I am extremely disappointed with the quality of these photos from Bella’s daycare’s Christmas program. Of course, we had to fight the mad rush of Chinese parents to get a seat and we ended up way in the back. I thought, “No problem, my camera has 10X optical zoom.” I can certainly zoom way in, but what’s with the auto focus? Am I missing something here?

Bella is in the second row (in pearls), second from the right, between her friends, Emma and Chandler. She sang a few songs with the large group and then a smaller group - no stagefright this year!

Then she did a little dancing. She’s on the far right.

She seemed to have her own choreography, as her moves didn’t quite coordinate with the other girls. Nice blurry pictures, huh?

Everyone received gifts from their teachers. Here is Bella with her friend, Sophia, who has since moved on to another class. She is 4 years old - and much taller.

Bella loves her teachers: Teacher Ming, her current teacher, on the left, and Teacher Ying, last year’s teacher, on the right.

It was a busy Saturday. That evening we went to Auntie Suzanna and Uncle Rob’s for our annual OHS party. She loved Michelle and Christine. In fact, I think she drove them crazy with too much love! She kept her pearls on.

Here we are again - another year older. It would have been a landmark reunion this year, but the committee flaked. Bella and I are dressed to leave. It must have taken about an hour to get this group photo before we could leave the party.

Auntie Suzanna decorated her house beautifully - lots of Hello Kitty touches, too! Auntie Monica took these in front of the tree on our way out. Bella got stickers from Auntie Lisa.

Olivia Jie Jie is a ballerina and was performing in the Nutcracker. Auntie Lena invited us and Auntie Ginger, who cheered loudly for Olivia’s inspiring performance. We all really enjoyed it! Auntie Lena took lots of pictures, but hasn’t shared them with us yet. Someday, Bella will be a ballerina, too.

Bella tried on my rain boots at Po Po’s house. They are huge on her and go up to her crotch!

I got one new ornament (guess who?) and some blossom lights (hard to see). These are Bella’s Christmas 2008 portraits. Can you believe that she is actually smiling?

Here is the real Little Miss Fidgety that I had to deal with.

Bella loves singing “Happy Birthday,” so she sang it to Jesus on Christmas Day.

Bella really likes the zoo. Thank you, Irene et al, for the membership. The elephants were all out and chomping on their lunch.

What goes in comes out! The elephant made a major poop right in front of Bella. She thought it was hilarious!

The zebras are hard to spot sometimes because they are down the hill, but we caught a good glimpse of them this time.

Apparently, the zoo has lots of giraffes! They are standing against their “Zoo Lights” figures, which illuminate during the nightime holiday light festival (more in January).

The monkeys were poorly photographed because they were backlit. They were quite entertaining swinging from the ropes,  and, i must add, VERY vocal! They put on a great show for us!

Bella’s favorite ride, the train.

It was a momentous occasion for Bella. She was SOOO close to 36″ tall, that the operator let her ride the ride. Look at her fly!

Of course, she took full advantage of her newfound height and rode the motorcyle, too! Vroom, vroooom!

We went to Vacaville for a bit of pre-holiday shopping. Bella enjoyed the carousel more than shopping. Fortunately for me, it was right in front of the Cole Haan store.

Thanksgiving was pretty low key this year. Aiyi was in London for a business trip and Popo didn’t roast a turkey. What??? Exactly! What’s Thanksgiving without a turkey??? Well, even sans turkey, we were so thankful for everything that God has provided for us, especially each other.