Chuc Mung Nam Moi

This past weekend was Lunar New Year, and for the first time since Jason and I have been married, we got to celebrate it in Little Saigon in Orange County!  Little Saigon has a huge population of Vietnamese people.  Imagine a place where EVERYTHING is in Vietnamese!  The thought of celebrating Vietnamese New Year (Tet) with other Vietnamese was very thrilling.  Not only did I get to experience it for myself, but the fact that I also got to introduce our kids and Jason to such a special event, made it even more significant.  In addition, this was the first time that our kids would get to meet my relatives! 

We drove down on Saturday morning and went to my Aunt 6's(Di Sau) house in Lake Forest (in Vietnamese, we call aunts/uncles based on their birth order and whether they're related to your mom or your dad).  That night, my aunt and uncle hosted a traditional New Year's Eve meal with my mom's older sister, Aunt 2 (Di Hai), and younger brother, Uncle 5 (Cau Nam).  My cousin Andy came over, as well.  I loved it- Vietnamese foods that I haven't had in what seems like ages... With the exception of this chicken, lol!    

 A delicious family-style Vietnamese meal

One tradition that we have tried to do every year is to give our kids li xi, which are envelopes containing lucky money.  However, our kids made out big this year since they are basically the only kids on my mom's side and everyone gave li xi to them.

 Our kids with my cousin, Andy

 Aunt 6, my mom, Jeremy, Grace, and Aunt 2

 Di Hai, Di Sau, my mom, Cau Nam

 Authentic bowl of pho, which I got to enjoy for breakfast on New Year's Day (Vietnamese eat pho anytime of day)

 We loved the atmosphere- we got to enjoy many lion dances and the kids thought it was so cool to hear the loud popping of the many firecrackers that were lit everywhere!

 A very well-known Vietnamese mall called Phuoc Loc Tho. Not too long before this picture was taken, there were thousands of people crammed into this area watching lion dances and firecrackers going off.

Grace saw girls wearing the traditional Vietnamese ao dai and begged for us to get her one.  She wore it out of the store and even the 4.5 hours in the car that it took to get back to Fresno.

On our way back to Fresno, we were able to reconnect with my cousin, Quyen, who now lives in the San Fernando Valley.  We had a great time catching up and getting to know his wife. 

It's the Year of the Snake... Wonder what's in store for us?!  Happy New Year- Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Hockey Night in Fresno

 

It's very weird for me that my kids don't know a whole lot about hockey. As a Canadian, I grew up during the "Oilers Dynasty," knew every stat, kept up with players' lives both on and off the ice, and even kept a hockey scrapbook! Our kids got to go to their first hockey game a few nights ago.  Grace's school gave away tickets to the students, and we were able to get tickets for a dollar each to see the Fresno Monsters play Fairbanks.  We met up with Randy and their kids, and we also brought Charlotte along.  We enjoyed the game (despite the Monsters losing), but what made the game memorable was how the girls didn't even make it through the first period before Grace and Charlotte took out their books and began reading.  I thought this was just hilarious!

High Honor Roll

I am a proud mama!  I can't help but think back to last year when Jason and I were trying to figure out what to do about Grace's schooling.  It was actually this time of year last year when we found out that she qualified to go to Manchester GATE.  I was worried about how she'd do with increased rigor and expectations in the midst of a class full of high achievers... Well, 1st semester just ended and we are so proud to know that not only is Grace doing well, her teacher says she is one of the kids setting the bar in her class.  She earned High Honor Roll with a 4.0 (straight As).  Things seem to have fallen into place- she's loving her school, her teacher, learning, and her friends- thank goodness!

    She earned a Manchester GATE pin (and supposedly will receive a certificate at a later date).

Bee of the Week

Jeremy was his class' Bee of the Week this past week, and he was so excited!  He got extra attention all week- he was the special helper, got to bring a special treat for his classmates, and bring a "Show and Share" item.

He also got to bring home their class "pet," Buzz, and take him everywhere we went.  We had to document his adventures with Buzz.  Here are some pictures:

 Playing outside at church

 Playing the Wii (Jeremy is just starting to learn how to play some of the games.  We most recently got Star Wars, which is more appropriate for Grace's age, but he's really eager to play, too)

 Hanging out with friends

On MLK Day, we joined some friends at Skywalk, a trampoline arena. 

 That particular day was so beautiful outside, we walked out to Fig Garden Village for lunch.  Grace rode her scooter and Jeremy rode his bike.  Loved the family time we had that day!

In addition to the usual privileges, there was more excitement because his class also celebrated the 100th Day of School.   

