Holiday In Pictures

The last two months of 2014 just flew by! We had a very memorable time to look back. Emily turned six in November. Gayla had a princess birthday party at her house for Emily. She was all out on decorations, food, and games. Emily had a great time!

 

 

 

Emily requested the strawberry shortcake. So I made these gluten free low sugar cupcakes.

 

Gayla prepared many games for the kids. Emily, Andy, Chloe and Sophia had a blast.

 

Emily wanted to visit an art house at downtown McKinney for her birthday. So we made the trip and enjoyed it.

 

We had annual FriendSpeak Thanksgiving dinner at church. Emily was a great help this year. She helped me to set up the tables and assemble the decorations. I really enjoyed working together with her.

 

Andy was testing the photo prop for me

 

Emily and Andy also enjoyed talking with the FriendSpeak readers

 

Mrs. Tinsley loves Andy. Sadly Andy didn't want to share his food with her

 

Did Andy eat all the food in his plate? Many people asked.

 

Oh yeah, he didn't let anyone touch his plate. He finished all and had a second plate. His reputation quickly spreaded among our readers after the party

 

We all went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed spending time with family and the extended family. Emily loved playing with Allison. She also learned to write the block letters from Allison.

 

 

Andy found his passion in the game "Mexican Train". He was good at it too! It has been his number one favorite game ever since then.

 

Emily asked for a dog or a cat for a while now. She was so happy to play with Presley.

Gayla's mom came to visit us. We had a nice Thanksgiving meal together

 

For Christmas, the kids were pulled in all directions for all kinds of activities. Emily had rehearsed for many weeks for our church children's christmas program. She did an awesome job on it. We are very proud of her.

 

After the program, Emily enjoyed signing the autograph for the audience

 

Emily's class had the Christmas party. I loved the school's "no sweet" policy! The kids had lots of fun!

Andy had christmas program at school. He was so excited and he never stopped smiling on the stage.

He had a wonderful time at his class party too.

At the Angel Tree program, Andy got to sit on "Santa"'s lap.

Andy also helped our church garden to harvest the green beans. He was a great helper!

 

David went on a Mission Trip to Al Savado with the good camera. He and our preacher and other friends visited the sponsored churches, taught the classes, and visited some families that our church members sponsored, including the boy Emily and Andy sponsored: Alexis. Here is a picture of David and Alexis with Alexis' Dad.

We took a few pictures while he was gone. Here is a picture of the kids practicing using the chopsticks.

 

Here is a picture of Emily with the Santa's new suite (a cowboy suite) that she made.

Here is a picture of Andy practicing the Christmas music. Emily and Andy had Christmas rehearsal party at their piano teacher's house. Andy played perfectly on his two pieces of music at home. But after we got there. He saw a house full of older kids and he was drawn to be the second player. He was frightened. So he didn't play. Emily did a great job on her two pieces. If Andy had been drawn to play after Emily, he might have played. 

 

 

Both kids love drawing and coloring. Emily especially is good at the details and imagination. Each of her drawing tells a story.

 

 

As advent, we did the traditional advent calendar and the Jesse's Tree with the names of Jesus ornaments. This year we added the reading tradition: each night, the kids unwrap a book to read before they go to the bed. It had been an exciting part of the day for them.

Here is the gingerbread house the kids made this year

It was nice to see them working together and playing together.

During Thanksgiving, we had David's reader Lian over for dinner. He told us he was ready to be baptized. So David baptized him after David came back from Al Savado. It was an emotional day for Lian. What struck us was Lian held his hands together during the whole process of his baptism (even when he was immersed, he wouldn't use his hands to close his nose), representing a total submission to God. Lian was one of the first readers at Highpointe.

 Right before Christmas, our FriendSpeak friend Wen decided to be baptized. Wen had followed Christ long before he was baptized. Since he came to FriendSpeak, he started praying. When his wife was pregnant, he began to read Bible to his son. "Ask and you will be given; Search and you will find". We were so excited for his decision. His spiritual dad Sandy got to baptize him. We pray that God will guide and protect these young Christians and help them to grow stronger each day.

We had lunch and played games with some of our FriendSpeak readers after Christmas.

The horses enjoyed some refreshments.

Gayla's family came over for dinner. We had an early Christmas together.

 Andy and Emily wanted to iceskate. We went to Galleria's ice rink. But it was too crowded so we didn't skate that day. But we got to watch an iceskating show.

 As our annual tradition, we got in the car and drove around to see the Christmas lights one night. It was fun!

We spent the Christmas Eve at Amy's house. The cousins played the nativity again this year. Emily was Mary and Andy was Joseph. Both Chloe and Sophia wanted to be Angels. David was the sheperd and the Inn keeper and the wise man. We had a great time!

After the play, the kids all snuggled up with Amy.

On Christmas morning, we opened the gifts at our house.

After breadfast, the girls colored the time away; Andy played games with Grandpa; all the rest sat and visited.

 Then the kids went to the backyard to get some sun.

In the afternoon, we went to the Gaylord Texan to walk around. The kids got their long-waited ballons: flower and octopus.

 The day after Christmas, we had lunch with David's cousin's family. Dad and Linda hit the road right after lunch. We were glad that they left early enough not to be caught in the snow.

 After Christmas Fred and Fang took us to the Perod museum with their membership. The kids had lots of fun. Evan made this whole mechanic thing working. He was smart to figure it all out. Emily and Andy were excited to lend a hand and play along.

 

We made the dumplings for the New Year. They were the yummiest dumplings we've ever made. All gone in one meal.

 

Emily was really into the movie "Anne of the Green Gable" this winter. All the ladies wore hats (and sometimes gloves) in the movie. She found one to wear too!

 

We had Robert and Gail over for lunch. Gail brought Emily and Andy a special gift for them to open. It was a nativity set.

Our neighbor Sunny loves to come over to play with Emily and Andy. Andy always talked them into playing his favorite game.

 

This is our church's children's minister Dana. She pours all her love into the kids. She noticed that during the Christmas program practices, Emily always put the candies away and gave to me later on. She later commented Emily for her self-control and gave her some prizes for that. It inspired Emily to do the right things even it is hard. We really appreciate Dana for encouraging our kids. It takes a village to raise a kid. Dana definitely was one of the most important villagers in our kids' live.

 

We are really proud of Emily. She always tries her best at school and does her best work. She has remarkable self-control compared to other kids at her age. We had a dental checkup right before her birthday. After a year's hard work on the diet, she got a clean bill from the dentist. The remaining cavities were gone! But the dentist said her molars had deep grooves. So we'd better still keep a good diet, especially her new teeth are coming in.

 

 

Here is a short video of Andy playing piano in early December. He wasn't happy that he made a couple of mistakes and he wanted to record it again. But I thought it was cute and it shows his real imperfection side.

 

 

 

As family tradition, we interviewed the kids on the New Year's Day. The kids' answers changed a lot this year from last year. These are the best years of our kids. We try to simmer each moment. 2014 has been a great year! We are eager to see what 2015 brings to us.

 

As we start the new year, this is the verse that comes into my mind: "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10 " "Those who know their God will display strength and take action” (Daniel 11:32). My actions for this year are 1. carve out the time to read (Bible and other books) each day. 2. speak respectfully to my husband and my kids 3. try to eliminate the word "Hurry!" even when I'm late.

 

Assessing our lives from God's point of view, seeing our lives through the grid of faith and His calling, will give us energy for our days. （Sally Clark)"  Happy 365 days in 2015!