Christmas at the Barnettes'

Our first Christmas gathering was at Finley's great-grandparents' house a couple of days early. Finley got to open the first gift, a helicopter that plays music. He loves it!

We played music and sang after dinner, and Finley danced and shook jingle bells.

One of many photos this Christmas of Finley trying to eat tape, wrapping paper, or bows. Surely by next Christmas he won't be putting everything in his mouth, right??

Finley wanted to wear Brandon's new shoes. They were so big and heavy he couldn't move in them, but he didn't want to take them off!

After lots of great food, music, and gifts, Finley conked out. Mommy and Daddy got in some good cuddle time before we went home.

Finley also got to ride on Granddad's tractor this Christmas! He definitely liked that!

Baking Cookies

We've taken quite a few photos already on our trip home, so I'm going to have to put them on the blog in batches. (The internet speed here isn't exactly blisteringly fast.) Speaking of batches, Finley got to help his grandmommy make his first batch of sugar cookies. Here he is in his cute dinosaur pj's, getting ready to bake!

Finley enjoyed getting dough and flour all over his hands...

...and his face!

He tried to grab entire handfulls of sprinkles...

...so Grandmommy had to help finish that part.

Then Finley got to give Maddie a treat. Finley loves Maddie and wants to play with her all the time. He calls her "Mannie."

And no, Finley didn't actually eat any of the sugar cookies he helped make. We're still trying to give him as little refined sugar as possible. We're not terribly mean parents, though; we did offer him a tiny piece of cookie, but he didn't even want it. Guess that means a healthier Finley and more yummy cookies for me!

Rocking the Jet Lag

Since our last post, a lot has happened (which is why I haven't had time to post!). I finished my fall semester classes, Nate's on holiday, I celebrated a birthday, and we flew to NC! And now we're rocking the jet lag that comes from a 13-hour time difference between NC and HK. Finley did well on the flights, and we only had a slight delay from Chicago to NC, so we were very happy. And now we're super happy to be with family for the holidays. We've already eaten tons of good food (NC bbq, chocolate delight birthday cake, lasagna, and all my mom's Christmas goodies), and we've been shopping, all in a couple of days. I don't have any great Christmas photos yet to share, but here are a few random photos from Nate's iPhone from the past couple of weeks that you can enjoy in the meantime.

These are the decorations at our apartment complex. The pink is nice, right?

Finley's into trying on our shoes these days.

We took Finley for his first real haircut last week. It was a disaster. We had to hold him while he kicked and screamed.

We went out last week to buy a slow cooker to celebrate signing another contract for the next couple of years. Here's the Christmas tree at the mall where we went (in HK).

Playdough and Thanksgiving

I was feeling in the mood to be Susie Homemaker last week and decided to make Finley some playdough. I wanted to make it myself because I wanted it to be edible. There was no doubt in my mind he would try eating it, no matter what I said to discourage it. I tasted some myself, and it tasted terrible.

Nate and I enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving dinner with our friends from church last weekend. The feast was pretty traditional except for the spring rolls. No party in HK is complete without spring rolls!

Sorry to keep this post short, but I have a whole lot of school work to do in the next week! Looking forward to finishing it and getting a break over Christmas!