This year was the first Christmas that we got to spend as a family with Liliana. Although I was ill for most of December, I was able to get better right before the holidays arrived…just in time to celebrate. 
We took Liliana to the mall for her first visit with Santa. Considering the fact that she is absolutely terrified of anyone with facial hair (something that she never saw while in China), she did pretty good with Santa. That is, until the very end of her when she started to cry. We still think that she did remarkably well considering she is only nine months old. Fortunately, we were able to get a good photo of her with Santa to put in her memory book.
This Christmas brought about many wonders and joys for Liliana. 
She loves the lights that decorate our Christmas tree. She and Travis have spent many evenings at the tree observing the beautiful lights and ornaments. She seems simply awed by the sight of something so new and beautiful. When daddy was not around, she actually walked right up to the tree and looked in amazement at all of the twinkling lights.
Christmas Eve found Liliana eagerly tracking Santa via NORAD and the internet. She was so 
excited to use the computer (with a little help from mommy) to find out exactly where he was at any given time. If you look at the picture closely, you can see that she was carefully following his path through the United States. Once he made it past Florida though, she knew that she needed to go to bed for the night. However, before Liliana would make her way to her room, she found time to take in a game of Elf Bowling.
On Christmas Day, Liliana’s favorite activity was ripping through her gifts from both Santa and family (we had a feeling that she would enjoy opening presents since she just loves ripping through kleenex and tissue paper). Her favorite gifts were the Baby Einstein activity center given to her by her grandparents, 
Nana and Papa Franz, and a set of colorful stacking rings that offer her hours of entertainment. 
She also fell in love with a beautiful, colorful dress from Hawaii that she cannot wait to wear someday soon.
Of course, at the end of the day, 
what we enjoyed most was the laughter we shared as a family. Liliana really has brought so much love and joy to our family, and was the greatest gift we could have received for Christmas. The Lord definitely blessed our family this year. We thoroughly look forward to many more joyous holidays as a family to come.
So, with the wesite updated with Christmas news and photos, I will leave you with one last photo of our little one in her cute Santa hat (she looks just like a little elf!). Don’t forget, you can click on any of the pictures to see full-size images, and also, keep checking back for updates and video. May peace be with you all.
