Home for the Holidays

This week Joe and I returned back to Chengdu after spending the holidays home with the family. I left on December 10th, one week ahead of Joe, so I could get a jump on our Christmas shopping for the family. Joe followed me on the 17th. During the time before Christmas, we shopped, we made doctor's appointments and we visited with family and friends. I even got to participate in the family bake day. We had an opportunity to attend a Christmas party and surprise some old friends from our neighborhood. It was nice catch up with everyone and find out what everyone was doing since we had moved.

Christmas week was a busy time. We had Joe's family on Christmas Eve, family time at Kelli's house on Christmas Day, Christmas breakfast with the kids at Jay's house on Dec. 26 and Christmas with my mom and dad on Dec. 27. Thrown into all this chaos was a surprise snow storm on Christmas Eve, making for a white Christmas (a rarity in DFW)! What should have been a 40 minute commute to Joe's brother's house turned into over 2 1/2 hours of nerve racking driving (North Texans just don't know how to drive in icy conditions!). The weather cut our time with Joe's family short but it was still great being with everyone. The payoff was a beautiful white Christmas morning.

This was a fun Christmas for Talon. He is now old enough to enjoy the holiday season and was very excited about Santa coming to his house. This year he had a big boy bicycle, baseball glove and bat and other fun things under the tree. Paul took a video of him when he saw what Santa had brought. It was so fun to see the excitement on his face seeing all the goodies under the tree. It brought back memories of our own kids and the excitement Christmas morning could bring.

One fun tradition we try to keep going is Christmas breakfast and gift opening with our kids. With everyone having to go to in-laws on Christmas Day, we now celebrate our little family on the 26th in our new Christmas pj's and breakfast. This year we had the first annual Yldalympics. We divided into teams and played a series of crazy games. Top prize was a little Christmas tree that will be passed on to the winning team each year. We played rock-paper-scissors, straw soccer, table shuffleboard, stacking cups, match game, dice game and puzzle working. It's amazing how these crazy games can bring out such competitiveness in my family. Kelli and Doug (Team Tigre) squeaked by as the first winners. Joe and I (Team Kimjo) were a close second and we plan to take home the Christmas tree next year. The kids were skeptical when I first suggested the Yldalympics but they quickly got into the competitive spirit. All the games are designed to eventually include the grandkids as they come along and I know the competition will grow more and more intense through the coming years.

Joe and I spent a day with my brother and sister in law at their place in East Texas where they have retired. It was a very quiet and relaxing day after all the hustle of Christmas week.

New Years was spent with an early dinner with Joe's brother and sister in law and then we watched Talon so Paul and Candice could go to Jay's and Ashley's party.

As usual, our trip home was fast and busy. We spent a lot of time with family and spent a lot of time eating at our favorite restaurants. It's always nice to eat foods that we miss living in Chengdu.

I'm already thinking about our next trip home. That will be in May when Kelli graduates with her Master's Degree in Library Science from UNT. In the meantime, Jay and Ashley will be coming in February for Chinese New Year and we're thinking about a trip to New Zealand in March. It looks like 2010 is starting off with a bang.

It's hard to believe 2009 has come and gone. We have been in China for a year and half. Where has the time gone???

Love to all!