Lunar New Year Celebration

This year we decided it would be fun to have a small party at our house to celebrate Tet, Lunar New Year, and Chinese New Year.  We invited the Kensoras and the McGonagils over for an asian-inspired dinner and the girls had a great time decorating and preparing for the party. 

Cherry blossoms we bought when we visited China Town in San Francisco over the summer.

Some good luck garland.

Rian wore her hanbok- for exactly five minutes.  

Jessie and Rosebeth decorated some dragon crowns.

Jessie wore her ao dai (pronounced ow-zye).

Enjoying a dinner of chicken fried rice, sesame chicken and red panang curry.

The teeny boppers- Sarah, Hayden and Reilly.

Jasmine and Rian enjoying their umbrella drinks.  

Reilly and her dad made homemade fortune cookies out of cupcake liners.  Each one had a unique fortune and the girls absolutely loved them!

Towards the end of the night, Rian passed out lucky red envelopes that contained candy and coins.  

Best buds enjoying a little reading time.  

To end the night and celebrate the start of the new lunar year, we set off floating lanterns, making a wish before letting each one go.  

The lanterns worked perfectly; and the sky was so clear that we were able to watch them climb higher and higher into the night until they finally disappeared.  

Jas and Cathy filling their lantern with air.  

Just before take-off!

Sebok-mani-baduseyo!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Gung Hay Fat Choi!

An Early Christmas Celebration

After the piano recital and the sing-a-long, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a very early Christmas celebration .  This was our one chance to have Christmas with family before heading out to Maui on Dec. 12th.  The girls were very excited to see grandpa's train, have dinner, and open some presents.

Grandpa's train and village set up looked great and the girls had fun running the train. 

The American Girl Puppy Spa set Rian had been wanting.  

AG Hair Salon and Spa- right up Jessie's alley. 

Comfy new robe.

Flower pressing kit. 

Grandpa liked his new aviator-style winter cap with furry ear flaps to keep him warm on his walks around the neighborhood.  

Grandma and the girls.

Buddies- for the moment. 

We had a nice Christmas-style dinner and dessert and listened to holiday music while opening gifts and visiting.  Merry Christmas!  

Winter Piano Recital

For their recital pieces this semester, Rian played:  Camptown Ladies, Taps, Oh When the Saints, Jingle Bells and Up on the Housetop.  Hayden played:  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Sea Chanty, and Sonatina.  Both girls did their best and each had some difficult pieces to play.  

Joan and Arlen came to watch the recital, along with grandma and grandpa.  

The girls with their amazing piano teacher, Kathy Peiffer.  

Rialto Sing-a-long

The girls and I went straight from their piano recital to the Christmas sing-a-long at the historic Rialto Theater in downtown Loveland.  They always do such a great job decorating and getting everyone into the holiday spirit.  The girls all had hot chocolate and cookies and then sang Christmas songs to their heart's content!

Hammond's Candy Factory

To get into the spirit of the holidays this year, we decided to head down to Denver and tour the Hammond Candy factory.  In all our years of living in Colorado, we had never been there, so we invited the McGonagils and were on our way.  The weather was terrible, with freezing snow and wind.  But once inside the factory, we were toasty warm.

Waiting for our tour time to start.  Not sure where Hayden's mind was, this was actually a lot of fun!!! Ramona and her daughter, Reilly are on the far left.

Watching a short video on the history of the factory.

It was interesting to see how Hammond's candy canes, ribbon candy, and lollipops are pulled, twisted and shaped by hand, just like they were when they opened in 1920.  Everything is handmade and hand-packaged, from beginning to end.  At first we all thought it would be such a fun place to work.  Then we just thought it would  be way too much work!!!

This hot and bubbly pile of glop will soon be turned into ribbon candy.  

That's a lot of canes. 

The gift shop was very fun and festive this time of year.  

It was hard for the girls to pick just ONE treat to try.  

I have never seen so many kinds of candy canes in my life.  There must have been 100 different varieties.  

This reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

Rian had to try her luck and ask if this could be her ONE treat.  Um, big fat no to that!

It was fun to see all the old fashioned equipment and learn how this famous candy is made.  It was a great way to kick off the holiday season while trying something new.

National Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony

Hayden applied for and was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society at Lesher Middle School.  As part of the application process, she had to write a personal essay and get a letter of recommendation attesting to her character.  (Ms. Sharolyn- her Taekwondo instructor from OMS wrote her a recommendation that brought me to tears when I read it!) Applicants had to have a minimum G.P.A. of 3.75 and be active members in both school and the community.  Members were selected based on:  Scholarship, Service, Leadership, Citizenship and Character.  When they announced this year's chosen members at the school assembly, they handed each recipient a carnation with their acceptance letter  attached to it and tied with a ribbon.  Hayden felt honored to be chosen. 

Her back is to us, but here she is accepting her NJHS membership certificate.

 

The new 7th grade members.

Hayden with Skylar and Holly.

 

Everyone got dressed up for the event (including Mike!) and they had a nice cookie and punch reception after the ceremony.