The Holidays flew by at the Hyun Family residence. We were fortunate to spend much time with family and enjoy their company.
We had Thanksgiving at our house with Don’s parents, Don’s grandma, and Don’s aunt. It was a small gathering, but the amount of food was not. We worked hard all morning in the kitchen whipping up all sorts of food dishes. We opted to cook the turkey without a bag, which made for a slightly dry turkey, but we’re confident that we’ll do better next year. Thanksgiving weekend we celebrated Don’s dad’s birthday, and you can read all about that in Don’s blog about the roast pig.
December flew by as it always does. We opted to get a Christmas tree this year although we knew that there was a good chance that we’d have broken ornaments and/or Caleb would pull the tree down. However, we got creative with the furniture and were able to guard the tree from Caleb’s curious hands. Subsequently, our presents ended up adorning the piano and roll top desk…..not your traditional arrangement, but it worked for us. This was Caleb’s first "real" Christmas (he slept through last year’s Christmas), and he quickly caught on to ripping the paper off the gifts. He then, of course, ended up helping everyone else open their gifts. It was so cute to see him get excited. The commercial part of Christmas is definitely more fun with kids!
We flew to Salt Lake City on the 23rd to spend Christmas with my family. Christmas Eve we had a big Roberts/Gayler Christmas Party with my dad’s extended family. The breakfast was complete with fininhatti (a type of fish), which is a tradition in the Roberts’ family. It was great to see relatives that I hadn’t seen in a few years. Christmas Eve, we went to see the lights on Temple Square. What a beautiful site! Don was excited to get some ideas for decorating our house next year, since all we had were a string of candy cane lights that Adam and Kay gave us this year. Don has dreams of either turning our house into a ginger bread house or getting the entire cul-de-sac to participate in a big nativity set. We’ll see if it happens. We went to church on Christmas where they had a special musical presentation. It was nice and appropriate to celebrate the birth of Christ by going to church first thing in the morning. We had lunch with my siblings and exchanged presents. It was a nice, relaxing Christmas complete with a few ping pong games.
The day after Christmas was jam packed with family events. We woke up early Monday morning to go snowmobiling. We had a great time riding in the fresh powder! That afternoon we played volleyball at the church, and then we went swimming that night. Caleb loves the water, so he was in his element…..a little too comfortable at times. I had planned on snowboarding the next day with Bonnie, but I was too sore to go. Getting old stinks!
Caleb and I flew back to Seattle in time for me to drop Caleb off at Don’s parents and go snowboarding on my birthday. You can go for free on your birthday at Stevens Pass, so I couldn’t pass up a free ticket! We hadn’t been in a few years, so it was nice to be back out on the slopes. We met up with Michael and Emi, which was fun. That night, I wanted to get King Crab Legs, so we opted for the less expensive route of going to the grocery store to buy the crab. What a great birthday!
We spent New Year’s weekend with Don’s family down in Federal Way. Don’s sister, Nakyong, was in town from L.A., so it was good to see her. We went to Tacoma Yacht Club to celebrate my birthday and exchanged Christmas gifts. New Year’s Eve we sang karaoke until we were tired. We are definitely getting old because we were in bed before midnight. New Year’s Day we had the traditional Korean wonton soup that is supposed to bring you good luck in the new year. We did some bowing to our elders, and it didn’t take long for Caleb to realize that if he bowed he got money. So, as usual, he was the star of the show. It was so cute to see him mimic us bowing!
Now we’re adjusting to our normal lives once again
Hyun Family 