Arrival of winter and PPR #1

Winter raged into town with a vengeance bringing with it the usual heavy dump of the white stuff, traffic delays, driveways to be shoveled and new fun things to explore.  Corbin begs from the moment he gets up for his boots and mittens... at -17 Mama is reluctant to comply.  I also am having trouble with the concept of Christmas... what to buy now and what to wrap up under the tree later.  As I sit looking out at blue sky and mounds of beautiful white snow that begs to be sledded on, I am caught - toboggan now or under the tree? On the flip side though, Corbin is having NO trouble with he concept of Christmas.  As we walked through the mall I explained Santa, his reindeer's, good little girls and boys and Corbin is definitive that, "Santa bring me yellow pick up truck please" over, and over, and over... it was cute the first oh say 500x lol.  We've added a few items to his wish list and thankfully I already have a small stash of stocking items on the go so I'm ahead of the curve.  Corbin is ready for ski season too.  We picked up a set of wee little skis with the promise that when it snows outside we can ski in the mountains...  well now with all the snow outside the chorus of "yellow pick up truck" is joined by "we go to mountains and ski now Mama?" 
In other update sort of news, PPR #1 is now done and behind us.  Strange really since it is to be for 6 months and we will have only been home 5 months in a few days but it is complete.  It was simple really - she came, followed the prescribed set of questions and observed Corbin and Me in our natural habitat.  She was very happy with everything and said that she couldn't hope for a child to adjust more beautifully.  The next day we attended the Adoption Month celebration at our home study agency and had the privilege of standing at the front of the room to talk about the process.  It's a walk down memory lane to go back to my seat in the crowd and all the hopes that came with that seminar.  It was apropos that when I put my winter coat on that morning, I actually hadn't worn it since trip one last winter... it had tic tac's in one pocket (pasty mouth saver) and Russian coins in the other.  I gave each of the families one as my sentiment of good luck in their journey. I can't wait to hear of their journeys. 
And finally, we spent some great time again with my girlfriend and her family including Corbin's friend Mamush who joined his family just before Corbin arrived home.  What a whirl wind of toddler activity with the boys in the house.  They had quite the experience getting interviewed at the US embassy for Mamush to get a travel visa... Not sure what an interview of a 20 month old entails but... it was a circus and it is complete.  Fun week - next week we'll ski, skate and Mama will start to do some Christmas shopping.  The stockings are found, ornaments sorted, baking lists made, menus for Christmas being contemplated and the excitement of creating our own family traditions is so wonderful.