Photo Catch-up

This past Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve at my sister's home (Sahm-Yi). We, in this case, is Derek, Juliana and I. Jessica was invited to have Christmas Eve dinner with her boyfriend's family. So, don't be spreading any rumors that she wasn't invited. She was. She just chose her boyfriend over us.... *sniff* Okay, okay... while we did miss her, we weren't in tears over this, and she promised to spend Christmas day with us.

Juliana showed off her mad gaming skills:


She loves the life-size penguin doll from her Kou-Fu (seen in the background):

(It's almost as tall as she is)

On Christmas morning, she got a sweater from Oma (German for Grandma = Derek's Mom), which she insisted on wearing as soon as it was unwrapped. She kept it on most of the morning.

I don't know who did the buttoning of the sweater, but someone needs practice lining them up.

Sahm-Yi gave her another blinged out ornament (sorry... no picture). Last year it was a "Blingle Bell" and this year, it was a snowflake set with crystals.

Uncle Wes gave her these really neat rolling turtles. It's a ball (shell) set upon the body (and rests in contact with the feet), so that when you slide your hand across the tops of the "shell", the turtle rolls across the table.

The blue dress you see draped over the back of the sofa in the background was the dress I made for her. I also made a sun hat for her, which you'll see in a later photo.

Jessica got a dvd player from her friends, Mamma Mia! on DVD, a handful of gift cards for music/books and two purses, which she alternates using every day. And, in typical Jessica form, she wouldn't let me take any pictures of her. She even yelled and shrieked if the camera was pointed anywhere in her direction.

For Chinese New Year, PauPau flew Juliana and myself down to San Diego. Unfortunately, Derek's work schedule and Jessica's week of finals prevented them from joining us.

While we were down there, Juliana met up with her cousin Jaden. He is 9 months older than her, and yet she promptly tackled him while trying to give him a hug. For the rest of the trip, Jaden tried to keep his distance from her, and broke into tears a few times. The only time he would interact with her was to give her hugs goodbye. According to his mom, he's the same way at preschool where the girls just want to hug him there, too.



A tearful Jaden being held by his grandpa (my uncle):


While we were down there, Juliana had fun playing the piano.



And discovered Pau-Pau's shoes.

I love how she's looking down the line of the shoe. I told her that she really needs to play with her Sahm-Yi's shoe collection... (ha ha ha ha) If you knew my sister, you would understand how funny that would be... unless you were my sister.

We also got together with the Nelsons and took a trip to Legoland.



And what is a Lego theme park without Lego people and Lego food

There was also an area called MiniLand where they built small-scale buildings from around the world. There was the Eiffel Tower, the Las Vegas strip, Rural America, etc. In the Washington, D.C. exhibit, they had the inauguration set up on the Capitol Building steps. There was even a motorcade set up outside of this photo frame.
Zooming in you can see Michelle Obama holding the bible for her husband as he takes the Oath of Office.
They even had Aretha Franklin set up off to the side, complete with the infamous hat.
Juliana also had her first trips to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park:
See the hat? That's the one I made her for Christmas.

At the Zoo, it was feeding time for a lot of the animals.

I think this Panda was having his afternoon siesta.
At the Wild Animal Park, we took the tram tour and saw lions....

Rhinos... (including this two month old baby with his Momma)
Giraffes....
Gazelles... (Antelope? I can never keep these straight)
Buffalo....
And the wildest animal of all:

SPONGEBOB!