Merry Christmas eve everyone! Can you believe that 2010 is just around the corner? Where did 2009 go??
It’s soo hard to believe that this will be our second Christmas without our sweet Logan. It feels like just yesterday that we were sitting with him in the NSCU, rubbing his back & talking to him. The holidays are always such a bittersweet time for us… we love spending time with our family & friends, but we just miss Logan soo much. People always say that he’s with us in spirit, and we know that’s true… but we would give ANYTHING to really have him with us.
Like 2008, 2009 continued to be an emotionally challenging year for us. We have high hopes that 2010 will bring us some peace. Enjoy the holidays with your loved ones… be generous with the hugs & “I love you”s because life is much too short. Please send a little love to our sweet angel Logan too! Wishing you all LOVE, PEACE, & JOY this holiday season.
For all those that didn’t get to see mom’s slideshow or would like to see it again… I finally put it online. I also posted some video that Jen took… mom arriving at the party and seeing Aunty Mary (her expression is priceless) & Aunty Mary’s blessing.
Mom Jinbo’s 70th birthday was on November 10th. The rest of the family have been planning a surprise party for her and we actually pulled it off without a hitch. :) Can’t believe that the girls didn’t spill the beans… so proud of them!
She knew that we were planning a small party for her, but she thought that it was going to be next week. To get her to the restaurant for the surprise party, dad told her that Raymond (the owner) had invited them to dinner to taste the food and set a menu.
When she arrived, the expression on her face was priceless. She was truly surprised.
The second surprise was revealed shortly after mom arrived. Dad flew Aunty Mary (mom’s former principal and good friend from when she taught in California) down for the party and she stood in line to give mom a lei. When mom realized it was Aunty Mary… another priceless moment!
Needless to say, the party was a success… mom was surprised, surrounded by 90+ or her friends and family, and the food was oh so ono.
In the last month, the Uesugi family has been flocking to Facebook…Â At last count, I think ten people from the family have joined.
It’s turning out to be a great way for the family to keep in touch… easy for the mainland cousins to get the scoops on what’s happening here. What’s funny is that it’s turning out to be a way for the family to keep in touch on-island too. Even though most of the family lives on the same island, it’s just so easy for them to check up on each other through FB.
How cool would it be to get all the cousins on FB? Or at least one representative from each family – I don’t think that Hugh will ever get Jen to join.Â
In a previous post, we sent out our “CONGRATS” to Jack (my cousin’s son) on becoming one of the 10 national finalists in the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge. As a finalist, Jack won a cool telescope, some moolah, & a trip to Washington D.C. for the competition. Jack’s experience as a finalist was videotaped by the Discovery Channel crew . . . his video footage, along with those of the other finalists, were put together in a documentary! AWESOME!! Here’s the info on where to watch the documentary:
Discovery Science Channel (Oceanic channel 337, HD 1337)
* all times are Hawaii times *
Sunday, January 18th
3:00 p.m.
6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 20th
12:00 a.m.
We already have it set to tape on our DVR! Way to go Jack!
UPDATE: Check out the video that lead to Jack becoming a finalist…
As Kim mentioned in our previous post, this weekend was our mochi making marathon… Saturday at our house with the Mukai side and Sunday at Uncle Stan & Aunty Al’s house with the Uesugi gang. We weren’t able to take any pictures on Saturday (although hopefully I can get a copy of pictures from others who did), but I did get to take some on Sunday…
Every year, just before the New Year, our families get together to make mochi. Today is our Mukai family (Lance’s family) mochi making. We used to make mochi at Lance’s grandparents house in Kailua, but after they passed away, we started hosting the mochi making at our house. Lance has taken over Grandpa Mukai’s role as “mochi man”! Lance’s mom is in charge of steaming the mochi rice on the stove & Lance operates the mochi machine (a small, electric powered machine that spins the mochi rice into a smooth ball of mochi). Everyone else helps out by making the mochi & packaging them into boxes.
