Good start for 2011!

I was so pleased to have a birthday lunch with my sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and one of my daughters. I also enjoyed sharing some other cultures by suggesting we eat in an Indian Restaurant. Now everybody knows what a Mango Lassi is, and loves them!

This area needs a German Restaurant!






Two adorable grandsons! Benny's personality is growing day by day and his vocabulary is exploding, with some interesting results. Ephraim is sitting up, has the biggest smiles, and talks with his hands. The two of them get a kick out of each other, and are going to team up on a lot of mischief in not too much longer!




Feeding the missionaries sometimes leads to unexpected activities. Elder Denny from Australia was smitten with the fabric of my pillows and commented that a tie made of that fabric would be awesome. So I made one. There wasn't quite enough fabric, and I have never done this before, so parts of the back of it look *interesting* and the smaller end had to be quilted together, but it turned out amazingly well. Elder Denny was delighted, and I'm going to make more (different fabrics as well) and see if they will sell.


Chinese New Year. Of course, we don't celebrate it as lavishly as they do in China, but we decorated the dining room and invited some of Zixu's friends over and had a fun evening making filled dumplings and lots of other food. It was, all of it, totally delicious! The symbol to the right means "happiness". But, not realizing, I hung it on the wall upside down. Not to worry, however, when it's upside down it means "coming." So it's actually a good way to hang it (upside down it means "Happiness Coming" -- at least in the context of New Year) . Just the same, I'm glad I didn't hang it sideways!

I have a lot of fun taking exchange students around. For them everything is new. We made our annual trip to Seattle in January this year (the roads over the mountain passes were not too snowy) to take advantage of Muslim Day, when the Muslims in Washington State march on the Capital and speak with representatives, for the purpose of showing the positive things Muslims do in this state. My Indonesian and Indian students were excited and enthusiastic about the energy. My Macedonian student was not. There are problems between Muslims and Christians in his country and he did not feel at all comfortable and kept his distance. At least he saw some of the process. Since the march on the Capital was our last activity, he did enjoy the other things we did, as did they all, including the Palestinian girl I invited along because I know her host mom. We visited the Space Needle, the Science Center, the Museum of Flight, the Aquarium, and took a tour of the harbor. We would have done more, but after watching a 3D IMAX movie with them (something about "extreme waves") I realized I didn't feel so good, and when it got worse after we left the theater, I realized that it wasn't the movie, it was me. I was sick! So the group was forced to slow down a bit! But they still saw a lot and had a good time. I was able to leave the two Muslims in the care of a lady from the local mosque, and took my unhappy Macedonian home early. My achy body was glad to get away early too!

The students are also supposed to do at least 20 hours of volunteer work during their year here, so I took them to serve food to hungry people at the Union Gospel Mission. Being who they are, they boys (and their friend who joined us) had a great time. I'm getting a pretty good education too -- there are so many people who help others and in such a variety of ways.





We got to host our monthly extended family gathering. I was pleased and impressed that we managed to fit 35 people into our home, with (almost) adequate seating (a little less than half are in this photo). It was good to do something together! I am glad everybody got to see how nice our remodeled home looks, and I am especially happy we are keeping our comittment to get together more often!