This is our beautiful, stunning Mum. A lady full of class and fire, but most of all love. She is the glue that holds us all together, no matter where we are in the world. Today is her birthday. Happy Birthday Mum, we love you and miss you everyday.

We’re praying that the Lord strings together 365 days of dreams come true, wishes made real, and love that overflows for this year! If each day you could have even a sprinkling of the smiles, laughter, hope, hugs and caring that you have given to each of us, your every hour would be a celebration!

We love, love, love you! And in your honor, your little grandson decided to crawl today – first time ever! And he had his first communion, and LOVED the wine. Wonder who he takes after??

Much love from us all Mum – for now and always!

Darlings, I know that Joyce already blogged about all the Christmas festivities. But she can’t help that she doesn’t have a camera, so we’re going to give you some snapshots ourselves and hope you revel.

We had the 25th at Home, with Faith and her lovely baked dinner. Later that evening we scurried around town with the child looking for brandy – lol! Such a Christmassy memory for Baby’s 1st Christmas. Came Home and did the deed; cracked up a lovely pot of mulled wine. It was only then that the Christmas cheer kicked in!

You probably don’t want to know what happened on the 26th or the 27th, but on the 28th, we had about 60 people over for Christmas dinner. Of course Priya, Sam, Alina, and Vince came, just like they were meant to . So we had our whole family clan together (for brief moments during the chaos). It was good, and everyone worked so hard to make a lovely meal. I finally got a take at decorating, after not having any at all last year and suffering through it.

Dawei and Saskia came, which was so lovely as I hoped they’d make it. Seriously, I will never again have a Christmas without smoked turkey! Dawei made this heavenly turkey, and all of a sudden the question of why we have turkey at Christmas was answered. However, Dawei is a true connoisseur of all things gourmet, so I doubt anyone but him could produce such tasty turkey. And I kicked myself over and over for not getting a pic of Saskia in her now famous red boots! Of course, with legs like hers, the boots are merely a signature of class, but let me just say, that she rocked.  The little girls made a regular party of everything, as well. Zoe loves Steph, probably more than anybody else in the whole world loves Steph – and she shows it too! lol.

The guests left too early, and before half my presents were wrapped. That morning we had Home pressies, and Alex had a regular time with our liquor stash. Such enlightened parents we are. Actually he’s had a rather debauched holiday season.

Like I told Mia last night. “We’ve become deeply alcoholic during Christmas.” Tee hee.

On the 29th, we sailed off to Sam’s house for leftover Turkey, Biriyani, and the famous hedgehog slice. We had an engaging discussion over why we have the parties we do in Taipei, and we resolved to branch out in our partying tastes. (See New Year’s Eve!)

The 30th was our open house, and Sam and co came over again. Family photo ops were the flavor of the moment, while Sam and Faith wrestled their little hearts out.

New Years Eve, we again opened our doors to the multitudes and had a glorious night! The highlight was seeing Nat and Lily after oh so long. That and the many trips with Faith and Vin to hold court with Mr. Jose Cuervo! A truer man could not be found.

Jan 1st saw the beginning of our vacation, which we earnestly tried to wring for every last drop of fun – from our 7 days. Firstly we had our traditional family meal together, trooping off to Friday’s for a ghastly adventure, that nearly ended with restaurant staff being hurled through the picture windows…but I digress.

In all honesty, this season we were spoiled with His love in the form of the tireless giving from our dearest loved ones, day and night, never endingly loving. We couldn’t ask for anything more.

PS. And about that alcohol – I jest.

Just sitting here with Steph and Faith sipping a lovely Cabernet Merlot that we brought back with us from Australia.
It’s been a particularly long day, so we needed a midnight toast. We ended up watching the delectable “Leika” video (search YouTube). Besides laughing ourselves silly, it got us all nostalgic about Japan. So here are some of the best memories ever! Check out these extreme times and extreme people. Love you guys so much; you’ll never know!

…is all around us.

Merry 2008 all! During this Christmas we had two choices: 1. Have Christmas 2. Blog about Christmas. We chose the former, and I hope you will forgive us for not updating.

Christmas was crazy, and we moved back into our newly renovated house a mere week before Christmas Day. Did I mention that we are crazy? Well, we packed the entire holiday season into a bite size piece, and had all our fun between the 28-31st of December. That’s just FOUR DAYS!!! (pant.)

We went slightly postal, but at least we had each other, and darling Faith. Together we made quite the trio. Here’s our little family amidst the madness. Hoping you all had just as much merriment and love!