The Burrs In Our Saddles

I took the girls today (did I wait long enough?) to visit Santa at the mall. M1 and M2 are old pros now, but M3 is a different story. This was the 4th picture we took. The first two were pathetic. M3 was crying and didn't want to be there. The snowman she is holding was a peace offering between her and the picture-taking-lady. Finally I hopped in there because it would be the only way we'd get a picture with M3 not scrunching her face and being generally horrified. Merry Christmas. They were all dressed in red, white and black; I ruined it with my crazy sweater. Oh well. What do you do? FYI--it is really hard to get a decent picture of 4 people. Santa doesn't count because you can't see his face anyway. This particular version of Santa was not very good--not jolly in any way, shape or form. At least we got the picture, right? I hope you have all been stress-free and spread lots of good cheer.

I went on Monday and Tuesday to play with Kurt Bestor. What a blast. He was so nice--hung out with us in the green room between rehearsal and concert, ate chips with us, told jokes. Nice guy.

I never did post our Thanksgiving. The girls and I headed to my mom's house for the big day. The Father stayed home--he enjoys not having to be tied down. He went to the ranch, drove around in the backhoe, moved some rocks, and generally enjoyed not having to report to anyone. He had bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. At my mom's, we had all the good stuff. My little sister and her 2 girls and hubby came too. My little brother who my girls adore was also there. Oh yeah, and another sister that was such a graceful guest doesn't need to be mentioned any more than that. Most of us cooked, got things ready, ate, and helped clean up. We played some games, which we love to do, watched lots of football, which we also love to do (to an extent), then went outside to the playground in my mom's townhouse complex to play in the fresh air. All the pictures are burned onto a CD that I'm too lazy to get up and get. As far as being thankful, I am. For everything. My kiddos, my family...

Also at Splendid China we went to replicas of The Great Wall, since we were nowhere near it in real life, and a replica of Tibet. Fun stuff! After spending the afternoon with replicas of really important things that we really didn't see, we went to a costume show. It doesn't sound like much, but holy cow! The costumes and dancing were incredible. I think it was my favorite part of the really long week. It took me back to Folk Dancing days. I was impressed with how real those Chinese costumes looked. Amazing. After the costume show, we got McDonald's for dinner and headed back to Hong Kong. Saturday morning, we got up and went to the in-law's apartment. When we got there, M1 had been to the market with her Granddad and picked out a new pet. Since they had been to the Market first thing Monday morning, she had wanted a crab. Lucky girl. We had the crab in the blue bucket for a while, but thought he needed a little more room to roam. So obviously, we put it in the shower. ...

I just had to send this photo to the other ladies in the picture, so I thought I'd post it so you can all share in my experience. Clear back in September (why does that seem like so long ago?) the lady on the left asked me at symphony rehearsal (which is Wednesday night) if I wanted to play the Cetera concert (on Friday night). "Of course I'd love to, but let me check my schedule" was my reply knowing full well I would change whatever I needed to in order to play with Peter Cetera. So we all went down to Pocatello (it's the monstrous city in Idaho where Idaho State University is located) and I played in the Peter Cetera Orchestra. I think he actually called us the Pokie Symphony. FYI, Pokie is what all the natives of Idaho call Pocatello, so he wasn't trying to put us down in any way. Plus, he lives in Sun Valley, so he has every right to fit in with the locals. Holy cow, what fun. When we first started to rehearse, he came over to me and my stand partner (the...

I can't believe I haven't finished this yet. Wait, yes I can. On our fourth day in Asia, we got up to "leave early" aka 8:30 am to hop on our bus. Since when did 8:30 am start being the definition of early? Anyway, my FIL had rented a 15 passenger bus for all of us and three extra couples from the mission offices to go to mainland China. We arrived in China and got our stamps in our passports. I was amazed at the difference between Hong Kong (very modernized--just like a big American city, but clean) and China (just like the pictures you see in books). Not many cars, lots of fields, rice paddies, fish hatcheries, old buildings that look like they are about to fall apart, clothes hanging out people's windows...It felt like we were in a whole new world. The reason for going onto the Mainland was to go to my FIL's ancestor's village. He is half Chinese and owns (because he is the oldest living son) the home that his father lived in. The village is called Fung...