we're still alive...

Hi all,
It's been forever since we have posted. There's not much happening on the adoption front - we keep waiting, and the paperwork never seems to end...It is truely amazing how much grief can be caused by paperwork!!!
Check this, check that, notarize this, go here, go there, talk with so-and-so. Re-do, re-send, update...
Anyhow, aside from the paperwork we celebrated Christmas :)
We have a tradition we started a few years ago of celebrating Christmas all the way from Christmas Eve through Epiphany (January 6, the day the coming of the wise men is celebrated). We Celebrate a traditional western Christmas day, but we do not give the children all of their presents on Christmas day. We save some smaller ones, and every evening we sing Christmas carols, read a Christmas story, and give the children a small gift (sometimes a craft or project for everyone, and sometimes a few small things, like Christmas crackers - a thing two people pull, which makes a "bang" sound, and contains a paper crown, a joke and a small toy- more or less of the kind you would get in one of those plastic easter eggs).
We try to save a few of the better things for Epiphany, and have a sort of a miniature Christmas. The kids love it, and it makes Christmas less stressful, as all our hopes are not just pinned on one day.
We started it because in the Bible, the Hebrews used to celebrate some holidays for a week or more, and Christmas always seemed so short...so, why not stretch it out and really enjoy it?
The children love it, and now they don't fully realize that everyone else is not still celebrating Christmas nearly two weeks afterwards :)
I found out this year that in Germany, St. Nicolas brings things for the stockings on December 6th, so I suggested moving the stockings...that's still up for debate :)
God Bless and Merry Christmas,
Susan