Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year to all of you!

We are grateful for all that happened in the year 2009, whether good or bad. We are looking forward to a wonderful year in 2010. Jason is moving full speed ahead with his dissertation efforts. He still needs to get a topic, but he is working hard on it nonetheless.

The children were great on New Year's Eve. They wanted to stay awake to welcome in the new year, and were able to stay awake. However, Leiohu wasn't able to stay awake, which is understandable, as she is only 18 months old. Anuhea got to go to a New Year's Eve party with the Young Women from the Ward at a member's home. She came home in time to watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, because she is really into music these days. Nalani and Hokulani kept busy with card games and fireworks. We had all kinds of snacks planned, but ended up only eating some of them. We all watched the ball drop and hugged one another. Hokulani fell asleep very soon after midnight.

We hope you have a great year this year too. Please keep in touch with us, and we'll try to let you know how we're doing (if I can keep up with the updates on this blog).

Chinese New Year 2008

It's Chinese New Year! On Thursday, February 7, 2008, it was what people in the Western world call Chinese New Year. Jason has informed me that it should be called Lunar New Year because the Chinese are not the only people who celebrate this event. Also, as you may have guessed, it's the Lunar New Year because the people follow the Lunar calendar.

We didn't do anything special on February 7th, but we did celebrate on other days. Here's a picture of Hokulani with her "Asian" shirt we got in China. She wore it on February 7th to school, and gave her friends homemade red envelopes with a new year greeting and candy.






On Saturday, February 2, 2008, we went to Crazy Buffet with the Taiwanese Association (Orlando). The food was delicious! We ate sushi, raw fish, noodles, rice, various types of meat, including cooked fish, and a variety of desserts. The children loved the chocolate fountain best.

On Saturday, February 9, 2008, we went to a friend's house for dinner. Jason stayed with Sandy and her husband when he first came to Florida. Sandy and her husband are friends of Mike and Jennifer Lin (Jennifer is Jason's sister), from when the Lins were living in Orlando, Florida. We ate so much food it was unbelievable! Look at all of this food! We also made brownies with chocolate frosting for dessert, and managed to eat some after dinner. We met another family at Sandy's home, and they were very nice. We enjoyed getting to know them.





Lunar New Year is a great time for celebration, eating, and getting together with family and friends. Hmm. . .sounds a lot like some of the other celebrations we have here in America.

P.S. For those of you who didn't know, it's now the YEAR OF THE RAT. (Carmel's granny is a rat, Carmel's mom is a rat, Carmel is a rat, Anuhea is a rat, and the expected baby will be a rat!)