New Year's Eve.....

We spent the day with Jenny, Gadiel and Abby. First we went to Tumbleweed Park to play, then to the 3-D movie Tintin, then to eat at Rubio's. Happy New Year!

Winter Camp....

Jasmine has been attending "Winter Camp" all week with her friend Rebecca from kindergarten. When I stopped in yesterday to see how they were doing, Rebecca (green shirt) said to Jasmine while simultaneously rolling her eyes and sighing, "Why does your Mom ALWAYS have a camera with her?" :))

Real London Bus Tour....

Last night we took a bus tour of Tempe and Mesa to see Christmas lights. I purchased tickets in September, and made reservations on November 1st... the first day they were available, and within hours, they were already booked up until after Christmas. It is a very popular and touristy thing to do around here:) It worked out perfectly though with the timing of Jasmine's eye surgery. The bus was old and rickety with no heat. We sat on the top deck, and it seemed like we were going to run into every traffic light at every intersection. After leaving Tempe Marketplace, we went to a couple of neighborhoods, then over to downtown Mesa. I didn't realize the extent of the lights at the Mesa Arts Theater. Almost as many as Zoolights. We didn't get home until 10pm and Jasmine was a grump at the end. We got to sleep in a bit this morning. There were lots of people on the bus who were visiting from Denmark, Holland, and of other places.

Christmas morning.....

This morning, Jessie got me up at 5:30Am to go out.. as she does every morning. Then, Jasmine gave me 15 minutes before she got up, raced into the living room and started screaming. We've had a fun day, opening our presents and playing outside. It's almost 70 degrees today. Jasmine got lots of earrings, ice skating supplies, tons of books and tapes for learning phonics, counting money, and geography. She also got a cash register to practice, a big Intelliglobe that tells various facts about the area you point to, clothes, and of course a scooter.

We just had our really nice dinner, and are going back outside to play again:) !

Christmas Eve.....

Making Ambrosia from Jasmine's recipe. We have enough Ambrosia and food in general for three armies. Earlier today, we went to Whole Foods and bought turkey, mashed sweet potatoes with walnuts, smoked salmon pasta ( for me:), stuffing, pecan pie, and lots of other things. All we have to do is heat everything up!

Tonight we went to Pink Pepper Thai restaurant just down the street. Jessie even had a little Thai dinner of her own.

Christmas Eve Day....

Jasmine and her friend Skyla at the Polar Ice Christmas Eve pajama party, then sprinkling reindeer food in the yard. Miss Wachtel gave each student a bag of oatmeal and glitter to sprinkle in their yard to attract reindeer:) We have alot more to do today.

Art Class..

I signed us up a long time ago- for a little art class at the Chandler Parks and Rec, knowing that there was maybe a 50% chance that Jasmine would feel like going. The edema of her face and eyelids is definitely better today, as well as the scleral hemorrhage. The conjunctiva is still bright red with still alot of scleral hemorrhage remaining. Hopefully by tomorrow, she won't want to itch and rub her eyes so much. She definitely wanted to go to the art class today when I told her about it, then we went out for ice cream afterwards (very bad here lately:(. There was only one other little girl in the class. They made even more crafts....aarrgghh... more crafts!! A ceramic Christmas tree with little jewels on it, a snowman made from a paint stirrer, a gingerbread man and a couple of ornaments. It was still better than being home and thinking about the pain. Just took the focus off for awhile.