Happy New Year - A whole month went by in a flash! The first two weeks of December was a whirlwind with school concerts, parties and decorating the school (Parent Association duty). I didn't even put up our own tree until the third week of December.



The last week of school was tests, tests, and tests for the kids. I baked loads of cookies, made tarts and fudge for the teachers, friends and entertaining and now that the cookie containers are about empty, Alex is requesting more cookies for his school snack box!






We opened presents Christmas eve then flew to Taipei to attend midnight mass at Paul's old family church.












We only stayed for a short three-night getaway, but among all the other foods, we ate beef stew noodles 5 times at 4 different places! We also had 3 types of ice cream: I-Mei soft serve, Xiao Mei cups from 7-11 (a childhood favorite of Paul's) and Swensen's.







I took mostly food pictures! Paul also hit a night market for noodles, so that made the total 6 for him. We found lemon ai-yu, usually a summer treat and even brought home the seeds to try it ourselves. Maggie restocked her boba supply to make milk tea and we got some Taiwan made 3-in-1 milk tea powder, too!







After we got back we managed to take a family photo and got together with various friends for playdates, bike riding, lunch and dinners. Starting with New Year's eve we had friends over three nights in a row! So the two weeks off for the holidays are finished and school has started again. Whew!





A variety of noodles and other yummy food