Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family. We are enjoying our time together as a family today and thinking of all of you across the world. We are happy to report that Santa had a success rate of nearly 100% with the various gifts that he brought (i.e., the kids actually want AND play with them--he's usually somewhere in the 50-60% range).

We are blessed as a family and especially mindful of our Creator and our place in His plan. For us, we are humbled to celebrate the birth and atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ during this season, and wish each of you all the best wherever, whenever, and however you celebrate during this time.

Last night we held our Christmas Eve program, where we sang songs, recited Luke 2, recited 'Twas the Night Before Christmas,' set out a letter and treats for Santa, hung our stockings, and participated in the time-honored Kewish tradition of opening one present Christmas Eve (that is always pajamas). We even had Grandma and Grandpa Kewish on the horn from China for part of it, including a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Grandma. Here is a picture of the kiddies modeling the brand-new pajamas that they had just unwrapped.

Winter Festival

A few weeks ago the Stone Oak area that we live in had its annual Winter Festival. I think this is our area's way of trying to get everyone in the Christmas spirit, even though it is still in the high 70's to low 80's. We live in a great location for this because it is held at Charles' elementary school, which is within walking distance of our house. Most people have to park several blocks away and take a shuttle. They had snow for the kids to play in, carnival games, booths and Santa was even there. Charles and Joey enjoyed standing on the snow and slipping around until Joey got blasted in the head with a slushy snow ball thrown by an adult that doesn't have very good aim. I think she was aiming for her son and missed. Poor Joey was just wondering what he had done to deserve the attack. The boys and Tori even got to sit on Santa's lap after patiently waiting in line for a over half an hour. Well, the boys were patient. Tori, on the other hand, was not so patient.

They took turns looking at the camera so here are two shots. Notice the real beard on Santa--one of the best Santas I have seen in a while. Tori wanted to pull on it to make sure it was attached.

I had to add this picture. It started raining and these ladies were creative enough to use the give-away bags as hats. I love how she has it hooked on her ears so it doesn't blow away.

Do not try this at home...

One of the things Liz and I have spent our time on lately is replacing our floors. This was a much bigger job than we anticipated, but we are finally finished and can really appreciate the sense of accomplishment--even if we see all the flaws.

Here are some pictures:

Our original living room--prior to Liz turning momentarily crazy and ripping up the carpet while the boys and I were at the Air Show.

This is how we found the living room when we returned from the Air Show. Clearly, Liz had lost her mind--or maybe she just knew how to force my hand.

A few weeks later, drilling anchors into the concrete sub-floor in order to secure the plywood.
Starting to lay the laminate.

Now the laminate is completely laid, we just have to install the transitions and the quarter round.




And finally some pictures of the finished floor and the room back to normal.

Back in O.C.

A few weeks ago we went to Orange County for a wedding one of my closest childhood friends. Having grown up there, it is always nice to go back to O.C. (and by the way, it's never "The O.C." to us locals like the trashy show would suggest. In fact, that show wasn't even filmed in Newport!).

As has been the custom lately, Liz and Tori accompanied me. It was a quick trip, but well worth it to spend some fun time together, see old friends, and even sneak a quick visit in to the Cobbs in Oceanside.

Friday we flew into Ontario, grabbed a car, and made our way to a rehearsal dinner in Laguna Hills. Tori was a trooper, considering it was over 5 hours past her bedtime by the time she got to bed. She was the typical happy baby that she always is. We scored a room at the legendary Newporter (now the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach) on the Back Bay, where I dropped the girls off after the dinner and then went to meet up with friends at South Coast Plaza for some wedding eve shenanigans.

The next day we got up early, visited the Newport Beach LDS Temple, which was just around the corner from the hotel, went down to the beach for a while, hit the Trader Joe's in Newport, ran up to Anaheim to visit the old homestead, ran down to Oceanside to drop Tori off at the Cobbs, and worked our way back up to Laguna for the wedding.

The wedding was great and it was good to see Ryan and Julie and their families, along with so many friends at the dinner and reception at South Coast that evening. Some of them I hadn't seen since I graduated 17 years ago, but it seemed like we had all just graduated yesterday. I realized how great it was to be part of such a close-knit group, many of which had been together since they put us in the nerd class in third grade (perhaps we became so close for survival?).

