For the first time in quite some time, we actually didn't go anywhere for Winter Break. Last year we had a great time on our first cruise, but this year, we stayed home. Part of the reason for this is Lars' knee problems are on-going, and Lauren had a lot of work to do with her first year of doing a Science Fair project in her new school. I also had a lot going on at work, and it made sense to stay home for all of us.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. January started with end of the season of ice skating at Downtown Ice in San Jose, and Lauren's gotten used to going for BYOS (Bring Your Own Skates) night. It's a free event for those that bring their own skates. We went, and Lauren continues to progress slowly on skates. I think maybe it's time to get lessons for her, but she had fun, and really enjoys going skating even if it's slow going for her.
We also had one holiday in January MLK day, and I had purchased tickets for a "bridge-to-bridge" cruise in San Francisco bay. I had bought tickets for the 3 of us, for a sunset cruise. As it turned out Lauren's cousins ended up staying with us that weekend, and we kept them for the holiday, which meant I got two more tickets and the cousins joined us on the cruise. The girls had a lot fun, and enjoyed seeing the sights of San Francisco and we got to watch a beautiful sunset with the city as backdrop.
Lars ended up having an unexpected trip to Tucson in early February to take care of some paperwork on the car, and to take our house off the market, as we've decided to hold on to it for a while longer. We also took a short trip up to Davis to attend my nephew Daniel's Bar Mitzvah, which was a wonderful event, with lots of family. While we were there we also got to listen to Amelia play in the youth symphony at Mondavi Center in Davis. Lauren really enjoyed the evening reception which included a band and dance floor. She kept dragging people out to the dance floor a spin, especially her cousin Mariah.
Lauren got to attend World Thinking Day with the Girl Scouts, where each troop in the area presents a display on a different country and the girls go from booth to booth to experience a little bit of all the different cultures. Her troop presented Switzerland. After the World Thinking Day, we had our annual family gathering for Chinese New Year. This year's get together was at China Stix again, our favorite Chinese restaurant. We missed seeing my cousin Ling and his family this year, as they've now moved down to Southern California. Lauren and her cousins were all decked out in Chinese dresses again this year and of course loved getting their red envelopes.
This last week, I had a business trip out to Richmond, VA. It turned out to be a rather frustrating trip, with all the snowstorms hitting the South and East Coasts of the United States. Both my inbound and outbound flights were cancelled due to storms, and I spent a lot of frustrating hours on the phone rebooking flights. The upside of the trip was that I got to visit my cousin Hal, his wife Amy and their kids. We met at Colonial Williamsburg a place I've never been to, so I got to spend the cold day walking around visiting the different buildings and exhibitions inside, before meeting up with my cousin's family for a dinner in the local tavern. Hal and Amy's kids have gotten a lot bigger and I got to meet my niece Sara for the first time. Last time I saw Amy, she was pregnant with Sara. On the day I was supposed to go home, another huge snow storm moved in, and I had a 12 hour delay before I got to leave and get home. But I made it safely, and we're ready to tackle March now.
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