Christmas pics

Christmas is over, the relatives have all gone home, and so today I had some time to upload pics from the busy holiday week. We kicked it off last weekend with a surf and turf Christmas dinner at Ông and Bà Schmidt's house with Dan's brother & his family and Dan's sister Cori. On Christmas Eve, after the cooking and cleaning was mostly done, we set out some cookies and milk for Ông Noël and Gianna turned in early. She woke up around 7am Christmas Day to find a tree full of presents! She was in a pretty cranky mood until all the gift unwrapping got underway. Then there was more cleaning and cooking as the Landis family arrived for Christmas dinner. My brother Jim even dressed up as Santa. Good times were had by all. My brother Jeff and his wife Nancy stayed over a few days and we took a walk around Princeton on Friday. On Saturday morning Eric and Shira came to visit with Darth, and in the evening my aunt Sheryl and uncle Bruce stopped by. We had a nice dinner out in New Brunswick before we had to get Gianna off to bed. So today is recovery day, a day for laundry and a trip to the playground since the weather is warm. Its hard to believe in one month we will be moving to Germany. Our moving date falls right around Tết. Speaking of which, as soon as we take down the Christmas tree, we'll have to put up a Tết tree. But that's material for another blog post. Enjoy the photos.

Santa skips Vietnam 2 years in a row

Bad Santa! Those kids in Vietnam got the shaft for the second year. NORAD checks santa's progress on Christmas Eve and even posts videos from some cities. Its really cute. But for some reason he never stops in Hanoi or Saigon. He stoped twice in Cambodia, once in Laos and Thailand, but nothing for poor little Vietnamese children. I will have to write NORAD an angry letter to change their software! Hehehehe. Merry Christmas to everyone!
Santa has stopped in Thailand, twice in Cambodia, now Laos, maybe Hanoi is next?!?

No! He high-tails it to interior China completely missing Vietnam. I'm glad I sent them that package of gifts since Santa dropped the ball.

Ông Noël

Dear friends back in Hanoi,

It has been almost two months since my going away party and I miss you all very much. You will never guess what happened to me since then. Remember those strange white people that came to the orphanage to feed us candy? Well two of them took me home to live with them in America and now they are my Bố and Mẹ. This is the land of plenty. I have a warm house that keeps out the rain, a soft bed to sleep on with clean sheets, all the food I can eat, and more clothes than I can wear in a week! There are no bugs to bite me, my parents have medicine for when I get sick, and the toys just keep coming. Already I have more toys than you have in the whole orphanage. In America, they celebrate everything with presents. People gave me presents when I came home, on my birthday, and now for Christmas. You remember how we used to dream that Ông Noël would bring presents to our orphanage? Well tonight I got to meet him in person! Mẹ and I were in the kitchen baking when Bố said that he heard Ông Noël coming. I thought he was joking. We put on our boots and coats and waited at the end of our driveway. Down the road came a carriage playing English Christmas carols, pulled by a big fire truck. In the carriage was none other than Ông Noël and all his reindeer! Bố and Mẹ took me to sit on his lap and he gave me a candy cane. It was so exciting, especially for Mẹ.

In one month I will be moving to a new home in Germany. Maybe Germany is close to Vietnam and I will be able to visit. If Ông Noël does not come to the orphanage this year, I will bring you my toys to keep and clothes for you to wear. Bố and Mẹ can bring our refrigerator of food and you will feast for months! My Christmas wish is that Ông Noël will give each of you a Bố and Mẹ to love you like my Bố and Mẹ. Here are some pictures of me and Ông Noël to prove that he is real!

Love, Gianna (Mai)

Here comes his sleigh, down our street

I was so excited to meet Ông Noël, I didn't know what to do!

Bố and me in front of the sleigh with my candy cane

RIP Peepers the zebra finch

Gianna found our finch Peepers belly-up in her seed dish this morning. She kept pointing at the bird "Mẹ! Mẹ!" I didn't know what to say. Peepers was obviously dead with her spindly legs sticking straight up in the air, so I told her the truth. Peepers is dead, the angels took her to heaven (to be reunited with her late husband, Sam, as Dan pointed out). Gianna seemed disturbed and confused, but didn't cry. She really liked to watch Peepers eat seed and jump around. Although Peepers was a messy old pet that couldn't come to Germany anyhow, I will still miss her. Tonight when I came home, even though I knew she was dead, I habitually listened for her peep-peep and was greeted instead by silence. So sad. I buried her in a large clay planter, the same place that I buried Sam, who also died when the ground was frozen!

