gram's christmas brunch

On Monday morning, after the wild and crazy donut night, I hosted a little "Brunch" with Mikelle and Zaylee.  These two little girls know that they are sisters.  They know that they are both adopted into different families, but they truly love each other.  They've put the facts together in their own minds, their parents openly confirm them, and they make me laugh when they talk about it together.

I asked their moms to bring them at 9:30.  I had breakfast ready to go when they arrived and a busy morning of activities for us to do together.  They were excited to begin with the hot cocoa bar.  We had chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, red hot candies, milk duds, strawberries, whipped cream, marshmallows, red and green Christmas tree sprinkles, and more.  I told them that they could put anything and as much of they wanted on their hot cocoa.  They loved all of the fun dishes, but mostly the spoon with the Christmas bulb that lights up on it.

The anything goes rule also applied to the waffles.  They literally went through one canister of whipped cream!

Zaylee loved the "All the bacon you want" rule!

 

 We cleaned up breakfast and the girls made their own Christmas necklaces.    Mikelle, meticulously did hers with red, white, red white, and added one green on each side.

 Zaylee threaded ten white, ten green, then ten red, added her charm, then repeated on the other side.

  

Following our necklaces, the girls made donut snowmen on skewers to take home for each member of their family.

The snowmen were Hostess donuts, fruit leather scarves, M&Ms for buttons and black frosting for their eyes.  The frosting dots was a fail, but other than that, they were darling!  (Note, if you try these, the donuts must be pretty fresh.  They crumble quite easily while putting skewers in them.)

Zaylee, black clothes and white powdered donuts... hmmmm...not the best combination.

 

Grace and Zee came up to help with the donuts and the final craft, but the most of the activity was just Gram and her grandgirls.

 Following the snowman making, we did our next craft, making scarves.  I cut them and the girls tied them.  I was really entertained watching Zaylee watching Miki as she put her scarf on over and over. Zaylee tried to do what Miki was doing and couldn't quite figure it out.  Finally, she asked, "Miki, how do you do that?"  Miki replied, "Oh, it's easy.  My dad taught me how to do it."  She then showed Zaylee how to fold it in half and thread it through.  They both wore their scarves the rest of the time.

While they learned to tie scarves, I tied their little no-sew fleece hats.  Miki had a ponytail, so hers was tight, but I think it will be fine when her hair is down.  They thought it was pretty cool to have matching hats and scarves though.

I'm somewhat fascinated that these two girls are half sisters and yet they couldn't be any more different... in looks, in personalities, in mannerisms. Yet, they are both just as cute as can be and they just act like they've lived together since birth.   How thankful we are that they have both been adopted into such wonderful and loving families!  They, and we, have truly been blessed!

There were two presents under the snowman tree and Miki picked up on it very quickly.  "Why are there so many presents under the living room tree and only two under this one?"  I think she was hoping that these were for them.  She was correct. They both went home with their own little set of cocoa mugs (Hello Kitty for Zaylee and Elsa for Miki) and whatever toppings they wanted for their own cocoa at home.

We finished up around 12:15, just in time to take them home and then drop Quayd off in Smithfield for work.  He had the girls laughing and giggling so hard.  Zaylee was telling him how to get a girlfriend.  "You have to kiss her!"  Quayd was making his rubber faces for all the ways to kiss.... none of which would a girl want to be kissed by.  These two little girls were giggling so hard at his faces.  Zaylee thinks Quayd is "the silliest boy on the whole earth!"

I was pretty tired from the long, crazy weekend and party the night before when I first woke up at 6.   I'd had everything organized and planned before the Donut Night Party, so this was pretty simple. I was so happy for this special little morning and hoped that it would make a memory. I have been thinking a lot about how to spend more time with these little grandgirls who are but are not ours any longer.  Both families welcome us into their lives, but we do not want to be invasive.  But, we also want relationships with them.  It's so complicated.   Some outsiders look at us and shake their heads.  We're more thankful than words could say, for these sweet little children and that their lives are blessed to be in such wonderful families!  It works for us.  That's all that matters.

I am blessed.  Life is good.