Merry Christmas 2019!

Our Christmas season started after Thanksgiving.  The kids wanted the Christmas lights to go up and the boys "helped".

The presents started arriving via Amazon.  And then they went upstairs to Mommy and Daddy's bedroom to get wrapped.  If Xiao Yu had any remnants of belief in Santa, the other kids took care of that.

The kids each got a chocolate advent calendar from Trader Joe's.  We kept them on top of the fridge when not in use, and so here is Karina getting access to hers.

We inherited some Christmas decorations from Emily's mom.  The kids really like the snow globe.

We also got a glockspiel that is bigger than the one we have.

They helped to decorate the living room and did a good job.

We found a free weekend to fetch a Christmas tree.  Many of the local U-cut tree lots were low on trees this year.  We opted to grab one from a parking lot vendor.

And the kids helped to decorate the tree.

They each have their own shoebox full of "their" ornaments.  Xiao Yu asked why his shoebox was the smallest and Karina's answer was: "It's because you've been alive the shortest."  She's our logical one.

From Emily's mom, we got an angel tree topper that topped the tree at their house.  Karina got the honor of placing that.  Elvin is lifting Karina up to do that, but can only barely lift her up.  Maybe by next year we'll have to figure out another plan...

The kids also wanted to put up the tree topper we traditionally use--a silver star.

We visited the Grotto, which is a Catholic retreat site in Portland that gets decorated with lots of light every Christmas.

We went into their little cathedral to listen to some performances.

A choir was singing Christmas carols.

They also set up a petting zoo, with goats, a llama, and even a mini-cow.

We also watched a puppet show.  It was about 30 min. long and the amazing thing is that there was only one person backstage manning two puppets at all times, as well as the background music and sound effects.

So the kids enjoyed seeing all the lights and it was nice that it wasn't raining!

And then it was time to decorate the gingerbread house.  We got the kit from Costco.

The kids had fun but also squabbled a lot over who got to decorate what.

Elvin took quite a few days off.  Since he was home the day before Christmas Eve, the took Karina and Xiao Yu fishing at a local lake.

That night, they wanted to sleep in the living room for some reason.  They thought it was really fun.

The next night, Christmas Eve, before going to church for Christmas Eve service, the kids got to open one present of their choosing.  Karina got a doll baby carrier that she wanted, and carried her stuffed cat, Meow, around the house.

At church, we sang songs.  Also Eliana was invited to the stage to read from a passage in Luke.

The kids' favorite part was the candle lighting at the end.

Before going home, we drove around town to look at houses' Christmas lights.

On Christmas morning, the kids woke up early and found their stocking full of goodies!

And the present opening commenced!

The girls got tickets to the Broadway Frozen which is coming to Portland in March.

The boys got a huge hot wheels set.

Eliana had been asking for a rabbit as a pet, but we never told her yes or no.  That is, until she opened a present with a stuffed rabbit inside.  Look at the expression on her face!

Once the shock wore off, euphoria took over.

Xiao got a Spiderman costume.  Looks like he is shooting webs into the ceiling.

The kids also gave presents to each other too.  Eliana made homemade play-dough for Xiao Yu, which he enjoyed very much.

Later in the day, Emily's family came over for a late lunch/early dinner.  Karina got a science kit from Grandpa.  The boys got binoculars.

The girls helped make drop biscuits.

And here is all the food!  There were cookies, mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, deviled eggs, ham, and much more.  We ended up with tons of leftovers.

One present Eliana got was a tiny baking set, that you use to bake tiny things.

And here she is, with the tiny cookies that she made!

After everyone left, we quickly pulled the tree outside and packed our bags, because the next day, we left for a trip to Southern California!

Happy Birthday Karina!

Waaaay back in August, Karina had her birthday.

We started the day with her opening presents.

She wanted a clip on fan that she could turn on while in bed.  In pink of course.

Xiao Yu drew her some very nice pictures.

She got a card and red envelope from Elvin's parents.

And then we took off for Mt. Hood about an hour away.  She wanted to spend the day at the park there, where there is, amongst other things, an alpine slide.

She also rode on a pony.

And played in this huge inflatable tube that sits in a pool of water.  The kids love making it rotate so they tumble inside of it, like clothes in a clothes dryer.

She also got to jump around in bungee cords and a trampoline.

And afterwards.....a cup of berry ice cream, which was nice on a hot summer day.

A couple of days later, another of her presents arrived via mail.  It was a little kit where you make little food items made of felt.

The reason why it took so long to get this post up, was because Karina took a long time to decide what sort of party with her friends she wanted to have.  A few months later, it finally happened.  She invited a couple of friends and they went to get a pedicure.

After that, they went to an ice cream and donut place called Angel's Donuts, where she got more presents!

Such as an art kit...

And a miniature scooter for her doll.

So our Karina, amazingly enough, has turned 9 years of age!

Sports!

Our kids have been involved in various sports and activities this fall.  Gabe, who likes all sports in general, decided to forgo soccer and try out basketball.  So we signed him up for a team with other 6 and 7 year olds.

Here he is doing drills with his coach.  It turns out that she is a really good basketball player who played college basketball.

They met once a week to practice and learn the basics, such as passing, dribbling, and shooting.  Coach also tried to teach them special plays, but it went over most of the boys' heads.

The baskets are lowered, so it's easier for the boys to shoot.  Gabe's specialty was to wait by the hoop for a pass and then shoot.

At this age, there is a rule where you're not allowed to steal the opposing team's ball while they are dribbling it.  So this made it easier for them to learn the basics of dribbling.

It took Gabe a game or two to get used to the rhythm of basketball, which is very different from soccer.  But once that happened, he was able to get the ball more and scored 2 or 3 baskets almost every game!

After the last game, one of the boys had a birthday party at Round Table Pizza.  Also, the coach handed out trophies, which all the kids got.  She said a few special words about each boy that came up.  Gabe was very stoic when he went up, but was happy with the trophy especially because it is glow in the dark!

Some friends of ours signed their kids up for a running club, and so we signed up our kids as well.  Every Sunday for several weeks, the all ran a race of differing lengths according to the ages of the kids.  The goal was to get kids active and healthy.

In Karina's age group, she had to run 1/2 a mile.  She was playing soccer at the same time and we think that running made her be in better shape for the soccer games.

Gabe ran a 1/2 mile as well.

Because Eliana was in the older group, she was running a 1 mile race.

These events are timed and as the kids place in the races, they earn points.  At the end of the 6 weeks, they handed out trophies to the kids who had accumulated the most points.  To our total surprise, it turned out that Karina placed third in her age group for the girls!  So she got to stand on the podium.

 And everyone got a medal for participating.  (Xiao Yu ran the 1/4 mile races.)  Here they are standing (sort of) on the podium.

 Afterwards, to celebrate, we went out and got frozen custard from a restaurant.  It was yummy and a well deserved treat for our runners!

Karina played soccer again this fall.  Here is her team.  Most of these girls have played on the same team for several years and they've gotten to know each other well.

 She has gotten better every year and this year is passing well and dribbling well too.

Here she is dribbling and suddenly switching directions.

She is doing pretty well as goalie too, although she doesn't like being goalie because it's a lot of pressure.

She has been scoring too!  She has scored several times this year and in one game, she scored twice!

Karina enjoyed herself a lot!