We went to church with the Cobbs on Sunday and made our way back to Ontario for our flight home. It was a quick but worthwhile trip that we really enjoyed. Here are some pictures.

My girls at the Newport Beach Temple.

The girls again, a little closer.

And one more of the girls at the front of the Temple. Aren't they both just gorgeous?

Tori and I on the steps. Good to see she is contributing to the shot.

Liz and Tori at the Dory Fleet. One of my favorite places to visit as a kid.

Me and Tori on the Newport Pier. Tori is laughing because she is trying to dive over the side of the pier into the ocean and I am holding her with a death grip. She thinks it is a game, but I'm not even playin'

Of course, I HAD to get this shot for my brother James of Angel Stadium (or as Jon used to call it, "Angel Stadimun").

Home Sweet Home (never mind the current occupants or state of the property). This is where the majority of us seven kids spent the majority of our formative years. 815 S. Chantilly.

Me with three co-troublemakers from the 80's in East Anaheim. Brad Wilkinson, Ryan Farnes, and Paul Cho. Who would have known we would become such upstanding citizens?

The whole grade school gang: Ryan Farnes, me, Sarah (nee) Phan, Ryan Berryman, Brad Wilkinson, Janet (nee) Thuc, Patrick Grosso, Paul Cho, and Derek Kelaita.

Tagged

Yes, I too was tagged. All I know is that you're supposed to post six things about you, so here goes:

1. I once ate 22 tacos from Jack In The Box in one sitting. Not because I'm a pig, but because, at a church activity when I was in high school, we were challenged by the girls to eat double the amount of tacos they did. I picked the skinniest girl so I could obliterate her mark, but she ended up eating 11 tacos. Then they all puked up their tacos and immediately challenged us to a track meet. Nice. This might be related to the time I ate six Tommy's Burgers--except that time it was because I was a pig, and people kept buying them for me to see if I could eat them. I retired from competitive eating at a very young age.

2. While I was backpacking alone through southern Europe I was asked to accompany four girls I had met (two Australians and two Swedes) to Turkey for protection. When we got to the Greek/Turkish border, a smelly, sloppy man jumped on the train and demanded our passports (the only English word he spoke--"PASSPORT!!!"). They all handed theirs over immediately but, since he looked extremely shady, I wouldn't do it. I just showed him mine but wouldn't hand it over. He got very irritated and yelled "TWENTY DOLLAR!!!" (apparently the two other English words he spoke). When I said no, he pulled me off the train and put me in a holding cell in a tiny little building. As he was leaving me in the room, I said, "okay okay okay, here's 20 dollars!" and handed him a bill. A few hours later, as I wondered if I would ever see freedom again, he burst in and threw my passport at me and motioned for me to go. To my amazement, our train was still there (well, the car was still there, with the four girls, but the engine had unhooked and driven back into Greece). I got on and looked at my passport, and there was a beautiful, official Turkish Passport stamped into the page--cost, $20. It would have been nice of them to have their border agents wear uniforms, or speak a few words of English (or French, or Spanish, or Swedish--we tried all of them), or shower, for that matter. After another hour or so, a WWII-era engine came out of Turkey, hooked us up, and pulled us to Istanbul.

3. I almost always over-tip while eating out. I believe the good karma will come back to me. It doesn't always, but last night was one of those rare payoffs at a decent Latin place that has excellent ceviche.

4. I have completed more school than most people should be required to complete--except maybe doctors. I did this voluntarily--maybe I was just looking for ideas?

5. I have a bald head. This item was the result of the following conversation:

Me: Charles (my 5-year-old), what should I put about myself?
Charles: (blank stare)
Me: Charles, if you had to tell someone about your dad, what would you tell them?
Charles: (blank stare, looks at my head)
Me: Charles, if someone said, "tell me one thing about your dad," what would you tell them?
Charles: (pause) you have a bald head

(Thanks a lot son. Just remember, you have my genes. Also, bad things happen to kids who make fun of bald men--just read 2 Kings 2:23-24)

6. I agree with my wife that peanut butter and chocolate is the best combination in the world. However, I refuse to ruin it by putting it in cheesecake flavored ice cream, like she always does.

I tag everyone, but I'm not holding my breath...