Christmas Day Update

What a GREAT day!!!

We thought Kai and Shen would explode waiting for Cam & Brittni to get here to start the tree, but they finally arrived. We had a wonderful day with them. We played hard! My brother Mark and his wife Kyle continued their tradition of sending totally obnoxious gifts for The Littles. Like last year we ended up waiting to open this package till last, which is for the best as there is no way to top the impact of their present! This year it was a set of Nerf guns: two 12 shot machine guns and a pair of little single-shot side-arms. The set included eye-protection and a pair of velcro vests that had point scoring spots marked on them - sort of like Nerf laser tag. There was enough weaponry that everyone was able to play. I guess the best way to share the chaos and fun we all had with this totally inappropriate toy is to play the video...

After we had enough of shooting one another we went outside and built a super cool snow fort in the backyard...

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!
It’s 8:30 AM, and we’re having a little lull in the activity. Kai and Shen are working their stocking loot, Ben is still trying to sleep in, and we’re waiting for Cam and Brittni to get here so I thought I’d blog a bit.
The Littles were at their wits end by bedtime last night but they both survived the anxious waiting and passed out in their bed by 8::00 PM.
Tina and I had our traditional Christmas Eve drinking Bailey’s, watching Scrooged, and performing surrogate Elf work wrapping presents and prepping the tree. Here’s how it looked when we were done...


We made it to bed by 1:30 AM and we didn’t hear The Littles stir until 6:30. They managed to actually stay in their room until almost 7:00 before venturing out to see if Santa had come.
We let them open their stockings and a couple presents while we’re waiting for The Big Ones. Kai’s main items he was expecting from Santa this year were a Superman Toy and Spiderman Toy. It’s funny how kids catch on to stuff like this. He has virtually no access to media content involving these characters. We have no super-hero toys, videos, etc., and still, this is what he wants. We looked at the options hanging from the pegs down the Black & Flames toy isle and couldn’t find anything that was half-way appropriate in terms of action-figures. After several outings we finally came to what we hoped would be a reasonable compromise: Superman jammies and Spiderman Mr. PotatoHeads.

Here are our two little Supermen:


We watched them “fly” multiple laps around the house as we waited for the coffee to brew. I think it’s going to be a Two Pot Morning!

It started warming up a little bit around here yesterday - it hit the low 30’s and the snow that came down started having a little rain mixed with it. This made the roads pretty sloppy, but at least it brought about a suitable building consistency to the fine dry powder that’s been piling up around here and Tina and the boys were able to finally get a snowman put together. So this guy spent the night standing out in the backyard:

Our good friend Alex made us a “Snowman Kit” years ago so this guy seems like an old friend who has stopped back by for his annual visit. And while the weatherman isn’t predicting a very long life for him, it’s snowing pretty good outside this morning and he seems pretty pleased to have an actual White Christmas!

Well, Ben just wandered out and we’re putting the breakfast casserole in the oven. Cam and Brittni should be here soon so I’m posting this now and will try to get some updates online later in the day...

Enough With The Snow Already!

Snow is not that unusual of an occurrence here. We get some snow most years, but snow here is always like a very polite house guest - never staying more than three days. But somehow, this year, winter has settled in on us like the Thing That Wouldn’t Leave. Today was day 9! It has snowed off and on and the temperature has stayed well below freezing. And they’re calling for more snow tomorrow night! Depending on who you listen to, we may get some warmer temperatures and rain starting on Christmas Eve... or just more snow. I’d really like to see it go, but after 2 weeks of it, I’m going to feel a little cheated now if we don’t get a white Christmas.

We have a small statue of Buddha who sits in a garden overlooking our back deck.


The snow doesn’t seem to disturb his meditation.

More Pictures....

The car in this photo belongs to a friend of Ben’s. It’s been in front of our house for over a week.





Snow Monkeys...

Now We Are 6

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

-A.A. Milne

My Wonderful Life!

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Dear Santa

Tina let the Littles dictate their letters to Santa this year and wrote them out exactly as directed...

Dear Santa,
Hi, how you doing? Good with your reindeer?

I want a sword for Christmas. A big one! A shiny one!
I want Spiderman and a Superman toy to go with my sword.
I want a Stinky Mouse toy that can talk.
I want my own umbrella to get the rain out of my hair.
A telescope toy for me to see.
I want a new yellow race car that works. Uh huh.
I want an orange race car.
I want a big rocketship for me to go to outer space.
I need a suitcase.

Zai Jian,
Kai

Oh wait, one more...
I want an airplane car that I can drive into the sky,
and my own little kitchen set with a wash cloth,
and my own couch.
Me and Shen need our own bed: two of them.

...........

Dear Santa,
Is it snowing at the North Pole?

I want a bunny,
and a rocket ship.
I want a hat, a ball hat.
I want a pillow.
I want a TV remote like Mommy.
A vest like Mommy.
I want a book about a butterfly.
I want a tree.
A Superman, and a Spiderman.
An airplaine.
I want a phone, and a little couch.
I want a pony. A real pony to ride.