Tomorrow, we’ll be having the Uesugi (Kim’s family) mochi making at Uncle Stan’s house. Uncle Stan & Aunty Al have hosted mochi making at their house for as long as I can remember. The Uesugi family’s mochi process is very different from the Mukai family. Lance’s family makes mochi inside the house, while we make our mochi outside. Uncle Bobby, Darin, Steve, and a bunch of other guys steam the rice over a gas fire – although it used to be a wood fire. Darin or Steve carries the wooden box with the steamed mochi rice over to the mochi machine (a big funnel like machine, similar to a sausage maker). The young boys/men/kiddies, led by Uncle Stan, help to push/pound the mochi rice into the funnel, while the machine grinds the rice into a smooth pile of mochi. My dad cuts the mochi into small pieces, while the rest of us (usually the ladies) stand around a big table & make the mochi balls.
Like many families, the holidays are full of traditions for us. Christmas Eve is always at Aunty Linda/Darin & Lisa’s house . . . Christmas morning is always at my parents house, eating my dad’s omelets . . . mochi making at our house & Uncle Stan’s . . . New Year’s Eve & Aunty Al’s mandoo soup is always at Uncle Stan & Aunty Al’s house followed by ozoni soup at my parent’s house. . . New Year’s Day is always at my parent’s house. It’s so nice to be around family during the holidays, especially when we’re missing Logan so much. Although we’re so sad that he’ll never get to actually experience these traditions with us, we know that he’ll always be with us in spirit. We miss you baby!
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the wildfires in California. We received an email the other day from Kim’s cousin, who lives in Anaheim Hills. This is the same cousin that we visited during our Disneyland trip. She explained that they were all okay, but had to be evacuated for one night. They were one of the lucky ones because their house escaped unscathed… they only had minor damage to their fence and some plants.
Looking at the pictures they sent was a little surreal. We were just in that backyard a couple of weeks before the fire!!!
They also sent a video that shows the fire that was right behind their house (fast-forward to about the middle of the video)…
Sorry for the short hiatus. Lance and I just got back from vacation. We spent a week at Disneyland.
There were ten of us from Hawaii… Lance and I, my parents, Jen, Hugh, Dana, Megan, Sandy, and Mika. Like our last trip to Disney, we stayed in the Grand Californian Hotel . . . NICE!!   A huge perk to staying there is having your own entrance to California Adventure and Downtown Disney. Believe it or not, we crammed all ten of us into two rooms! The girls were excited because their room had a bunk bed in it . . . of course they had to take turns sleeping on the top bunk!
Our Disney trip this year was very different from our trip two years ago. This time around, Dana and Megan were both old enough (and tall enough!) to ride the “big kid” rides! No more Dumbo for Meggy! The girls were both soo proud of themselves after their first time on each “big kid” ride! They went on everything . . . Matterhorn (2 million thumbs UP from Meggy), Splash Mountain, Grizzly River Run (Meggy’s favorite), Tower of Terror (Meggy gave this one 2 million thumbs DOWN), Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Star Tours, and California Screamin’ (Meggy wasn’t tall enough, but this was Dana’s favorite). Meggy said she would have chosen the Matterhorn as her favorite, if it didn’t have the “snow abominal” (aka the “abdominal snowman” according to Mika).Â
Our real reason for going to Disneyland was to trick-or-treat with Mickey and friends on Halloween night. Joining us at Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat party were lots of our mainland family . . . Aunty Gail, cousins Tracey (and her husband Brian and their 3 boys Caleb, Nate, & Kai), Lynn (and her daughter Sydney), and Laurie (and her 2 boys Jacob & Kyle) . . . this brought our total to 21! We had 11 dalmatians (me, Lance, Jen, Hugh, Dana, Meggy, Sandy, Mika, Laurie, Jacob, & Kyle), Cruella de Vil (my mom!), Jasper the henchman (my dad!), Indiana Jones (Caleb), a storm trooper (Nate), a baseball player (Kai), and a super-cute ladybug (baby Sydney). What a sight to see! As we walked through the park, you wouldn’t believe how many people asked to take our picture! We had a blast!
During our week in California, we also got to celebrate Sydney’s 1st birthday (just a little early!) at Brian and Tracey’s house in Anaheim Hills. Brian cooked up a mean Mexican dinner of margaritas, guacamole dip, enchiladas, & soft tacos . . . YUM! We celebrated Sydney’s 1st birthday with a delicious chocolate dobash cake (made by a friend of Tracey’s) . . . DOUBLE YUM!
It was great to see everyone (our first time meeting Sydney!) again. It was also nice to get away and leave our worries behind for a little while. You can check out some pictures of our trip on our photo website.
