4 Generations Celebrate Chinese New Year

Megster's preschool classes this week focused on Chinese New Year. So we celebrated this week with a feast of Chinese food. Our friend, Shing, came over and taught the little kids about what life was like in China when she lived there. Thanks, Shing!
Grammie, Ed, John, Alana, and friend Charlene all helped celebrate too.
We all made good things to eat. Ian was here for dinner and interviews at a university. Alana was here for the weekend as well - Steve was glad to have his wife back here.
Ed, Charlene, and Stephanie helped to decorate.
Everybody ate their fill of chow mein, slippery shrimp, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, fried rice, and egg rolls.
Clever Charlene made little red dragons for dessert. . .Happy Year of the Dragon!
Afterwards, the kids all watched one of their favorite movies, Mulan.
Today, we went to see the Shanghai Acrobatic Circus at Citrus College. The little kids were amazed at what these young people can do with balance and strength.
Here is the group that went to see the circus. Another 4 Generation Field Trip.

The Utah Reception

Alana and Steve's second reception was at the Manor at the Riverwoods. Alana and Pat are shown here helping to decorate the reception area. . .and Alana still has the rollers in.
The outside area of the Manor was lit with thousands of lights in the trees.
Alana's dear friends, Paul and Sarah Scherbel and their adorable kids, came for the reception. They were Alana's adopted family over in Brussels. . .we will forever be grateful for their hospitality and kindness to all of us.
Ruben and Reyna Diaz drove all the way up from Los Angeles for this reception because they missed the one in Los Angeles, due to scheduling conflicts. We loved having them with us and being able to show them around Utah a bit.
Mel and Linda Reeves came also and it was so good to be with them. . .with great friends it is always like coming home.
Uncle Richard, Robert's (Steve's Dad) identical twin brother, came to the wedding. It was fun to meet him.
We also had Matt Cardon and his wife Lisa drive down from Idaho Falls. Matt Cardon was one of the missionaries that taught us the discussions. It was so much fun to see them again. He and Lisa have 6 handsome children. We also were so fortunate to have Roger and Christine Christensen drive down from Salt Lake for the reception. We love the Christensen family - and even if Megster hadn't married James, we would still love to spend time with Roger and Christine. We are very blessed to have wonderful in-laws for all of our four children.
Thanks so much to Scott for coming to greet us when we went to see The Spoken Word in the Tabernacle with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The moderator announced Ruben and Reyna to the audience. The program was outstanding today, with the emphasis on Martine Luther King. Some of the songs are ones that Brad's Southern California Mormon Choir sings.
After the performance, we walked around Temple Square, then went up to the This is the Place Historic Monument. Thanks to all of the people that drove so far to make this reception special.

Christmas Break Activities

As part of our Christmas celebration this season, Helen, Erin and Jeannie attended a performance of Tchaikovsky"s "The Nutcracker" at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

A tradition that started last year is all the girls in the family heading out for a quick breakfast on Christmas Eve before all the cooking, wrapping the gifts, etc. begins. This year was especially nice because we had Alana just back from her honeymoon to join us. We are enjoying breakfast at Mimi's.

Christmas morning and all the gifts being unwrapped!

Relaxing after a delicious Christmas dinner at Margaret and Brad's house. It's great to have Evan back after returning from his mission and wonderful to have Steve joining the family this Christmas.

Another family tradition is having a competitive table tennis tournament set up by Ian. The weather was magnificent on Christmas Day and it gave us the opportunity to be outside for this event. Hey . . .who won the tournament anyway???

Since Jeannie had to work a few days, the Crumps drove back to Northern CA. We also spent a couple of days in the Fort Bragg area, along the northern coast. We hiked around MacKerricher State Park with it's beautiful ocean views and coastal prairie terraces. This northern coast of California was a huge logging area in the mid to late 19th Century and into the 20th Century. It is quite the tourist area today.

This is Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, just north of Mendocino. It was first illuminated in 1909 and is still used today. It was interesting touring the grounds. We also saw a few migrating whales off the coast in the distance.

Beautiful coastal views helped end our Christmas break in Northern CA.