Christmas Traditions

Our annual Lin Christmas Eve dinner was a lot of fun this year. My brother, Andy, and his wife, Michaeline, and their 14 month old son, Ethan (aka E2 - since we also have another cousin in the family named Ethan, aka E1) joined us from Wisconsin this year making our numbers at about 30 for the evening, a record I think.

There was the usual spread of yummy food and desserts to start, followed by a few rounds of poker ending with the now annual "Screw Your Neighbor" championship playoff. Yes, the game sounds very unfriendly, and actually, it may be, but it's definitely a riot and tons of fun, especially if you're the winner! This year's game had a record 14 players each contributing 4 stacks of one dollar each. Each player gets dealt one card face down. If anyone has a King, they flip their card and everyone else has to flip theirs and the one with the lowest card (which is the Ace) loses the turn and has to throw one of their stacks of $1 into the pot. If no one has a King, then the person to the left of the dealer starts the round. He/She can choose to keep their card or trade with the person to their left. That next person must give up their card. Then, he/she can choose to trade with the person to their left, and so on. Finally, the dealer can either keep his/her card or take a card from the top of the deck. Loser puts in one stack of $1. Then the deck gets passed to the next person to the left and cards are dealt again. The last person with at least one stack of $1 wins the game and the pot. Sounds easy enough, right? Try it. It's hilarious!

The championship game also is spiced up by the reigning champion from last year who is in charge of also buying a gift basket of goodies to be passed to the winner. Last year's winner was my cousin Min's wife, Cindy. In her basket of goodies this year, she put a $40 gift card to Nordstrom, a $20 gift card to I forgot where, and a $10 gift card to Starbucks. This year, the battle came down to my cousin Pin's wife, Patricia, and my cousin Christine (aka Yo). In the end, Yo came away with the win. Here she is with her winnings:

Honda Odyssey, Here We Come!

On the darkest and rainy-est night of the recent week (last Sunday), we finally gave in and decided to go to Capitol Honda. We had called Kevin Loi, the fleet manager we bought my Accord from 7 years ago, and he gave us an unbelieveable deal. $200 over invoice! The Szetos came by the house after church and graciously offered to take our kids to play with theirs so we could concentrate on the purchase. We accepted their kind offer and drove down to San Jose in the pouring rain. By the time we got there, it was dark. Ummm, not the best time to look at colors for a car.

We had asked them to show us the black 2006 Odyssey, and after test driving and everything else, we parked it under the flourescent lights and saw that the black isn't really a black, but a dark, dark blue. The interior was an ivory leather (not ideal with young kids). My original thinking was that if we are going to get a minivan, we can at least try our darndest to have it not look like a minivan, and so black would've been a nice choice. But dark blue just didn't cut it. So we drove around the lot looking at other colors (yes, still in the dark). We finally settled on the EXL Slate Green Metallic with a dark grey leather. The slate green, didn't look green at all, but more of a silvery light blue. I don't know who comes up with these color names, but obviously not women.

Anyways, the papers were signed and they even said we could buy any accessories from them at cost. We're going back soon to get the all season floor mats. You hear about nightmarish car buying transactions and all the pressure. But I have to say that our experience was extremely pleasant and actually a lot of fun!

This is kinda silly, but I actually feel like a better mom. I LOVE it! I love the space, the convenience, how easily the seats move around. I love the way it drives, the heated seats, all the storage. We got the DVD, but no NAV. My cousin David bought us a portable Nav that I actually like better. I can take it in the house and program addresses ahead of time (especially useful when I need to show houses to clients). John actually likes the minivan a lot too. Lauryn's thrilled with it. She asked if she could bring it to school for show and tell. uh....probably not gonna happen. The only one who doesn't like it right now is Sydney. For some reason, every time we put her in her car seat in the new van, she cries bloody murder. And when we close the doors, she screams even louder. It seems she's scared of the new car. Not sure where that came from. She's never cried even when we've taken her in other people's vans. Now, she starts to cry when we even get close to the van. When the van is moving, she's fine. But when we stop at a stop light for more than a few seconds, she starts to cry again. It's definitely interesting riding with us right now. Hopefully she'll come around and get used to it soon. Otherwise, she's totally breaking mommy's heart....=(

The Brain of the Family

Our little Sydney just got her new pink Disney glasses a week ago. She tossed them out of her stroller the 2nd day we got them and I was in a panic looking up and down each aisle at Michael's Craft store. There goes $200+, I thought to myself... I finally found them on the floor near some Christmas trim. I doubt if anyone who saw them would have turned them in to the lost and found, cuz they look so much like a pair of dress up glasses you would put on a teddy bear.

