Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Vacation Part 3

We got back from our trip kind of late at night, so the airport was pretty empty except for a few people. As we were waiting for the parking shuttle, there was a man who I'm sorry to say I was immediately a little wary of. 

**On a side note, I want to mention that while I definitely don't want to judge or be rude to strangers, I think it's a little different for females. I wouldn't fault any female for not being the warmest, friendliest person toward an unfamiliar man when it's late at night and he's wandering around talking to random people.**

Back to the story. The man had been talking to another man, who seemed like he was trying to be polite but really wasn't interested in chatting. So the first man looked up and saw us as we were approaching the shuttle stop, and we had an exchange that went something like:

Man: "Chinese people! Got a light?"
Us: "No...sorry..."
Man: "What?! But Chinese people always smoke!"
Us: "Nope, not us."
Man: "Haven't you heard that song? [to the tune of that "doo-dah" song] Chinese people always smoke, doo-dah..." [does an accompanying little dance]
Us: (looking around uncomfortably)
Man says something else dismissing us and finally walks away.

Minutes later he comes back with his lit cigarette and announces to all of us standing there, "I got a light! Everybody's safe now. I'm not going to blow anything up."

Once again...I'm all for showing compassion to strangers. But this made me 1) pretty angry and annoyed and 2) not want to take late night flights too much in the future.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Vacation Part 2

Wasn't there a McDonald's ad campaign a while back with the tagline "Food, Folks and Fun"? That probably sums up our Christmas trip. I talked a lot about going to some good restaurants in the last post, so I won't go on in too much more detail about the food part. Later in our trip we checked off a few more things on our "to-eat" list, including Whataburger and Greek food. And then there were plenty of homemade dishes that we scarfed up, like the Quans' jook and curry (not together); Poh-Poh's rainbow jello; Aunt Jean's "doong," cha siu baos and noodles (see below); and much more. WiiFit asked me why I gained 3 pounds and I said it was from eating too much.

One tasty treat













About the folks - as also mentioned earlier, we spent some great times catching up with family and friends. Cheesy as it sounds, I really was moved to tears on our last night as I thought about how many terrific people God has brought into our lives. And there were several more that we unfortunately didn't get to see at the time, but hopefully soon!

A semi Nurture Cell reunion













And the fun - this can be summed up in two words: Rock Band. We spent many hours playing at my parents' house and at our friend Brandon's house. I must say we have some very entertaining friends...but really, when it comes to Rock Band, almost anybody is entertaining.

This may have been Livin' on a Prayer...?













Ben brushes up on his drumming, sort of.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Vacation Part 1

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all! We are spending Christmas in Texas this year and have already gotten to spend some fun times with family and friends.

We've had a few people ask us lately why we haven't updated our blog in a while - so here you go. And thank you to those who do read it! :)

We are glad to be back and it was certainly worth the slight trouble we endured in getting here. A big snowstorm was predicted for - and happened on - the day we were to fly down. We were prepared for some delays and just wanted to get there safely. We drove to the airport in the snow, arrived at 4 pm, and spent the next eight hours waiting as our departure time got pushed later and later. First the delays were merely caused by the weather and the inability of flights to get to where they needed to be. We thought we might finally get out around 8 or 9 pm, only to find out that our plane had been diverted to Maine and would not get back to us for another 45 minutes to an hour. When our plane finally arrived, we learned that we still could not leave because one of our flight crew had to be replaced, as one of the current flight attendants had gone over her legally allowed duration of work time (due to the weather delays). Our replacement flight attendant was on another flight - which subsequently got diverted to Maine as well. We finally got another flight attendant whose flight came in earlier than the Maine one, and left at last around midnight. By that time, Ben and I were quite tired and had already watched Hancock and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 on our computer (yes, Ben has seen both Sisterhood movies - thanks, Ben).

So I wanted very badly to go to sleep on the flight - except that the plane was filled with several college students who were extremely excited to go home for the holidays, and were thus extremely chatty, along with a little boy (~ 2 years old) who screamed, "I want my pretzels!" about 25 times in a row and then intermittently throughout the flight. For some reason, when we finally landed, this same little boy had to be taken off the plane by paramedics, even though he looked fine and I thought he was just cranky during the flight. I don't know what was wrong. At any rate we finally got in at 4 am.

On our first full day we enjoyed some breakfast at IHOP, shopping at Target and a tasty family dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. A big, 9-course Chinese dinner is a rare treat for us since we don't have many people close by to share this with.

On Day 2, we went to our former church and reconnected with many more familiar faces. Unfortunately a lady fainted during the service and had to be taken away by paramedics (are we a curse?!). She was conscious when she left, so hopefully she's OK. You can pray for her. Later in the day we had lunch with friends, did a little caroling at the assisted living facility where my grandfather stays (and visited him), and ate another tasty meal with my parents, this time Tex-Mex.

Day 3 brought more shopping (the third Target in three days!), and a fun, yet very cold, family photo shoot. Thanks, Sharon, for doing a great job with that! We enjoyed some happy hour (i.e., inexpensive) sushi with friends followed by Scrabble and Rock Band.

More to come, hopefully including some photos!