On to more pleasant matters, last night was Dan's company Christmas party at the Ritz Carlton in Manhattan. My friend Georgie baby-sat Gianna so Dan and I could attend. Parties are always good at the Ritz; I'm a huge fan of the desserts. OK, I was too busy this year to buy a new outfit, so I unimaginatively wore the same one from last year, the horror! I'm a mom now, so I'm letting myself go ;-) Gianna was a good girl for the babysitter, but must have really missed us. This morning she was all lovey-dovey and gave both me and Dan a kiss on the cheek! What a treat. She has never kissed me before and has only given Dan a few tiny pecks. But these kisses were real smackers! We will have to go out more often.

And finally, we had some significant snowfall today that turned into a nice ice storm. Gianna had seen falling snow before, but never got a chance to go out and play around in it. My work let us go home early, so I picked up Gianna, put on her Colonel Klink snow boots, and took her outside for some play in the snow. But she was miserable. Snow is not her thing, not yet. I'm with her, I'd rather be in hot and humid Hanoi than winter in the Mid-Atlantic. Maybe we will get a real snow storm that warrants breaking out her snow pants before we move to Frankfurt.

More cookie shots

We spend a lot of time cooking and baking together, everything I dreamed being a mom was like.

Dan is back

Gianna and I picked Dan up at the Newark airport Saturday night. We were both happy to see him! All went well with the trip to Germany. Dan looked at several apartments and found one that will work. Its a few train stops away from Eric and Donnell. There is a park nearby and some shops for groceries. The apartment is on the third floor with an elevator and balcony. It looks really nice from the pictures. The movers are coming to our house this week to make their initial walk-though to see how much stuff we have to move out. We have to decide what goes into storage and what goes to Germany. So soon?

We also had a great time seeing Jada and Ryan. They have both put on some weight and have longer hair, just like Gianna. For the first time, the kids were interacting with each other, sharing crayons and pushing a truck around. It was really sad to say good-bye, since we probably won't see them again before we move. But Jada and Ryan are Gianna's family, her brother and sister as far as we are concerned. So we will see them again the first chance we get when we are back in the States.

Frankfurt

Today I resigned my chemist position at L'Oreal, giving them one month's notice. Now that our parents know and my employer knows, I can freely post that we are moving to Frankfurt, Germany in January. Dan's employer was bought by a German financial company (Deutsche Borse) last year. In September, two of his friends were transferred to the Frankfurt office, and now that the adoption is completed, Dan is going in January. This past week he was over there meeting with his new bosses and finding a place to live. We will be over there at least a year and won't be able to take much with us. Things that are definitely coming with include Dan, Barb, Gianna, and Bruno. Bruno needs to get microchipped and we all need to get our visas, but we are not leaving any of us behind. Notable things we will have to leave behind include our finch Peepers, Dan's mistress (AKA the plasma TV), all my plants, our furniture, cars...oh the list is getting long. We plan to rent out our house with a corporate housing broker here in central Jersey. The woman came to tour our house before Dan left for Germany and she thought it would be a good property for them to pick up. Hopefully we can sign it over when he gets back. As for the cars, they are both for sale. We're asking Blue Book price for our 2003 Jeep Liberty (~60k miles) and 2001 Honda Civic (~100,000 miles), if you know anyone that is looking for a car. Otherwise they go into storage with the rest of our crap.

Yes, this will be another big adjustment for Gianna. But it will be a much better situation overall. Dan commutes 1.5 hrs each way for his job in Manhattan each day. Working regular hours, he doesn't get to see her much. Now we will live a few minutes from his office. I plan to stay home with Gianna for a little while. We want to make sure she has a spot in the German childcare system before I accept a job offer. The University of Frankfurt is nearby, so maybe I can get a teaching or tutoring position there. There are also a lot of chemical companies in Frankfurt, so that's another option. I'm also thinking I will end this blog after Christmas and start a Germany blog. I will definitely post the new web address if/when it comes together!

