Snow! Snow! Snow! and Ho! Ho! Ho!

Mostly this post is here to remind people that I'm still here, and writing.  That is, when I'm not writing briefs or presenting or appearing for oral arguments.  Seems like that's all I've been doing the last few months, and after an almost-all-nighter last night (finally got to sleep close to 4 a.m.) working on our summary-judgment motion in this case, I'm officially home for the holidays.

Home for the holidays.  It's what we're doing this year, for the second year in a row, though this year we've been graced by the presence of Alex and Ella-Anne's Papou, my Dad, who has been here since December 2. Even though I've had a nuttier-than-usual schedule, it's been a joy to have him here and to allow Alex and Ella-Anne the gift of unlimited, unrushed time around him.  Alex and Dad (Papou) share a love of lemonade, and they each now have a glass at dinner; it's such a heart-gladdening moment every night when the Lemonade Twins "cheers" their glasses -- Dad his glass tumbler of lemonade, and Alex her Cinderella drinking cup of lemonade.  They're like conspirators, those two.

A Home for the Holidays.  That's the musical holiday special that is on CBS right now.  It's lots of big musical stars (Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Mary J. Blige, Reba McEntire, Shakira, etc.).  The CBS Press Release says it is "an entertainment special celerating the joys of adoption," and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is one of the sponsors/producers.  (Dave Thomas, the late founder of Wendy's, was himself adopted, and was quite the adoption activist all of his life; his eponymous Foundation carries on that work.)

Home for the weekend.  That's what we were, this past weekend, when we were blanketed with over 20 inches of snow, and (briefly) under a blizzard warning. 

Here's our back deck, towards the end of the snowfall -- to give you a sense of the quantity of snow that fell Friday night and Saturday.

And here are some cute photos from Alex's and Mommy's frolic in the snow.  (Ella-Anne was decidedly not interested in being out in the snow and cold; her sense of panic completely devoured any sense of wonder she might otherwise have had.)

Getting out of the home for the holidays.  After being stranded for about three days thanks to this snow, I suggested to Jane that we take Alex and Ella-Anne out to see Santa Claus, and to have lunch at the mall.  Surprisingly, the lines to see Santa were not terrible (not like last year's just-walk-on-up-and-sit-on-Santa's-lap experience, however), though the mall traffic was pretty bad since the last weekend of Christmas shopping had been snowed out for most of us.  More importantly, Alex did not cry or shrink from Santa this year; she walked right on up, sat on his lap, talked to him, wished him "Merry Christmas," and gave him a hug.  And she gave us all a sweet smile for the photos (instead of making a twisted face for the camera); I attribute that to my promise that if she gave Santa a "sweet smile," she and I could make silly faces at lunch at Lebanese Taverna.  Photographic evidence of all of that appears below.

Now for a bit about Ella-Anne:  As of her last doctor's check up about 10 days ago, she is 12 pounds.  She's still a bit smaller than Alex was -- the blog archives tell us that Alex was 12 lbs., 11 oz., and a bit over 24 inches long as of December 18, 2006.  Just for grins, here's a picture of Alex and Jane from December 2006:

And here's one of Ella-Anne at about the same age, three years later:

If I didn't understand genetics, from thse photos I'd swear these two were biologically related.  As it is, they're definitely related -- similar demeanors at their early ages being the most striking similarity (other than the appearance thing).

Since I was going back through the old blogs, let's just preview some of the likely highlights and estimated dates for the next few months, if Alex's experiences are any predictors of Ella-Anne's:

• January 16, 2010:  First cereal (rice?).
• January 26, 2010:  First vegetables (sweet potatoes?).
• Mid-February, 2010:  Adoption finalization in Ft. Worth.
• March 1, 2010:  First tooth.
• March 27, 2010:  First Indian food.

Last word for now:  Alex can make Ella-Anne laugh like nobody's business.  This evening, Alex was kneeling in front of her, bouncing up and down, and this made Ella-Anne belly laugh.  Big chortles.  Out of control, like the first time you saw Jonathan Winters or Robin Williams on TV.  I don't have that power, Mommy doesn't have that power.  Only Big Sister can do it.