X-mas Day

7:05 is when the kids woke us up. There was strange white powder; snowy footprints perhaps, leading from the empty plate of brownies to .... the washing machine. This must be how Santa came in. Thank-you for all of the presents: From G'ma Lori and G'pa Tom -- Synthesizer/Guitar Combo for Jaden and Transformer pack for Dylan, From Nana --- I-DOG Music Master for Jaden, Crash 'Em Up Hotwheels track for Dylan, From G'pa Mike and G'ma Darlene --- Princess Book/Song/Movie Pack for Jaden, Cars Book/Song/Movie Pack for Dylan, From Great G'ma: Connect Four Jaden, Spider Bump 'n Go Bike for Dylan and from The Fidanza's --- Voice Disguiser for Jaden, Thomas puzzle for Dylan. Hope you all have a great day.

Pre-Xmas

Best of the season all.

We spent the day as we have many others in Taiwan--potato pancakes with friends. The festivities began when cousin Robyn brought chocolate a day countdown to Christmas boxes for J and D. This year we had
Keith, Dale and Robyn over to share yuletide cheer. The girls were a little late as it seems they were celebrating the holiday season in fine fashion--until the wee

hours of the a.m. We had eggs, breakfast sausages, maple bacon and of course the tradition de jour....potato pancakes. Jaden and Dylan opened their first presents from the visitors; Dylan received a semi-truck to carry all of his

hot-wheel cars in and Jaden got some fancy clothes. After the brunch Yoli came over to baby-sit as mommy and daddy did some last minute
shopping.

More tomorrow with X-mas pics.

American Thanksgiving

For the 2nd or 3rd year in a row we spent the AMERICAN Thanksgiving break (gotta love those yanks sometimes) in balmy Kenting at Le Chateau. It was a bit windy but the kids enjoyed the big waves (gave mommy and daddy fits tho) and found a friend to play with. Hope you all had a good week.

Jaden turns 7

As usual, Jaden's birthday was a multi-day affair. It began at school on Nov. 18 as there was a class party for all of the November birthdays. Clowns, balloons and cake were the order of the day. Then the actual birthday began with a group rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to a still sleeping Jaden; then a series of phone calls. The surprise of the morning was a call from Grampa Dallas, then Nana phoned, although it was about something other than Jaden's birthday she made a quick change in focus when the importance of the day was revealed. The picture is of Dylan talking with Nana. That night clan DeNeef went out for a birthday dinner to TGIF's. While we were gone the Victoria branch of our family called (are they all still living in the same house we wonder?) along with Grandpa Mike and left messages. Jaden opened gifts from afar (thank-you all) and we got to bed a bit late. The final scene in the birthday parade was a mini-party with her friends on the first day of our 4 day American Thanksgiving holiday. The kids made mini-pizzas, watched "Hannah Montana", practiced their cheerleading routine and made birthday tiaras.

Jaden is 7 and already looking forward to being 8.

KAS Fun Fair

It was a busy Saturday at KAS yesterday (17th Nov). Mommy ran a stall that sold CANADIAN kool aid and Daddy ran the sumo challenge pit. Jaden was in the cheerleading group and Dylan...he was busy all day.

1/2 marathon loot

To the victor go the spoils...or to the participant anyway. 21k in 2 and 1/2 hours. Pretty darn impressive.

1/2 marathoner

After almost 300 km of training Mrs. Sheri DeNeef completed her first half marathon in 2 and 1/2 hours. Jaden, Dylan and Daddy are so proud of our super mommy. Well done. On On to the Taipei marathon in December.

Sheri and the half marathon challenge

Check out the link below to see how Sheri is doing on her training for the half marathon in Taroko. To date she's put in more than 250km.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=212640356&region=ca&language=en&locale=en_ca&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

Cousin Robynn came over for dinner. We had spaghetti and cake on soccer shirt plates.

Dylan Turns 4

Here we have a collection of photos of our new 4 year old. Some shots of his first day of school and school materials along with pictures of him opening presents. The crown is from Dylan's first day of school. He is in PreK-2 and his teacher is Mrs. Ortega. There are I think, 10 students in his class. One of his classmates lives in the building with us, his parents are also teachers at the school.

It was a good but tiring b'day. Mommy and daddy were at a staff dinner the night before and got home quite late. Yoli babysat and we had some other kids from other school teachers staying over. The kids ended up falling asleep quite late. We opened presents later in the day after Simon (he's in class with Dylan...his mom and dad work in the secondary school) was picked up. Jaden went out on a sleep-over tonight with a friend who was in her class last year, but is going to Chinese school this year. So Dylan, mommy and daddy went out to the movie theater to see Rattitouille. Dylan enjoyed it.

So thanks for all of the presents and phone calls today.