The tree is up!

We finally got our Christmas tree up tonight! I like to use the excuse that we don't like to put it up until after Athena's birthday, but we just couldn't find the time to do it until tonight.

I did however make the time to get my cut-out cookies done. I do have my priorities;) Athena helped with the cookies and I have to say, now that she is 4 her 'help' is actually somewhat helpful:)

John is on call for Christmas weekend, which means we can't travel up north to see his family that weekend because he would be too far away from work. We went up this last weekend instead and had a great time:) This coming weekend we'll be spending some days at home with just us and some days with my family over at my parents house. Athena is excited to get to spend some time with her cousins from Ohio who she only sees a few times a year. Grandma is having a grandkid/cousin sleepover at her house Thursday night. Perfect timing for Ena to be out of the house because daddy has a few hours of 'assembly required' to do in the basement to get ready for Christmas morning!
I indulged in a little bit of retail therapy while we're waiting to go get sweet baby Alton! Check out these cute little boy outfits I bought! The tiger pillow pet was a Christams gift from grandma Julie and grandpa Jim. I went through all of our tubs of Athena's clothes from 9 months to 18 months and found pretty much nothing appropriate for a boy-a few onesies and one pair of jeans. Yeah, I guess I went pretty girlie with all of her stuff-not much in the nuetral category at all! I held back with shopping for Alton so far though because I have a few friends who offered to dig through their kid clothes and see if they have any boy stuff we can use. I'm waiting to see if anything turns up before I spend any more on clothes.

As for a travel time frame, we still don't have dates. We overnighted our I800 immigration petition to our agency for review on the 9th (thurs), they reviewed it on the 10th (friday), then it was overnighted to the USCIS on the 13th (monday). We're told it takes about 3 weeks to approve, though I hope ours isn't slowed by all of the holidays in there. Once that is approved, another document needs to be sent from USCIS to the Colombian officials. Once that is done, we should get word of exact travel dates. Our agency is still saying 'mid to late January' We'll certainly let everyone know once we have more information!

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!