From Shen

Oh, Kai says I want a tiny sword, but I want a big one.

Snow!

We got the snow the weatherman was predicting! The temperature dropped down into the 20’s on Saturday and the wind was blowing down from the North. All day it was cold and windy, then right around dinner time the snow started. At first it came in tiny little dust-like flakes. Very pretty, but not very promising in terms of accumulation. But it picked up the pace and just kept coming down till well past midnight. By morning we had 4 to 6 inches in the backyard.

I am really happy being able to sit in my comfy chair and look at our Christmas tree all decorated here beside me. We had originally planned on getting it today, but moved the outing up to Wednesday in case the forecast for snow came true. Tina is feeling quite smug as she was the one who insisted we go Wednesday. I am quite glad I listened to her.

Kai and Shen both love the snow. We bundled them up in snow-pants, boots and coats and sent them out to play. After a bit Ben and his friend Brooke joined us and we headed over to the neighborhood sledding hill. There was less accumulation over there, but the road was covered in a nice solid layer of ice which made for fast runs.

Our two sleds are holding up pretty well and still work great! Kai and Shen each made several good solo runs for the first time. Several of our neighbors showed up after a while and Kai and Shen had a good time with them. At one point Shen started pulling Jordan down the hill on one of the sleds. It was way too slick out for any of the big people to get a hold of them before they hit the slope and we all watched with a mix of amusement and dread as it seemed certain that the sled would overtake Shen and send him bowling, but then he somehow managed to fall down at just the right moment and roll onto the sled behind Jordan. They made a pretty good run, but veered off the street and launched up and over a small bush. To the amazement of all of us bystanders, they both climbed out of the shrubbery unharmed, and continued sledding.

Tree Hunt!

It’s Wednesday - my day off, so I’m blogging again. The Littles are in bed asleep and Tina and I are watching Elf on Tivo. I can’t remember the last time I saw this, but I’m thinking it was before Kai came home as I was caught off guard by the opening scene with baby Buddy being put to bed in the orphanage. Somehow a fantasy portrayal of an orphanage with rows of cribs hits me differently than what I think the writers are shooting for. Still, it’s a funny movie and I am enjoying it.

Now, on to todays topic: We got the Tree! We were originally planning on going to get it next weekend, but the weatherman is calling for a big time cold snap with snow and everything. Since today was mostly dry in what’s been a pretty wet spell we decided to keep Kai and Shen out of their respective preschools and go today.

We were bummed that Ben couldn’t go with us today as he has to be in school or he can’t go to swim team practice. But Cam and Brittni came along with us to get their tree too, and it was great having them come as it’s been a couple years since Cam has come along to get the tree with us. And as it turns out, we couldn’t have done it without them!

We drove out the Mount Baker Highway and stopped at the Hungry Bear restaurant in Deming for lunch. After we fueled the boys up on giant cups of cocoa we pressed on to Van Zandt and the Alpine Meadows Christmas Tree Farm. We used to go to this tree farm all the time, but started going to a different one the last few years. It was funny going on a Wednesday. We were the only ones there so we had the whole place to ourselves. As we do every year, we walked way into the trees looking for the perfect one. Cam and Brittni were looking for a table-top sized tree and found a nice little one. We actually found ours pretty quickly - I think Ben would have wanted to look at a few more, but he wasn’t with us so we managed to settle on one a bit faster.

So we cut our trees and hauled them back to the barn to pay for them and drink more cocoa. The tree guy came and measured the trees then wrote up our receipt. Cam told him that he was paying for the little one, but I said I would pay for both. Cam resisted at first but I insisted so Cam graciously relented. I had spent all my cash at lunch so I asked the tree guy if they took debit cards - nope. No problem, Tina has the checkbook with her. Oh wait, there’s no checks in it. So like I said before, it was lucky Cam and Brittni came as they ended up paying for both trees! He did let me pay him back later, but it did make for a great moment.

Here’s some pictures...

Big Birthday Bash!

Today we had a giant birthday bash for both Kai and Shen at a fairly new local business called “Jump Around Fun Zone”. It’s a family run business that has leased a warehouse in a light industrial park and installed about half a dozen large inflatable play structures. They have party rooms and a great lounge area for parents with couches and free Wi-Fi internet access. It’s the first time we’ve been there and really enjoyed it!

We’ve been struggling with how to handle two December birthdays - something new for our family. And the fact that birthdays are a fairly new concept for Kai and Shen has meant that we have kept it pretty low key up till now. But this year is their 5th and 6th birthdays - I think you kind of have to have some kind of party at this age!?!

So what we came up with for this year was to celebrate each of their birthdays with individual family celebrations with a special dinner, cake and presents, and then to have one big giant birthday party with lots of friends. Since Kai and Shen will each receive gifts from family on their birthday and then again on Christmas we figured that we didn’t need them showered with gifts a 3rd time on top of that. So we asked the families of the children we invited to make a donation to charity instead of bringing gifts.

