Home for the Holidays Part 2: Christmas

We spent the beginning of December in DC trying to get move in. All our stuff arrived. The most depressing moment: when our shipment from storage arrived. This is the stuff that we haven't seen in 3 years because it was more than we could hold in our house in Japan. We could think of about 20 items that we knew were in there, so we were expecting a list of may be 30-40. No less than 100 items showed up. Since we had spent a whole week finding places in our new house for the stuff we'd had in Japan, it was completely demoralizing to try to find room for all that stuff. We took many trips to goodwill and our new storage space: Mom's attic. It's finally getting under control now.
Anyway, over Christmas, we took a break and went back to North Carolina to refresh and enjoy family time. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures of anyone except the baby. So here she is playing Frisbee in Eastern NC before Christmas:

We had a nice family Christmas there, and Ela enjoyed playing with the ribbons. Then on Christmas Eve, we moved on to Raleigh for my side of the family...

Ela got a stroller to help her walk and a dolly to put in the stroller from Santa the next day. Ela takes the dolly out as soon as you put it in the stroller, and still only pushes the stroller one handed. She also walks entirely on her own now (with lots of tumbles)! Crazy! Luckily, she doesn't know how to get from sitting to standing on her own yet, so if I need her to stay put, I just don't set her on her feet. It won't be long now before no where is safe. The baby proofing has begun.
Christmas morning, we gave Ela her stocking and headed back to Winston Salem for more family Christmas.

The stocking, I made for her. Inside were just a few toys from Japan, nothing big. She really likes the squid bath toy at the moment. From her Daddy's parents, she got a nice set of keys and a toy camera that can keep her entertained for fairly long at a go. I failed to get any more unwrapping pictures, though. I was too busy enjoying the company.

Ela had a very good time, too. A few days later, we were on our way back to DC, and over New Years, we finished the unpacking. The boxes leave on Saturday, and we're gradually getting back into the swing of things. It was really nice to spend so much time with family after such a long time away.