Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Christmas cards are in the mail! Please look for yours in the next few days! This year you will not receive our famous newsletter! So sorry to those who enjoy reading about our lives! I am lucky to have even gotten a card out this year. Things are so busy, especially without James home. He will be home however in less than a week! Yeah, I am so happy! I am frantically trying to get everything done before he comes home! He is the one that insists on a Christmas letter, pictures with a card wont do! Well, they will have to do for this year! Anyways, if you want to know what we've been up to you can follow us on our blog, right? Have a blessed holiday season as you celebrate our Savior's birth and a new beginning of another New Year!

Much Love,

Tina

Thanksgiving Feast

We had a feast on Thanksgiving at Grammy's house with our close friends the Papale's! We all pitched in and brought different things. We enjoyed turkey and the fix'ins! At the dinner table we had a reading from a presidential speech given by George Washington in 1779 on their Thanksgiving Day dedication. It's amazing how much things have changed! The only thing that would have made this Thanksgiving complete for the kids and I would have been to have James home from China! We won't duplicate his absence for Christmas, he will be home December 23rd and I am sooooo happy. We'll have to work around Skylar's work schedule so he is sure to make Christmas dinner.

Bridie made her first homemade apple pie by herself from a award winning receipe! It was delicious:) We also had the last of her 16th birthday celebration with gifts from family and close friends. After birthday celebrations we had a great time playing games, like guesstures and catchphrase. Good company, great food and games were lots of fun!

Bridie's Sweet 16

For Bridie's Sweet Sixteen I took her, Kaitlynn and a couple of Bridie's friends to Long Beach, WA for two nights! We got up on Saturday morning for a horse back ride on the beach. On the way back to the condo we were so cold we stopped off at the bakery in town for a pastry and cocoa. It took us 4 hours to warm up after that cold beach ride. We had such a great time. All the girls want to go back for another ride sometime! We awoke the next morning to the power out! We hurried home just in time to get a warm shower and still make it to church.

HAPPY SWEET 16 BRIDIE!

The roses are from her Daddy in China :)

Bridie's 16th Birthday

Bridie turns 16 on November 25! She is my turkey girl, literally, she was born on Thanksgiving Day:) Since James will be gone for her birthday we decided to give her presents while James was here. She got 2 umbrella's (we've been getting lots of rain lately), a Goosberry Patch cookbook (she's been cooking up a storm lately), 2 pair of pj's and a new bathrobe. Later on in the month we'll have a few of her girl friends over for more celebration! I can't believe she will be 16! We have been so blessed to have a daughter like Bridie. She is such a blessing to all our lives:)

Presents from Daddy

James brought Jamesy a marble (maybe soap stone) dragon from China! Jamesy was born the year of the dragon. James came home bearing gifts for all of us! He brought the girls a beautiful string of fresh water pearls, and me some beautiful gray salt water pearls. It has been great to have him home.

Harvest Time

We had a nice evening at home for Halloween! The girls carved pumpkins, one of which came from our very own garden. The rest of us hung out and enjoyed some homemade chili and corn bread! It's great to have James home to enjoy this time of year.

Home Sweet Home

We are so happy to have James home for a week! He will head back to China for another short stay! As of now he should be home for good by December 23! Maybe we wont have to buy anything else for the kids for Christmas, I know I don't want anything else!!!

Fort Nisqually

Today I took my fourth grade students to Fort Nisqually. It was the Hudson's Bay Company trading post back in the 1800's. Michael McGuire (good Irish man) was our tour guide for the day. We gathered outside the fort at 10:00am and concluded the tour at 12:30. Mr. McGuire had their attention the entire time. My students learned so many new things. They thoroughly enjoyed their time. Mr. McGuire said that the man who ran the fort (Mr. Tolmie) used to teach his children from 5:30am to 7:30am and then the kids would go to school! Hopefully my students will appreciate the blessing of living in our time period and be thankful they don't have all the responsibilities boys and girls did in those days. I know I am especially thankful for indoor plumbing. Getting up in the middle of the night to use a "chamber pot" doesn't sound like to much fun, let alone using the privy (outhouse) at that time of the day! We concluded our tour with a lovely picnic lunch.
This tour was especially interesting to Jamesy because his great, great, great-grandfather worked for the Hudson's Bay Company in Victoria, Canada back in the 1800's. Still trying to find out his exact invlovement.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

China pic's as requested:

China preparing for a parade and celebration! Not sure what holiday though!

and more...

Chinese "honey bucket", I'll never complain again about our "honey buckets"!

Town Square

and more...

James' hotel is the tall one in the middle!

James next to the Expo man!

China Update

China has proved to be very interesting, challenging, and quite the experience. On one of James' days off he was able to visit some of the outline areas. In the picture above he is actually traveling via boat to a small villiage where he did some shopping and food sampeling. James is staying in a hotel in Shanghai that has most of the comforts of western civilization, it even has a few american tv channels.

Shanghai is about 10 times the size of New York City, growing up in New York has given him some tips on how to cope in a large city. James says their subway system is amazing! It is a high speed train. What would take our subway hours only take minutes there because it travels at unbelieveable speed! James usually drives in to work but sometimes does have to take the train. I am so glad James has a driver to take him to work each day, I hear the traffic is wall to wall cars! It takes anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours for him to get from his hotel to work. This makes for a 12 hour day!

James said the food has been great. He's enjoyed alot of different kinds of foods like frog & jellyfish. Check out the picture above, it doesn't look like our chinese food, does it?

Rumor has it that he may be home sooner than planned:)

I hope so, we miss him lots!

He says to say, "Hello" to everyone and "Thanks for all your prayers and support".

Fair Day

"Kaitlynn & Bridie with friends in line for the Wild Cat"

What a beautiful day we had at the Puyallup Fair. The weather was just right, not to hot and not to cold. So many years we been soaked by the rain, this year was super! By the end of the night the kids had ridden rides, ate elephant ears (my new favorite thing), roasted corn (my other new favorite thing), and had lots of fun with family and friends. Since I spent the day with the teens, Uncle Jim came to the fair and took Jamesy around with a friend. Unfortunately I had the camera and didn't get any photo's. Oh well:) I was able to treat myself to a new rolling bag to carry jackets, food, purses etc... Usually I use Jamesy's school rolling backpack, now I have a stylish girlie rolling bag:) Thanks Mrs Ritchie for showing them to me:)

Fall Garden

This is a picture of the "big" garden. You can see the pumpkin below in the far right corner. I was able to gleen a small egg plant and some green beans. We decided to leave the two pumpkins and 4 acorn squash for a later picking. Hopefully we wont wait to long!

Camp

This year was the first year for school camp for James. Kaitlynn went as a counselor in the girls cabin. She and a few other high schoolers had a great time with the younger girls. Jamesy had fun on the soapy slide, at the camp fire, on the hike, playing football, making a rock pile, and even had a winning streek of carpet ball with 17 wins:) The speaker and special chapel services were quite a treat for the students. They were gone for two nights and three days. I don't think Jamesy got more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep all weekend. He was a walking zombie when he got home. I don't think I have ever seen my students so tired and worn out!!

Red Robin

"Happy Birthday Uncle Jim!"

Train

It's a big deal when a train goes behind our house. It only comes by about once a month. Daddy and kids start yelling "TRAIN'S COMING" and everyone goes running to the back porch! Today it was an Amtrak train:) You missed it Daddy so we thought we'd post it so you could see it here:)

News from China

"Home Sweet Home"!

These are the first pictures from China! James landed safe and sound:) There is a 15 hour ahead time difference. Please keep him in your prayers:)