We arranged with Love Without Boundaries to help us make a donation to the orphanage where Kai lived in Baoding. We made up a little donation box and printed up an information sheet about LWB with their tax ID number and giving/adminstrative cost ratios (97% of funds raised in ’07 went to helping children). We also brought the picture books of the Kai and Shen’s adoption stories that I made for them last Christmas.

Everyone seemed to have a really good time and we raised almost $300! I think people really liked the “no gifts” idea. It certainly made the event more enjoyable for the other children not having to watch the birthday boys open package after package of plastic excess. Kai and Shen are still at an age where they can enjoy a joint event, and while we don’t count on this always being the case, it worked perfectly this year.

Here’s a few more pictures of the party...

Kung Fu Fighting

Kai and Shen LOVE Kung Fu Panda! I am enjoying this movie too, but I haven’t really gotten to watch the whole thing yet. Mainly because when it’s on I watch Kai and Shen. They are on their feet for most of the movie. I’ve never seen television as interactive as this before! So far we’ve only had one minor injury. Bonus material on the disc includes the music video of “Kung Fu Fighting” performed by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black. Kai clears the living room floor out to make sure he has enough room to do all his moves when this video is on.

Go Jee Finally Makes The Header!

I like to change the color themes on the blog every few months to keep things fresh. I usually tweak the header graphic a bit at the same time - subtle font changes - nudge the graphics around. Last year I put a Santa hat on Mouse for December. For some time now I’ve been thinking about how to add Go Jee to the header. One of the things that was holding me up was trying to figure out a set of Chinese characters for his name. I need to talk with a native Chinese speaker about this because my limited abilities of searching online dictionaries for characters that would work haven’t turned up anything.
When Shen first started calling his big monkey “Go Jee” we assumed it meant something in Chinese, then we thought it was a twisting of George, as in Curious George, which is a favorite TV show and set of books in our house. If it was, it no longer is as Shen says “Curious George” pretty clearly and never calls him Go Jee.
Go Jee was actually a gift to Kai from some friends at work when he first came home. Kai liked the big monkey but soon latched onto a little gray mouse. Ironically, that mouse wasn’t meant for him originally, but he liked it so much we let him keep it. In turn, his big beautiful monkey was adopted by his younger brother.
Go Jee really was a beautiful monkey too. He was HUGE and had fantastic shiny fur. He was well stuffed and fat, but Shen works this monkey like a worry stone and has worn him down to a limp husk of his former self. Which is how you can always spot a really great stuffed animal.
So it may be a bit late, but GoJee is finally on the blog header with Stinky Mouse. :)

Happy Birthday Shen!

Today was Shen’s 5th Birthday and he had a Great Day! Actually he has had a couple great days since we celebrated as a family yesterday. Still he received many greetings of the day today as well and enjoyed all of it thoroughly!

In many ways this seemed like his first birthday. While we celebrated his 4th last year, he had been home such a short time with us that I’m not sure how much he really comprehended what was going on. This year however he was quite into it. Shen still is quite concerned about “stuff” and is very competitive with Kai for control of toys. Since most of the toys in the house are common shared property, we were happy about having an opportunity to give Shen a few more things that are exclusively his. We worried a bit about how Kai would handle the event as we work so hard to keep everything equal and this was clearly Shen’s Day and was the only one receiving gifts. As we anticipated, Kai did have a little trouble with this and got a bit pouty. But Shen handled things beautifully, while he was thrilled to open presents, he was amazingly gracious about sharing everything with Kai even without being asked to!

We didn’t go overboard on the gifts. We gave him a new outfit, a big truck that carries Hot Wheel cars, a fanny-pack that has a stuffed animal of the Disney character Stitch attached to it, a few Hot Wheels and the traditional Birthday Card with 5 one dollar bills in it (one for each year). Kai gave him a nice little VW MicroBus toy, Ben gave him a great little motorcycle with a rider, and Cam and Brittni gave him the DVD of Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda was a huge hit around here! Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting for quite a while after we watched that! It was actually quite sweet to see how excited Shen was when Cam and Brittni arrived. We had just seen them for Thanksgiving, but it’s still a big thing for him and Kai whenever they come over.

The other thing I really enjoyed about Shen and his birthday this year was that whenever anyone told him “Happy Birthday” he always said “Happy Birthday” back to them, and he said it with such joy and sincerity that I couldn’t help but smile every time this happened.

I saw a list of questions for a child on their birthday on another blog and thought it would be really fun to start asking them these questions each year. Here is Shen’s list...

My favorite color is Blue.
My favorite animal is a Pony.
My favorite food is oranges.
My favorite place is the Park.
When I grow up I want to be Big.
My favorite thing to do is go outside.
If I had one wish it would be A motorcycle for me on my birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday Shen, I’m so happy we are able to celebrate it with you!