2009 and First Days of January

Christmas Day is always special and it's one of our family's favorite holiday - Benson got here early since he forgot what time to come.  He did remember being a little kid the anticipation of Christmas and all the presents under the tree... We let the kids open a present with each person that came through the door to help them since i think they were about to burst with excitement.  It's so fun to re-live through their eyes and to remember how we felt when we were young.... oh to be five years old again....

Christmas 2009

(after many attempts to get Nathan to

give a decent pose...)

 The next day we got an early start with the Hom Family to head up to Big Bear for the day of playing in the snow.  It was really nice and fairly warm and we weren't sure if we would find a nice spot on the side of the road.  Fortunately, we stopped where we did a few years ago and ran into a friendly family who pointed us across the street where the snow was fresher and more room for the everyone to play.  I am always amaze at how friendly people are up there.  They always seem so willing to chat and to help.  I guess growing up in L.A. I'm always wary when "strangers' talk with me and I tend to be a bit more reserve.  But kindness breeds kindness and we were able to enjoy the snow that day.  The kids had a blast sledding the down the snow ... brrrr it was cold when the mittens got wet but thrilling nonetheless....

  

2010
The new year started off with a pretty busy rush of activities - New Year's Day we headed to LA to see my Dad and then off to the Rose Parade float viewing.  It was fun since I have not been there since I was a kid and it was Alan's and the kids' first time.  It was fun catching the shuttle to the float area and getting up close and personal with all these floats... the kids got tired of it soon enough and we didn't get to see everything but it was fun nonetheless.  The Shanghai float also had a show every hour on the hour with Chinese dancing and music which really drew a crowd...

Chun Family in front of the Angel's float

Welcome 2010!

Jan 2nd - we went to the Nixon Library - there was the Festival of Trains and we thought the children would like to see the train and we would get some history lessons in as well.... what an interesting library!  It was beautiful with all the Christmas trees decorated around the exhibits.  We went through the exhibits at kid speed (if you know what we mean).  Alan and I will need to come back another day to look at the exhibits in more details.  The kids had more fun running the in the open area outside.  We did get to walk through the house that Nixon grew up in and were fortunate to have a docent that was able to talk about the history of the house and the Nixon grounds.... turns out the following week was a special celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Library.  Could it really have been there this long already??

                                                   

                                                                   

                            

My silly angels!