Such a fun week in preschool!

Happy New Year!

We welcomed the new year with some of our closest friends at the family's cabin at Shaver Lake.  We've been celebrating with this same group of friends for many years, but this is our 3rd year staying at the cabin with all of our families.  We had 10 kids and 8 adults- that's a lot of people in one cabin!  We had an awesome time!

On New Year's Eve, our kids are still young enough that it wasn't a big deal for them to stay up until midnight.  We simulated a countdown, and celebrated with kid-made hats, poppers, glow-in-the-dark necklaces/bracelets, and horns (amazingly, Gabriel and Annelise didn't wake up with all of our noise)!

 After the kids went to bed, the guys had their annual blind test beer tasting.  Altogether, there were 12 beers.  Each bottle was covered up and the guys scored the beers according to taste, aroma, appearance, and overall drinkability. In the end, the Coney Island Lager won 1st place.  The girls chatted, drank wine, and snacked on appetizers and Jill's New Year's fritters. 

There was a lot of snow this year!  The kids (and adults) had a blast building, playing, and sledding!

I hope we can keep this tradition for many more years to come!

Annual Ugly Christmas Gift Exchange

For the past few years, we've had an Ugly Gift Exchange with the Wienses.  I actually don't remember how we came up with this tradition, but it's definitely one that we have a blast shopping for.  We got together for dinner at their home this year.  In the past, I've always planted the idea in our kids of getting gifts for others.  This year, our kids actually expressed that they wanted to exchange gifts with Charlotte and Levi, and that made me happy, to know that our kids wanted to express their love for their friends through gifts.

Grace "knew" that she wanted to get Charlotte a journal/diary, and Jeremy "knew" that he wanted to get Levi some Hot Wheel cars.

As for the ugly gift, Christa and Aaron got us a bride/groom figurine that lights up, and we got them a mermaids sign.  Hilarious!  Now we have to display our Ugly Gift for an entire year.  Luckily, ours is a little smaller so it won't be hard to find a place for it- good luck, Wienses, finding a lovely new home for your mermaid sign! :)

Christmas 2012

Our Winter Break didn't start until the weekend before Christmas.  We had Jason's family's gathering on that Saturday.  Here are just a few pictures of our time together.

The cousins!

The Isaac family's dinner tradition is to snack on appetizers all afternoon and then finish off with soups: Mom's amazing Clam Chowder, and our Tortellini Soup.

It is actually really hard to coordinate schedules, believe it or not, so it is truly cherished when our whole family can be together.

Christmas Eve is our family's get-together.  We have loved having Jason's mom join us for the past few years.  After our traditional meal (Jason makes an incredible beef tenderloin), we go to our church's Christmas Eve candlelight service.  When we get back, we have cookies and hot chocolate and listen to the Christmas story before opening our gifts.  This year, we actually had the kids reenact the Christmas story using our Fisher-Price nativity set.  We really like opening gifts on Christmas Eve because then Santa doesn't get all the credit!  We've made it clear that we give each other gifts to remember that God actually gave us the ultimate gift in the birth of his son, Jesus.  We've tried for years not to get caught up in the commercialism of the season, and hopefully, our kids will remember the reason for the season as each year goes by. 

 Since we got Jeremy a light saber, of course we had to get Grace one, too.  Who else would he duel against?

Di Dao always gifts the kids a Christmas book, and this year, they also got toques and an Angry Birds game. We almost missed the last gift under our tree- it looked like just a piece of paper that the kids had colored, but it turns out that it was paper they colored and used to wrap their gift for us. Inside were tons and tons of snowflakes that the two of them had made.  We have no idea when they did all of this! Grace taught Jeremy how to make snowflakes, and after they were made, they wrapped them and put them under our tree.  They were so excited to see us open up their gift.  "Look what we made you!"  I teared up- this gift is one to treasure... It was a gift that was truly filled and given with love. I was so touched!  Our kids showed that they DO understand what it means to give!!!!  I definitely will never forget these snowflakes...

In the morning, we enjoy breakfast together before we see what Santa has left in the kids' stockings.

 For Christmas Day this year, we hung out at home.  Jeremy put together some of his new Lego sets (he impressed us by needing minimal help with what looked complicated for a 5 year old) and Grace played with her new Just Dance on Wii.  It was a blast watching her, Jason, and Grandma take turns dancing!  Later in the afternoon, we headed to the movies and saw Wreck It Ralph.  There were a few scary scenes and some inappropriate language, but overall, it was good. 

Such a fun few days celebrating Christmas!  I am so thankful and feel incredibly blessed!