Monterey: Mission, Beach, Aquarium

The four of us and my sister and her son spent two half days and one night in Monterey. That was in February 2014.

I've been to Monterey a couple of times. Such a beautiful place. Wish that we could stay longer...

The first afternoon we went to Carmel at the Sea. Nice sandy beach. It was a bit cool, but James insisted wearing his short sleeve T-shirt only. He managed to get himself all wet. Luckily, his jacket that he was not wearing was mostly dry. So, he had to wear his jacket with nothing underneath it. Well, it's better than in a wet T-shirt. 

Daniel is studying California history this year. Learning along side with him, I began to appreciate the rich history of Monterey. After reading about Father Serra and the earliest missions in the past few months, the visit to San Carlos Cathedral became much more meaningful. Daniel and I had an interesting conversation with the docent in the Cathedral museum. We purchased a poster to support the museum.

This bark was from the Serra Oak.

I forgot how much fun the aquarium is. Last time I was there, oh, I don't even remember when. 

 Tide pools are always so much fun. See, James caught a little crab! It was released in a few minutes.

Year of the Horse -- Chinese New Year

January 31, 2014, was Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year). It happened to be a Friday.

I actually hosted a Chinese New Year's Party in my house! I definitely am not the hostess type. Even the thought of planning a party stressed me out. However, being the only Chinese family in my homeschool circle, somehow I felt obliged (to my children) do something for the most important Chinese holiday.

All guests were my and my children's homeschool friends. Now the advantage of not having other Chinese families at the party was that I did not need to worry too much about food. Including my family, there were a total of 8 adults and 13 kids. I would love to invite Chinese friends too. But, were I to invite same number of Chinese friends over, oh my, I would not have known what to do. I probably would not dare to invite because most of them are gourmand and most are better cooks than I am. Anyway, I was very thankful that the party was a success. There was plenty of food and drink. Some of the guests had a fun time doing "jian zhi" (剪纸）, a Chinese paper cutting craft.

Like on so many other occasions, I forgot to take pictures. These were taken after the guests left.

jian zhi of a horse

Farewell, farewell, Scouting

January 23, 2013, the last Cub Scout Pack meeting for Daniel and his den friends. Most of the boys are bridging to a Boy Scout troop. Daniel and one other boy are not. I had to spend $45 and hours of time making a shadow box for the ceremony. The shadow box turned out very good and the ceremony was quite impressive although Daniel did not get to "cross the bridge" because he is not bridging to Boy Scout. Too bad BSA made a turn to the direction of comprising. We did have some good memories in the last three years of scouting.

Christmas Memories

Pictures from last Christmas.
Our homeschool group had a Christmas tea party for the children. It was fun and the food was mouth-watering.
I shot some last minute Christmas pictures for my boys. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do a family one.
During Christmas break, our family entertained a good friend of mine from college and his son. Coming from Jinan, China, where I used to live, he is doing an one-year fellowship study at a hospital in Huston. He and his 8 year old son Peter stayed with us for about a week. We took them to old town Sacramento, Friary Tale Town, Sacramento Zoo, and Nimbus Fish Hatchery.
Among all my friends in China, he is the first and the only one (so far) who has come to our home. Being the incapable homemaker, I'm not the cut for a good hostess either. But I did my best, and luckily my friend has always been very laid back. I was glad that we had time to talk about not only the old times and old friends but life and God also. He used to write poems and was interested in philosophy, but does not believe in God.