Last month of 2011

December
December was a lot of fun. We did what everybody else did and decorated the outside of our house with wreaths, bells, garlands, lights, and even ornaments on our trees outside. It looked great. Dan took the time to wrap up big gift boxes and got the tree that we got when we were first married up on the plant shelf. We bought another tree to fill up the empty space in our living room and since we have 20 ft ceilings we thought, why not get a big tall tree. That was fun decorating. I had never had to get out a big full size ladder to put the ornaments on the tree before.
We're still waiting to do shutters in our living room. The trees distracted people from looking into our house too far, or so that was our hope. Our neighbor for some reason felt the need to apologize that he looks into our house whenever he walks the dog. Some people are too polite. It makes me laugh. Anyway we got shutters ordered now. They're expensive so there goes our trip to Hawaii and Danang, VN. Next year?

Gymnastics Winterfest
To kick off for the holidays Reena's gymnastics group put on a Winterfest. She performed beautifully and loves gymnastics. She misses dance a lot so we might sign her up for that again. She is loved by the kids in her class. One little girl, Rachel was especially a fan of her.



It is watching kids like Rachel that Dan realizes how white white kids are. He tells me regularly that he's happy he married me so our kids aren't so white. My husband cracks me up. I sometimes forget he's white until he brings up skin color talks. He has yellow fever.

Early Bird Christmas Party
Reena's class had a Christmas party that somehow again I got sucked into the party planning committee. Really I don't volunteer to do this. I'm fb friends with Reena's teacher and I think she saw my pics and asked me to put this party together. Thankfully there was another mom in the class who happened to also be a Mormon and in our ward who was able to help out. The kids had a lot of fun with all of my craft stuff that I brought in. I came in to take their class picture and took headshot pictures of the kids and printed and cut them out and then they made Christmas ornaments and inserted their pics to give to their moms and dads. They decorated cookies, ate them and did some scratch it art ornaments as well.


Glee Concert
The Met had a concert and sung all the songs picked out at the beginning of the year, some of which I had to learn in only 2 rehearsals due to me missing out during the stake musical. We also did some caroling as well. We raised about $1500 to donate to the Seattle Pike Place Senior Center. Great cause for the holidays.
The Nutcracker at McCaw Hall
It was also due to Glee that we got free tickets to see the Nutcracker at McCaw Hall in downtown Seattle. Tickets were $35 each and we got 2 free ones just because Glee sang during the intermission of the Nutcracker. The ballet was phenomenal. Makes me want to dance weeks after. The stage was amazing as were the dancers . McCaw hall was grand and beautiful.
The Nguyen Reunion
The biggest event of the month was probably the reunion. I call it the Nguyen Reunion but really it was just all of us getting together in one place for a period of a week. It had been a while since we all got together. The last time we all got together was 2 years ago when my sister got married. I was hoping we could all get together all at once but with everyone's tight vacation time it was sort of spread out. My sister Thao and her husband Alan arrived first and then my parents, brother Mike and sister Thuyen came the next day. After Christmas my sister Thanh from Utah came but my other sister and her husband had to leave. It was a short amount of time that we got to have everyone together but we managed to do some fun stuff while various different people were here. We went sight seeing, visiting friends from Portland, Oregon, ate and ate a lot of food. It was seafood again and again and again because, well, what better things to do than that when you're on the coast. We had so much fun doing crafts together, hanging and eating out, too. I love my family. Life is complete when I'm with them.





Hubby got a new suit custom made from my parents.







We were on the way to Portland Oregon to visit some friends and made a quick stop to take some pics. We used the tripod and I edited some lighting. Without much planning somehow we were able to coordinate the colors.

My mother turned 52 on January 1st. I love her birthday because it's right on New year so it gives you an extra reason to celebrate. When I was a teenager she would give me money to buy stuff for my birthday party and invite my friends over. This was the first time I threw her a birthday party. I also stayed up 'til 4 AM to cuddle up in bed with her (yah I'm still a baby) and listened to her war stories and crying my eyes out for hours. She is the most AMAZING person I've ever known. I'm going to write a book for her, my hero.

I got my wish this Christmas. A new house, new tree and everyone in my family came. I love my family. Heaven would not be heaven without them by my side.