A few more hours before we welcome the Chinese New Year of the Dragon! Hard to believe that Alex will be 12 this year - the whole Chinese zodiac cycle of 12 animals gone by...

At home, our family had our usual hotpot dinner - thinly sliced beef and lamb, fried fish and cuttlefish balls, tofu, fish-skin dumplings, cabbage and Paul's favorite winter vegetable - similar to dandelion leaves - called tong hao. At the end we cooked noodles for longevity in the delicious soup made from cooking all the food.

At school, I made up a unit to teach about CNY. The students learned about traditional customs and the 12-animal zodiac cycle and filled out a worksheet about their zodiac animal as well as completing other activities written activities. We watched a video and read a book about the holiday, and made lots of decorations including dragons, fireworks and spring blossoms on a tree for the hallway bulletin board; bowls of oranges, calligraphy and lanterns for the classroom. For cooking, we made tang yuan (chewy glutinous rice dumplings) in a sweet gingery soup, but we made a Western tweak to the recipe stuffing them with chocolate instead of sesame or red bean paste. They were quickly devoured!

My maternal grandmother passed away on December 19 - about a month shy of her 98th birthday (99 if you count the Chinese way). Alex hoped that she would live to 100 but she was blessed and lived a full life - she had four children, nine grand-children, and seven great-grandchildren, the oldest of whom is in college and the youngest born just this year! We visited during the summer and had a family reunion that included her, my mom and sister, some of my aunts and uncles, cousins, and their kids - four generations. I have many memories of her - here's some: gardening, raising a goat, dealing with rattlesnakes, playing solitaire and mah jong, reading the Wall Street Journal and following the market, cooking and making dumplings, crochet, tai chi, watching game shows, and her paraffin hand treatment in an old crockpot... Here are some photos of ours from visits through the years and her obituary.





Today is the 2nd anniversary of my Dad's death. As I was going through old photos and old emails to make this album of my grandma, I found a letter I sent and started reminiscing...

Hi Dad,

I'm thankful the last few years have given you opportunities to travel (to HKG, NY, etc) and see old friends and relatives. I'm glad the kids have gotten to know you during our visits and that you've followed their lives via my photos and blog when you could. They are old enough to have some memories of times spent together, unlike myself and your dad - I only have vague memories of spending time in the laundry...

I know that since our family wasn't outwardly affectionate growing up and your, what I call "tough love" practices were some times hard to take, the words "I love you" don't roll easily off the tongue. In our hearts, though, we feel it, and appreciate all your sacrifices to raise us. It's hard to raise children!

I love you Dad and will miss you. I remember swimming next to the rowboat in Maine while you rowed, I remember you teaching me to drive the car that was as old as I was. I remember us all stuck with no power for 3 days - snowed in in Redding! I remember us playing on Wii sports together. I have lots of documentation of experiences together by movies/videos and photographs that are in albums - yours and my own.

See you soon!

Love, 

Becky

Merry Christmas from the Su family!

These are the only family photos we have together this year, not that
we didn't do stuff together, but with the ownership of various
i-gadgets, we just take pics of each other instead of having someone
take photos of us as a family...sad, right?

We had our usual hotpot dinner Christmas eve, then went to church.
Christmas day we went out to dim sum for breakfast, followed by a
couple mile walk along the river to buy bread and do a little more
shopping. Later in the afternoon we went for a bike ride - only 60F
here - really nice, actually and Paul said his iPhone app logged 20
miles. Made roast beef and potatoes for dinner, then lounged around after
watching TV, on the computer, reading... nice, restful time at home.

Long weekend to Taipei - theme of our trip "Time to Eat" haha!

Well, that's usually what we do in Taipei when we go, making the rounds of our favorite restaurants, eating our favorite foods... Besides the beef stew noodle places (went to three different ones), this time we also took the train up to Keelung who spells out its name in the hills like the Hollywood sign (in slideshow below) and again as letters along the harbor. We ate at the "Miao Kou" market meaning "temple mouth (entrance)" to eat street food from the stands - Taiwanese tempura (fried fish paste), rice noodle soup, "lu rou fan" a bowl of rice with meat sauce and a side of "rou gung" meatball soup, thicker, like chowder would be, lemon "ai-yu" (fig jelly)...am I making your mouths water?