I was at Costco the next day having lunch with the kids (yes, very nutritious....but oh so cheap!) and a lady sitting next to us asked how in the world can they tell what strength her prescription needs to be. And since then, I've been stopped and asked the same thing by a half a dozen strangers. So here's the scoop: The pediatric opthamologist we take Sydney to, dialates her pupils, then takes small lenses and looks through her eyes with a light. And voila! We asked our optometrist friend Darren Lee, and he said they are fairly accurate. Amazing!

So here's our little Synister (as daddy likes to call her) having some fun at the Apple store looking very brainy. I think she looks like a cute little old lady.

Fashion Show

Lauryn, Ashlyn and Naomi organized an impromptu fashion show for all to see while we were at the Szetos' house celebrating the other Christine's birthday recently. Can you tell who was the ham and basically took over the show? I swear we are trying to teach Lauryn that she's not the center of the universe.

Christmas Greetings

Put On Love

This is another song the kids sang.

"Put On Love"

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Up On The Housetop

Lauryn's class at Sea Breeze had their Christmas program a couple of weeks ago. The kids sang several Christmas songs and some poems they've been learning in class.

Here's one of Lauryn's favorites....

"Up On The Housetop"

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Test Video Blog

Thanks to our good friend Christine, we're all joining the world of video blogging! This was the only video I have on my computer at the moment, so you'll have to excuse the fact that it's not very funny or entertaining whatsoever. I just was sooooo excited when I heard about this that I had to try it right away. So here goes....


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May-Lynn!

It seems like a lot happened in the Wang household in the span of about 1 week.

One of our highlights was catching up with our friend May-Lynn who was visiting from Boston. It's always such a joy and delight to fellowship with friends who just know your heart and understand without you having to explain every little thing.

We love you May-Lynn! And congrats on the new job!

Auntie Sarah & Uncle Jeffy

We surprised our friends, Sarah and Jeff, late Halloween night. They had run out of candy at 7:30pm and Jeff had to ride his bike to Safeway for a sugar run so their house wouldn't get egged by the neighborhood kids. They were well stocked by the time we arrived.

Trick-Or-Treating at Hillsdale

I think everyone had the same idea Halloween night, cuz there were tons of people packed out at the Hillsdale Mall.

We ran into some friends from church. The kids got to decorate cookies and got lots of candy.

Art

Lauryn's starting to learn word recognition. I wrote out, "I Love You" on a piece of paper for her and now she is writing it on all of her drawings.

Here is one she made for her teacher. Ms. Bonilla graciously hung it on the board in the classroom along with a drawing by her friend Emma.

Halloween at Sea Breeze

Here's Lauryn's class from Room 4. The kids got to parade for the whole school and Lauryn was very proud to be the Line Leader.

Jacob's Party

Another party we just attended was for Lauryn's classmate, Jacob, who also turned 4. The kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and got to go "trick or treating" from door to door in Jacob's house.

Here is Lauryn with her friends from Room 4 - Daphne (on the left) and Emma. There were several princesses in attendance that day.

The kids got to play a game where they had to eat a doughnut hung from a string with their hands behind their backs. (Jacob's the fireman in the middle, behind the yellow butterfly.)



Jacob's parents did an outstanding job decorating for Halloween and the party. There were scary "finger" cheese sticks, and ghostly cups of milk. Their fruit punch was chilled with ice in the shape of hands. So creative!

Caroline's Party

Lauryn's friend Caroline just turned 4 and we were so excited to attend since it was the first time Lauryn's been to a party for a friend from her school. We've never been able to attend other classmates' parties due to scheduling conflicts or illness.

You can see Lauryn, Caroline and their friend Alexandra in the picture sitting in front of the Dora jumper. There was also a real live Cinderella princess in attendance. She not only performed magic tricks, but she made balloon animals also! This was one multi-talented princess!

Princess Lauryn and Her Royal...uhh...Flower

"Asleep" in the Burley

On one of our walks with the kids in the Burley trailer, our little Sydney fell asleep on her Gia Gia's shoulder. We thought it was very cute and told Lauryn to pretend to sleep too. This was the best she could do.

Max & Sydney Hanging Out

The week that Auntie Rose and Yo stayed over, Max helped me watch the kids during the day. I work from home and let the kids play by themselves sometimes (ok, a lot of the time). One morning when Lauryn was in school and I was working in my office, I couldn't help but notice how nicely Max and Sydney got along. Max always stayed very close to Sydney and got up whenever she moved.

I snapped some shots of them hanging out.

Sleepover at the Wangs

When my aunt had her new hardwood floors sanded, she and my cousin Christine spent the week with us. It was like old times - but with kids. And of course Max had to sleep over too!

Tony & Marissa's Wedding

Our good friends Tony and Marissa got married a couple of weeks ago. We were so excited to be there to celebrate with them. And BOY was it a celebration! Complete with a LONG and LOUD dragon dance.

They both looked so happy. And Tony's speech was so heartwarming and touching. So sincere. Congratulations guys!