Where did January go?

I have always found that January and February have always seemed to drag along. After the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, things just tend to slow down. All you have is short cold days and long colder nights that you count off waiting for the longer and warmer days of spring.

Not this year. Things have been much more busy. Both of the girls are taking swim lessons, twice a week. Patrick has his theater class and his Korea Class (for his trip to Korea in April). Also, we have been busy trying to get ready for our cruise in February. We are going on a six day cruise in the Western Caribbean. Yes, we are taking the kids as well. We have less than two weeks now until a week of fun in the sun.

Getting ready for the cruise involves a lot of shopping. We need to get all of the kids their summer wear a little early this year. I hope they don't out grow the stuff before the summer is over. Getting ready also involves a little exercise and a little dieting. Not that I am trying to look better, that will never happen. The dieting is more like a preemptive strike on the five pounds I plan to gain while on the cruise! :-)

Throw into that mix a week with another Korean Exchange Student and the month has passed more quickly than normal. Our exchange student is from Busan, Korea. I think that he enjoyed staying with us. I know that we enjoyed having him. He was a very polite and easy going young man.

He arrived on a Saturday and it took him most of the weekend to get over the jet lag. I only let him take a short nap on Saturday, but he still was up a lot of the night (which is normally his day). We let him sleep until almost noon the next day and after that, he was mostly on our time.

The Korean Exchange Students had field trips Monday - Thursday, but Friday was a free day with no school, so we took him to OMSI. He seemed to have really good time there with Patrick. We saw a movie in the Planetarium and Patrick and He toured the submarine. Here is a picture of the arch we built while we were there.


Below is a picture of our kids playing 'Monster'. This apparently involves crawling around on all fours while you are snarling and growling. After a while of this, you attack some poor village full of Barbies and pretend to eat them. Here, however, they are eating Cheerios like a monster would, on the floor.



Another interesting thing about this year is the weather. We have now had snow on six seperate occasions. As I write this, it is snowing yet again. We have never had more than an inch or two, and it always melts off in a couple of days. Here is a shot of the snow earlier in the year.

Holidays

We survived the Holidays. We are still here. It was a long week for us. Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed everything (well almost) about the entire week. The bad thing was me being sick for most of it.

Anyway, our week started on Monday Morning, December 24th. Kirsten had to work till noon, but I and the kids met her parents for breakfast. It was a lot of fun and Grandma had a great time with the kids. Christmas Eve was very relaxing. We had home made clam chowder, as usual. Then played some games with the kids. Read them 'The Night Before Christmas' and got them in bed.


After they went to bed, 'Santa' spent a couple of hours putting together the girls bikes. 'Santa' always enjoys that part of Christmas. Here is what the kids saw the next morning.


The girls were very excited to find their bikes from Santa and Patrick is definitely enjoying his Guitar Hero III. A video game where you pretend to play a guitar. Who would have thought that would be a hit. Here is the girls on their bikes.


Around 11:00 My Parents and Kirsten's Parent showed up. We just hung out together eating, talking and watching it snow. That is right, it snowed all day long on Christmas, which is first for me in Oregon. Around 2:00 My Parents went home, while the rest of us went over to Kirsten's Brothers Place for dinner. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

Here is our annual Christmas Family Photo.


The next three days were busy working days, but I missed a bunch of it with my illness. Then on Saturday, My side of the family all met at My Parents to celebrate Christmas. We exchanged presents with my Parents. My sister and I got them digital photo frames. It was funny, but Mom and Dad got us digital photo frames also. I guess great minds think alike. :-)

Everyone had a really good time and My Nephews stayed and spent the night. We couldn't however, because the next day Kirsten's side of the family met at her Parents place to celebrate Christmas. Another day of laughing, eating, talking and fun. It was another perfect day and a great end to a great week.