2004 Recap

Christmas 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings this holiday season! Hopefully I can make this short and quick as we are preparing to leave in a couple of days. We are spending Christmas and New Year with family and friends in Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston. We’ll be back home the first week of January 2005.

Had another great year of blessings — too many to cover in one page, but I’ll try. I’ll start with the kids to make it easy, always lots of things to tell you about them.

Aisa is 13. This is the year she finally started competing in gymnastics, and this is also the year she quit gymnastics, after enduring several knee injuries in the last two years. She switched to Tang Soo to join Daddy, Paco and Migi in September, and is now sporting an orange belt. So far she’s enjoying it and is quite good. She continues to love learning, recently tackling some “heavy” books like C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Peter Kreeft’s Catholic Christianity and Rev. Lovasik’s The Hidden Power of Kindness. We recently finished a history unit on the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation; boy, was that an education for the whole family! She continues to enjoy Tolkien’s works and got quite involved this year with translating elvish songs and poetry, etc. She still loves to sew and made quite a few pieces for herself and Yena this year, as well as a beautiful doll gown that she made for the doll she’s passing on to Yena this Christmas. Aisa remains very level-headed and rather conservative in her choice of clothing and music. We particularly enjoy being able to talk to her about more mature topics like politics and religion.

Paco turned 8 in June. He earned his black belt together with Dad in March. Other interests include baseball and basketball. When he’s at home and not playing, he’s usually reading a book. Recent favorites include Jean Craighead George’s “My Side of the Mountain”, Lynne Bank-Reids books on that Indian in a cupboard, and Walter Farley’s horse books. He also rereads Lewis’ Narnia series, like big sister. More recently he’s been spotted taking selections from the Childhood of Famous Americans series, though he claims to not have that much of an interest in history.

Migi is our silly one. He turned 6 in November of this year.

Hi all! Got time only for a short and quick letter this time, we leave for Cincinnati and St. Louis on the 18th. We’ll be in St. Lou ’til the 27th then we leave for Texas where we hope to see Alfredo’s cousin in Beaumont and then his aunt and family in Houston. We haven’t been in Texas for 7 years! We’ll be there two nights and then we head back to St. Lou through Oklahoma. Rest for a couple of days then head back home, so this will probably be right around New Year’s Day or shortly thereafter.

Busy year as usual.

Bong and Paco got their black belts in March. Aisa turned thirteen – yes we have a teenager! In April/May Papa and Mama came and celebrated their 38th annivrsary here in the Northeast, we took a quiet trip to Ithaca and dined at Moosewood with the whole family. This was the year Aisa started competing in gymnastics, and it’s also the year she quit gymnastics; not because of the competition, but because of repeated injuries to her knee. She got tired of the whole thing and has happily joined the boys in martial arts. Stef gets her turn in January. Migi is testing on 12/11 for his red belt! Paco turned 8. We moved to a new home the week before Easter. Summer went by in a haze, party after party after party (guess we missed entertaining that much!). In August we took a trip to Canada to see Niagara Falls, Toronto and Stef’s cousin’s family. They have two boys and two girls as well so Paco and Migi had great fun spending time with their “buddies”. Then we went camping with Bong’s frat brothers Labor Day weekend. We had a blast and the kids look forward to doing it again next year. Paco learned to play the piano. Mom got obsessed with gardening. Migi learned to read. In October Papa and Mama got to visit again, this time with several of Mama’s siblings. Thanksgiving was quiet and simply spent at home. December is here and we are busy again. Stef began teaching Ccd this year. She loves her 3rd graders but had to give up her 8th grade class for various reasons. Paco is preparing for holy communion and Aisa is preparing for confirmation. They both still take violin lessons and love it.

Quotable quotes:

Migi: “I can’t remember the time was I was plain old sand.” (while discussing how God created man)
Migi: “I’m not having fun ’cause I’m not there yet.” (on the way to camp)
Yena: “I be he (here) and you be not.” (trying to get Paco to move so she can cuddle up to Mom)

Yena likes doing story rounds with us and says “Ah-not-done!” when she’s not done with her story.
Spent some time with Christopher in Reading, PA
Got to go to Wright Patterson again.
Bought a new house in April.
Bong and Paco got their black belts, broke cinder blocks.
Aisa continues to be enamored with Tolkien’s works.
Aisa and Paco had their first violin recital.
Aisa started singing in the choir.
Yena started speaking in complete sentences.
Yena sings and hums everything.
Yena loves Mother Goose.
Yena loves getting dressed.
Migi is into silly jokes.
Migi can read.
Paco is into Bionicle.
Paco reads.
Paco had his first confession.
Daddy and the kids painted the basement.
Finished the Narnia.
Yena can operate Mom’s Palm.
Made lots of new friends in our new neighborhood.
Cornell U in April.
Dad and Aisa made Mom a kitchen island for Mother’s Day.
Did lots of entertaining.
Paco loves basketball.
Went strawberry picking.
Mom grew peppers.
We made a tray for Dad on Father’s Day.
We studied Botticelli.
Dad and Paco went whitewater rafting.
Mom and Aisa got glasses.
We went camping.
Yena’s favorite color is purple.
Sold our house in Cincinnati.
My Side of the Mountain, The Perfect Spot, The Gamemaster, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Little House,
Renaissance Festival
gardening books, catlogs,
groups: mixer-owners, King Arthur, grainmill, DLX, seed exchange
Mom started teaching Ccd.
not popo, popo!
lawnmower, le creuset, farberware skillet, ecko loaf pan, dlx, crutchfield, recipes, bosch dishwasher, stuart little, master pak, adeste fideles on piano,
don’t do that again.
yumpwa.
freecycle.
yena cut her hair.
yena plays puzzles.