Christmas - New Years 2007

Better late than never - isn't that what they say? Our Christmas 2007 was awesome as was our New Years. We kicked off our Christmas starting with the annual Christmas pageant at Church which was beautiful and a reminder of what this holiday is really about. Christmas Eve we went to the beach to get our sand for our luminary tradition. We went out to dinner at our favorite waterfront restaurant for an early dinner and then shot some fireworks off of our dock. We lit the luminary, put out our key for Santa, read Twas the Night before Christmas and before we knew it morning was here. Santa was very good to all of us :) The next day we had the pleasure of our Maryland friends visiting and we of course went boating - Captiva was our destination. Their visits always go by too quick but a good time! Friday we headed out to Boca Grande for New Years. I know I say that all the islands we visit are my favorite, but this one is definitely tops for me. It's a magical place. I love getting on the golf cart and just driving around the island. The people are so nice and one of our favorite things to do is to go to the dog park at 3:30 - that is when the unspoken Boca Grande rule is that the small dogs gather and play - at 4:00 the big dogs come. Boo loved her park time each day and there was even another Norwich there named Hudson. We did lots of fishing and Joseph caught his first big snook - very hard to catch! This was a keeper! We met the Governor of Florida (there's a pic in the slideshow). Joseph had a very nice political converation with him. We visited with our social worker who had just returned from China last month. She gave Joseph an Olympic 2008 t-shirt and gave us a beautiful red ornament with a Jade stone that represents Good Luck in China. She bought this for us in Guangzhou. We have it hanging in our kitchen. When speaking with her this weekend we talked about the wait and how discouraged we were. I mentioned at one point that maybe this just wasn't meant to be - her answer to me has stuck in my mind since - she said "something is not meant to be when every single door has been closed." Well the doors are still wide open.

We ended our last day of the year on the beach watching fireworks. We brought along some but there were so many others doing them, we had a nice show.
As this new year begins, I have so much gratitude for the life I have - my husband, my son, my family, friends and now my blogger friends - I am blessed beyond measure. I wish everyone good health, happiness, peace and may this year bring lots and lots of babies home to their forever families. I look forward to watching many of you start and complete your families.