We waited a couple times at various street vendors with their gas oven and tank, a little counter space on a push-cart to enjoy fresh "ji dan gao" (egg cake). They put them in a little paper bag so you don't burn your fingers...

Enjoying chocolate and vanilla swirl soft serve from I-Mei (we went twice)

We all took individual photos on our i-gadgets and am still missing Paul's, but here's what we have...

In Middle School, music is required curriculum - Alex sings alto in choir and plays trombone in band. Maggie opted for double band this year in what may be her last year choosing music for her HS Fine Arts requirement. She was first clarinet in one band and second in the other. It's been wonderful to see the progression of the students from their beginnings in Elementary school...

Con Brio Choir

MS Cadet Band

HS Show Band

Alex's choir and a couple others from MS also got to sing for the Christmas shoppers at a local mall.

Click the link for more music: videos online

Alex joined Cross Country for Season One of interscholastic athletics as part of the ISSFHK league (International School Sports Federation of Hong Kong). According to their website, there are twenty-five member schools and eleven sports to compete in over three seasons. The time commitment this season is T, W, Th after school for practice or a meet, so sometimes it's tough to get homework done. He managed to squeak by first quarter without being put on academic probation and having the privilege of participating in after-school activities of any kind withdrawn - hooray - he really needs that running around to burn off excess energy!

First meet -3km - does he look nervous?

At the start

At the finish

Home meet at Tai Shui Hang, Ma On Shan

From Cross Country

From Cross Country

U12 and U14 team (Grade 5 – 8)

Teamwork stretching

Talking strategy?

Beautiful course

Recording finishing place/time

From Cross Country

Medal finishes - congratulations!

The shortest race was 2.5-3km and the longest was 4km - the aim has been to improve stamina which will lead to better times. He says he thinks he'd be better at shorter distances - maybe he'll join track and field in the spring and see...

Middle school just finished their three day, two night camp. (High school was last week.) As a parent, I'd always sent the kids off with a "have fun, see you in a few days!" so this is the first year I've gone since I'm now working with the school's special needs program. The three girls I teach were present during the day at camp and were able to participate in the activities. None had any health issues besides a scrape on the leg and mosquito bite-riddled legs - just like lots of other kids - and came home with sun-kissed faces. Students, especially the grade 6 girls they see regularly when integrated in PE and Jubilate choir, were kind and gracious to our girls, ready with a hello, smile and a helping hand if needed during devotions, games, swimming, mealtimes... The girls especially enjoyed the music during praise and worship and sitting at circular tables observing/taking part in the camaraderie at mealtimes.

I saw Alex here and there and took lots of photos, as usual, but selected a few for the slideshow below. We were blessed with good weather, fun games and activities, and wonderful teacher testimonies that I feel touched many students - who were given time for devotions and reflection.

Alex has been interested in parkour since he saw some videos of my friend’s son practicing... What is it? Parkour can be described as the ability to navigate your environment functionally, confidently, and safely in a variety of situations.

I found out a gym built especially for parkour, Tempest Freerunning Academy was opened recently near my in-laws home in Northridge, so I enrolled Alex in a class to try it out. He enjoyed it, needless to say - too bad we were traveling around visiting friends and relatives otherwise he could have taken more classes!

Started off by doing some stretches and warm-ups like precision jump practice and straight landing and roll. Later they worked on one-handed speed vaulting, cat leap, wall run and pop vault. The aim of the class is to learn and perfect technique. One kid around Alex’s age was previously into gymnastics and that interest morphed into parkour – Alex, too, has also taken gymnastics classes...

From parkour class at Tempest Academy

There was a section built to look like a Mario Bros game - fun! So here's Alex pretending to be Mario...

Jumping in a warp tube!

Coming out of the warp tube!

One-handed vaulting practice - both ways, to use both right and left hands...