OurLittleMcFamily.com

Right before leaving for Thanksgiving in Logan, we glittered new stockings for our growing family. We also put up Christmas lights, decorated the house, and did some Christmas shopping. The kids had a blast, and they definitely know what Christmas is. I knew that we would be gone until the very end of Thanksgiving weekend so I wanted to get a jump start.

We also made our way to Jaimee and Brian’s home for Thanksgiving. They hosted for the whole family this year, and it was wonderful. Jaimee out did herself on decorations and food. Brian even smoked a turkey and a brisket for us to munch on through the weekend. We did miss my brother Mike and his family. Their work schedule caused them to stay back in Yakima. We missed them very very much. Oh yeah, I made the cute little turkey name holders…thanks for letting me place them on the magnificently dressed table, Jaimee.

We ate, and ate, and ate. We visited the Lights at Temple Square. We played games. We ate some more. We went fourwheeling and walking. We opened presents. And, finally, we ate some more.

Since we wouldn’t all be together for Christmas this year, we celebrated a little early. Grandma and aunties were way too generous. The boys wore their new little suits today with pride. And the girls wore their new little fluffy dresses. Thanks, grandma. Here are a few more pics from the weekend.

I guess there is no hiding Christmas from the kids anymore. :) Apparently, they never celebrated Christmas in the orphanage, and never received gifts. It’s a bright new world for these four little munchkins. We are blessed to be a part of it. The best of it all is that they are so thankful for everything they receive–and they treasure even their “smallest” gifts. The little writing books from the $1.00 bin were the hit of the drive home, mom. Amazing!

Our children are fantastic travelers. Not much complaining, and not any fighting either. And yes, that is without any movies playing in the car. I think they know that to be Rach and Adam’s kids, they have to be good travelers. I have no qualms about driving to Washington next summer with them. We are so lucky!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that’s right, you heard us. We have many friends and family who have generously provided us with hundreds of dollars in Target gift cards for our adoption. This has been a huge blessing for us because we live in Logan, UT where there is not currently a Target store. We are in the process of picking and purchasing a point-and-shoot digital camera for our trip to Colombia. So logically we decided to use some of our Target money to purchase the camera we were looking for.

Adam just tried purchasing the item online at target.com, but was unable to use the number of gift cards it would require. Okay, understandable. Adam then called customer service so that they could help him finish the purchase over the phone. Pretty simple, right? Not asking much. We are wanting and willing to give Target a few hundred dollars.

What was the call center’s response, you ask? “Well, maybe you could go to a Target store and combine the gift cards there.” There was a small exchange over us not having a Target, and something about how they use the exact same screen we use to order things so there is absolutely no possible way to override the system….blah blah blah! When Adam asked to speak to a superior, he was met with the “our calls are recorded for quality….”

The bottom line: we’re buying our camera from B&H, which we prefer anyway. The same camera is $50 cheaper, there is no sales tax, and shipping takes less time. Oh yeah, we love B&H and have never been dissappointed with their service. Buy all your camera stuff from them–they’re great!

I would usually post this sort of thing on our adoption blog, but thought it more fittingly placed here. Adam and I had a four hour psychological evaluation last week. Colombians place psychologists and their adoption evaluations in high importance. As part of our evaluation, we took the MMPI II personality test per Colombia’s request. This is a long true/false 567 question test. The main purpose of this test is to detect which, if any, personal, social, or behavioral problems an individual who is troubled may posess.

Here are a few of our favorites (remember they are t/f statements):

1. I have felt posessed by evil spirits at times.

2.  At times I feel like swearing.

3. Parts of my body often have feelings like burning, tingling, crawling, or like “going to sleep”.

4. I’ve never vomitted blood or coughed up blood.

5. Once a week or oftener I suddenly feel hot all over, for no reason.

6. Someone has been trying to influence my mind.

7. At one or more times in my life, I felt that someone was making me do things by hypnotizing me.

We will get our personal results back at our follow-up consult. The psychologist said not to expect much out of it though (which is supposed to be good). That shows how well he knows us, right? Oh yeah, he also said that we both appear to have strong egos! Maybe he does know us better than we thought. :)