Winter Break - Stay-cation

Our winter break from school was a total stay-cation and that was fine for us. The weather has been cold, cold, COLD. The coldest temperatures this year so far. 

Bri really wanted to stay at home and hunker down. She is on the go so much, I think she was happy vegging out this entire week.

Some of the vegging has been due to Minecraft. Bri actually had a play date over at her friend Taylor's house Monday afternoon and they played it most of the afternoon.

And now that Bri has it at home, she has played it on her own and with Daddy...

 Tuesday was doctor day. Bri had an eye appointment in the morning and I had an appointment in the afternoon.

This was my FB status on Tuesday ~ 

"So...I was really upset that Bri's eye doctor dropped us a few weeks ago without letting us know until I went to make an appointment (he no longer takes VSP). It ended up being a blessing in disguise! The new doctor is wonderful (thanks Tonia for the referral!) and Bri didn't even have to get her eyes dilated today because of their Optimap system. And I found out that Bri's frames never fit properly on her face (they've been bothering her lately) and they adjusted them perfectly. One happy kid and mama!"

I am so pleased with the new doctor and facility. I guess sometimes you don't know something better might be waiting around the corner until you get pushed around that corner to find it out.

Here is Miss B smiling for her mama...

Briana's diagnosis of an astigmatism and slight nearsightedness was correct, so her previous doctor had diagnosed her properly. But, we picked out new frames for her months ago because her original frames had broken. I had no idea that they were not fitting on Bri's face properly. They were squeezing her temples and were bent too far around the back of her ears. I would have never known because Bri rarely complains. She had started saying recently that the back of her ears were hurting after she wore her glasses all day. Her glasses needed to be bowed out because of the round shape of her face and bit and less bent around the ears. You learn something new every day I guess. Bri's feeling lots better now.

Wednesday, we decorated for CNY. Right when we got done, my mom called and said "Is it starting to flurry/snow at your house?" Bri and I looked outside and saw it starting to come down. I knew it wouldn't last long, so Bri ran outside immediately.

The wind was blowing really hard...

You can't see the flurries in the picture, but they were there. It's kind of sad at how happy Bri was with this - LOL!!

You can see the snow better in this picture...

It lasted about a half and hour and it was gone. I'm glad Bri got to see even the littlest of something around here.

The next morning was Thursday ~ Chinese New Year. Bri opened some gifts from me and Doug and my mom and dad.

Here are my mom's gifts...

It was super duper cold on Thursday (said 12 on the thermometer in the morning). Bri's friend Izzy came over the play in the afternoon. They had a blast and played a lot with Mei...

I whipped up some spaghetti for dinner and sliced some oranges. Who says noodles on CNY ("long noodles, long life") can't be covered in tomato sauce, right? ;)...

Bri and Mei relaxing that night...

Friday finally rolled around and Bri and Doug had a daddy/daughter lunch at a BBQ restaurant together. Doug sent me these pictures. Vegetarians - you might want to turn away. These are disturbing to me and I'm a meat eater. LOL! 

Briana loves her ribs...

Doug is super proud. LOL!!!

Bri and I then went to the local art center in the afternoon to do a CNY craft...

Bri loved doing the craft, but no one from our China adoption group came this year. Actually hardly anyone was there at all. There were only three other kids there beside Briana. Last year, there were 10 or 11 kids there from our group. I think it was a mix of winter break, very cold temps and possibly a little disinterest from people this year (maybe?). I don't know. Makes me kind of sad. :( Bri was still super happy to do it, so I'm glad we went.

As soon as we got home, it started to snow a little. And even started to stick a tiny bit...

And FYI - Miss Mei Mei gets more comfortable around here each day...

Seriously, she lays like this when she is chillin'. It is hilarious!!!

The weekend is finally here and Bri will start back up at school next week. She isn't too thrilled about that. ;)

We have several CNY things going on next week, so I will post about those soon!