Gianna has been a little sick this week...high fever tonight, but I was able to get it down. Hopefully she will be feeling OK tomorrow for her Red Robin lunch date with Ryan and Jada. Last night we made some Christmas cookies. Enjoy some pics!

Scrooge

Today I shipped the Christmas package to Gianna's orphanage in Vietnam. It mostly contained blankets, sweatpants, light jackets, and a few toys for the kids. Last time I tried to save a buck and shipped stuff to Vietnam via the US postal service. It never got there and we felt like a bunch of schmo's when they said that Gianna never received our photo album. So this time, I went with Fed Ex. It cost about $18.50/lb, but its worth it. Access and funds are the orphanage's biggest barriers to meeting the kids needs. Even if they have the money for clothes, they will probably spend it on food. Then the kids will be cold and sick all winter. Gianna was living one rice patty down from the middle of nowhere, Vietnam, so its not like they have a Walmart right down the road to buy everything they need. Back at the Fed Ex counter, the guy starts giving me a hard time when he saw the total cost to ship "a bunch of clothes and toys" to Vietnam. He was trying to convince me its highway robbery and I should reconsider. I felt like explaining the situation, that Fed Ex would have to deliver the package via rickshaw, and how its worth the cost. But instead I just insisted he ship the package. I also have the bank account trust fund number for her orphanage so we will make a cash donation in addition to this care package. If anyone would like to send a package or send a donation, let me know. US dollars go a long way there, so any small donation would be greatly appreciated.

Surviving without Bố

Dan is in Germany and Gianna is wondering what the heck is going on. My kind and generous cousin stayed with us Monday night through this morning. She let him hold her, help change her, all the things Dan does for her. He's a real good manny. But now he's gone and all we have to remember him by are the delicious leftovers in the fridge from his day of cooking. Jonathan, come back!! We Skype with Dan every night but the connection is not great at his hotel, so sometimes it seems like he's having a stroke. Gianna doesn't seem to mind. The first night she fell asleep in my arms at 8pm watching her Einstein lullaby DVD, but was up from midnight to 4am. Last night she woke up at 12:45 and went back to sleep (as far as I know, I was zonked out!) until morning. We'll see what tonight will bring. I'm back to work full-time and it seems like I never left. The days drag on so long and all I can think about is picking up Gianna from daycare and kissing her cheek 100 times until she bursts out in laughter.

Back to work and Dan's in Germany

Tomorrow Dan leaves for Germany. He won't be back until Saturday night, so I'll be here alone with Gianna all week. Also tomorrow, I return to work full-time and Gianna will go to day care full-time. Dan is always the one to put Gianna to bed. We give her a bath at 7, brush her teeth, put on her PJ's, then she watches Baby Einstein Lullaby with Dan until she's mostly asleep. Then at 8, he takes her back to the bedroom, puts on her Vietnamese music and tucks her into bed. I'd like to think she will fall asleep eventually no matter what I do, but it seems like two year olds can run on adrenaline long after we've dropped of exhaustion.

This weekend we strapped a fresh Christmas tree to the Jeep and drove it home to decorate. Gianna liked putting the hooks in the ornaments. Just like with the small tree, she preferred to put all ornaments on one branch. She also likes to undecorate the tree, as I found several ornaments on the kitchen floor this morning.
Today our cousin Justus came over to play with Gianna. Justus is 3 years old and lives in Queens. He is pretty shy like Gianna, but after a while they were both playing with toys, building blocks, and riding the Fisher Price truck. Speaking of shy, Gianna's teachers tell me she has been pretty reserved at daycare. She is the type of kid that likes to stand and watch other kids play rather than be in the middle of all the fun. They have a time where all the kids sit in a circle and sing songs, but so far she won't participate. One time I drove past the school when they were out at recess. I said to myself, awwww, look at that poor kid standing alone in the corner. She's wearing a cute jacket. It looks like Gianna's jacket...wait a second...that's Gianna :-( My heart sunk, but the teachers were motioning her to come play and she wouldn't. She does this at home sometimes too, she likes to watch other people play. As long as she's happy, I won't worry.