resemblance

I haven't done this in a while - look at pictures of Lizzy when she was Hayden's age now. The resemblance is uncanny.

Hayden's presents

Some people were mortified that I didn't get Hayden any presents last year. But he was more then compensated this year. Here's a sample of his gifts:
Pixar Cars car track

Transformers - little bitty guys that actually transform

Little transformer robot action figures

big gawdy car track (Mommy bought this)

and a car wash

Not pictured are all the cars that go with these gifts. Lizzy commented that Hayden got a lot of boy toys. Indeed.

Lizzy's presents

As usual, grandparents and other loved ones have gone overboard with the kids and Christmas presents. Here are a sample of their gifts this year
Dress up clothes:

Jellious' outfits


Doll plus accessories (note the summer theme, Mom bought these on sale during the summer...)

Movies, clothes, books, and much much more. Thank you everybody, we will try very hard to teach Lizzy to be a grateful girl for all that she's been blessed with.

Christmas Morning

There's two ways to look at it. The "half empty glass" approach is: this Christmas sucks big time because both the kids ran fevers on Christmas Eve and are both coughing and miserable on Christmas day, and therefore Mommy had a very hard time getting both to cooperate for a good picture". The "half full glass" approach is: praise God it's Christmas Day and added some wonderful delight to the children's otherwise miserable day. Here's a picture of them on Christmas morning:

Here's the fun part - tearing open of presents

After presents, we went out for breakfast at the Sheraton. The kids were so sick they didn't eat much, but Mommy had two helpings of delicious omelet made by the chef. :)

Merry Christmas - from the children

Jungle Snow Pants

I bought Hayden these Jungle themed snow pants. In China, we spend a lot more time outside (waiting for busses, walking to a taxi point, etc.), so it is essential to keep one's legs warm. Most of the time he looks real cute in them because he has it on over his regular pants, and then wears his blue down coat, with matching orange hat. But this day, he was wearing overalls, and hmmm...something just didn't look quite right. I'm adding this picture to my collection of pictures to embarrass Hayden by on his wedding day.

Ding Tai Feng

A really good Tang Bao (soup bun) restaurant opened up just down the road from our home. I've been looking forward to it since they've been remodeling the restaurant. Finally, one day after church, Lizzy and I went. Since my only companion was a 4 year old, I had to ask her to take a picture of me - not the best angle of me, I must say, but it'll do to comemorate our first visit.

Here she is with the pretty Christmas lights in the restaurant.

The food - very good.