
Claire was an active participant during the tree-decorating process.
And she had the honour of placing our angel atop the tree. Here she is moments after she placed the angel on top and then grabbed it back. She thought it was hilarious to put it on, then take it off, put it on, etc. Meanwhile, Daddy's back was breaking.

If you look closely about two thirds the way up the tree, you'll see Kitsya happily perched. We tried to fight this but finally gave up because there was no stopping the tree-obsessed cat. I have to say, she's pretty careful at least: she hasn't knocked down any ornaments and more importantly, hasn't knocked down the tree.

On December 6, Claire awoke to find presents in her Robeez boots. It's a German tradition that on St. Nicholas Day (December 6), children get treats of candy in their shoes. As a German, Ukrainian and Chinese family, a little creative license was taken with this tradition. Instead of candy, Claire received what will become our St. Nicholas Day tradition: new Christmas pajamas and a special ornament. Below, Claire models her new pjs while examining her ornament.

A sweet afternoon

Our friend Marianne doesn't do anything part-way. So, when she invited us over to decorate a gingerbread house she had made Claire, I should have known how deluxe everything would be. But even then, I think she would have surpassed my expectations!

She baked the most wonderful house for Claire, complete with figures for our little family: Daddy (shockingly pantless, in his opinion), Mama in an elegant ensemble, a gorgeous little Claire and even a teeny Kitsya. Then came the tray with a bunch of bowls containing a dazzling array of candy, cookies and other treats specially chosen to not set off my choking paranoia. And then last but not least, a little sippy cup and a denim apron for Claire, both with gingerbread men on them.

Here is the crew before decorating began. As you can see, Claire is already eating.

It's a good thing my mom was there to help decorate the house, because I was so busy licking icing off my fingers and taking pictures that I wouldn't have made it very far decorating on my own. Claire's main contribution, other than motivating us with her cuteness, was to diminish the supply of candy to put on the house by stuffing it in her mouth. In many, many of our pictures, she has her hand in a candy bowl with a mouth already stuffed full.

Even after we were finished decorating, Claire couldn't stop eating. I love this last photo for two reasons: (1) it shows off her adorable apron and (2) it shows she's still going for the sweets!

Christmas cheer

We had a wonderful evening last night at our home with Beth, James, Helena and Ava. It had been quite awhile since all of us (including the boys) had been together so it was great to catch up as a group. As an added bonus, my mom is in town visiting and she acted as Grandma to all the kids but especially to the two toddlers. Claire also enjoyed Helena's attention, as always. Helena graciously took the kids downstairs for a while so that the adults could chat without interruption.

Claire and Ava got along beautifully last night. Claire was more herself due to her home setting, and Ava loved checking out Claire's toys. They interacted like never before, and it was adorable to see. Here are the girls sharing Claire's musical chair. Ava would sit on it and then pat her knees for Claire to sit down on her lap!
And a moment for Ava to enjoy the chair all to herself:

Here's Claire getting a great workout, pushing the much-bigger Ava on the car:

And then the girls took turns twirling each other around in the exersaucer:

And last but not least, the group photo that our travel-mates will enjoy:

Thanks for a great evening, everyone!

When the joy of the journey began

One year ago today, Paul and I saw Claire's face for the first time. We were on our way to Jasper to celebrate Paul's birthday when we learned that we had a daughter, a girl named Yu Cai Wen. When we arrived in Jasper, we couldn't wait to open our email and see little Cai Wen's face. We can still feel the pure joy and magic of that moment when we saw her referral pictures. Although we had never seen her before, there was a kind of instant recognition like, yep, that's our girl.

All that night and the days following, we studied her pictures like crazy, zooming in on every last detail. Sometimes one of us will still crook our hand in the same manner she did in one pic, and get attention of the other. We then break out in big smiles, knowing exactly what the other is thinking. We couldn't wait to meet her in person, to know what her face looked like when she smiled or what her voice sounded like.

This morning as our birthday boy awoke, he was greated with Claire's sweet little voice saying saying "happy birthday" (although it came out more like "happy bay"). What a great start to a birthday. Happy Birthday Paul!

Here's the birthday boy with the gift of all time:

And here's our little family now, a year after seeing Claire's beautiful face the first time:

Also, a big Happy Anniversary to our travel-mates who share this special day (or week) with us. Not only do we remember every moment of receiving our own referral, but we remember very well seeing your referral pictures online, seeing how unique each baby was, and recognizing the same toys in the photos. We also remember the anticipation of meeting all of you, and are now so happy to call you friends.