Happy holidays from our family to yours!As 2010 recedes into memory, its reassuring that though the cultural zeitgeist is now one of general malaise, life remains joyful when enriched by experiences with those you love.
Both Torin and Ronan continue to fulfill their main duty; we feed them and they grow. Its amazing to think the tiny babies of just a few years ago are now in school. In September, Torin began full-day Kindergarten at the neighborhood elementary school. He has done splendidly, making several friends and is starting to artistically express himself, for instance playing the leading role of Anansi at a class puppet theater show. It was very fun to watch. Ronan started half-day preschool where he is enjoying himself, learning important skills, and making friends. Both have been enthralled with dinosaurs this year and they’ve now consumed every children’s book in the local library on that topic. We’ve since moved to the adult section of the library. One issue is that while Ronan loves images of dinosaurs attacking/devouring one another, this reliably causes Torin to freak out. But they did like fossil hunting over Thanksgiving, as long as the fossils were quiet and not scary.
This summer we finally accepted the offer from Matt’s brother, Mike, to come visit his family in Singapore. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit a foreign culture with people you love lead by a trusted guide. We even took the kids, guaranteeing excitement. Together we collected passport stamps in Singapore, Malaysia, and China. Jamie and Matt even got to go on a second honeymoon in Cambodia as well. Special thanks to Christy for watching the boys while we visited the awe inspiring temples of Angkor Wat! Torin and Ronan had a blast getting to know their cousins, George and Henry. I think they had the best time playing in the pool together. There were too many fun, interesting, and uplifting experiences to go into detail here though pictures are available from our Picasa site. One word of advice from the trip, when given the chance don’t pass on spicy donkey, yum. Do pass on the stinky tofu. The sheep’s penis and fried scorpion on a stick are up to you.
