Christmas Season Begins

The day after our great Thanksgiving celebration at the Kemis home on Thursday, we set out for our usual "Friday after Thanksgiving" shopping trip. The Stoll tradition goes that you don't show up at the mall until late morning or early afternoon so you miss the giant crowds, then you wander the mall hoping against hope that you will find at least a few gifts, eat an expensive late lunch at the food court, shop some more, eat a late dinner and head home with less money in your pocket, zero gifts and some very fun memories of family time together. This year we had the added enjoyment of introducing Mara to this family tradition. She even sat on Santa's lap though with a bit of fear and trepidation. Talking to Santa is good. Sitting on his lap is not so good.

Today I received an e-mail from CCAI with the good news that our dossier has been delivered to the CCAA in China and that we now have access to our "Dossier to China" packet from CCAI. I don't know what this is yet because I don't really have access until 6 p.m. today. But this is fun news. The next news we wait to hear is when the CCAA logs in our dossier.