Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Dufon Christmas





On Christmas afternoon we drove back up the the farm to celebrate Christmas and Bumpa's birthday. Nicole, Dale, Olivia and Buddy were already there. The next day, the Thompson's drove back from Arkansas and the Dufon's made the trek from Minneapolis. We had a lot of fun playing with the Thompson's big Christmas gift, Guitar Hero. Even Gigi was jamming on the guitar.

We were able to watch Josh's hockey game, go bowling, go ice skating.....lots of fun. On Friday, while we were bowling, a huge snowstorm started and left over 10 inches of snow. That was fun for the kids to go snowmobiling and play in the snow again.

It's amazing how fast everyone grows and it was great to be able to spend a few days of quality time with everyone.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Roessler Christmas





Back to to Kevin and Chrystal's to celebrate Christmas with the Roesslers. Pop Pop and Sophie flew in from Florida after lots of trouble. PopPop made it first but his luggage and Sophie went to Chicago. Poor Sophie, but she made it to Kevin's the next day. Weather played tricks with all the travelers. Grammy had to make an unfortunate last minute visit to Wisconsin due to the death of her brother, Mike. Her plane was delayed into Detroit due to fog and snow, but she finally made it. The kids were all excited to see Grammy.

We celebrated by going to Christmas Eve mass and then having dinner at home afterwards. We of course, stuffed ourselves with great snacks and food. Kirk passed out and didn't even have his dessert. The kids left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

On Christmas day, we woke up and sure enough Santa Claus had come to the house and left a ton of presents. Alex was enamored with Ethan's big gift - Crash up cars. The kids all got Leap Frogs and loved those as well.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Dufon Farm





On Tuesday, we left to drive up north to the farm. We stopped in Grand Blanc and met up with Sarah Wenstrom and her mom Cyndi. It was great to see them.

The kids napped on the way up and were excited to get to the farm. We didn't have a lot of snow last year, so this is the first year the Elizabeth and Alex got to enjoy riding on the snowmobiles. They loved it. And of course, Alex had to have at least 30 minutes a day outside on his favorite swing. Bumpa and Gigi had built a snowman outside of the door to their house. He was a great greeter!

The kids were able to play with Jake, Josh, Alli, and Anna. Elizabeth had fun with the girls.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Home to Michigan for the Holidays





Okay, we've finally put up Christmas photos only about a month late. We took a lot of pictures during the holidays and hopefully you'll enjoy. We flew into the US on Dec 15th and the next day there was a huge snowstorm. The kids were able to go outside at Kevin's and play in the snow, it was great. Kirk took them on sled rides and after he threw Alex off a few times, Alex was in fear of sleds for the remainder of our trip. The kids had fun playing with Ethan, Nolan, and Tyra.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Elizabeth's School Christmas Program



Elizabeth's Christmas program was on Thursday, Dec 13. They sang Christmas, Christmas, Mary Had a Baby, Willie Bring Your Little Drum, and Pasko. Pasko is a Phillipino Christmas song taught by Elizabeth's teacher, Miss Alforte, who is from the Phillipines.

They all were so cute. See the photos and the videos. They all sang their little hearts out.

After the show, when we arrived home, Santa Claus had left presents for Elizabeth and Alex. These were the presents that he couldn't bring to the US. He must have came in through the window and Elizabeth found some of his suit that must have ripped. They were both very excited and had fun opening presents.

On Friday, I didn't send Alex to school because he would not leave the car garage that he got. He didn't leave that toy all day!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Pamela - Elizabeth's Chinese Teacher

Pamela is Elizabeth's Chinese tutor. Elizabeth really wants to be able to speak Chinese because she has several Chinese friends and it frustrates her when she cannot communicate with them. Pamela was recommended to me by my friend Sophia. She is a university student and teaches through play.

She comes to our house once per week. When she is here, they just play different games and sometimes flashcards. This past week it was balloons. Elizabeth is not fluent by any means, but she is starting to use more.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Alex Haircut


It was time for Alex's haircut again. I try to avoid this painful experience, so Kirk takes him. The hair salon behind our house now has a race car that he can sit in. Still took three people to hold him down and it wasn't very good haircut! Now his bed head sticks up everywhere.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Murder High School Whodunit Party

We were invited to our first "Murder Mystery Party". It had a 1980's theme so since we both grew up during that time, we thought it would be fun. We were emailed our characters about 2 weeks before the party and we couldn't tell anyone who we were. Kirk ended up being a football player in highschool, and went on to the NFL. Kath was a cheerleeder. Since neither of us had experience being either of those things in highschool, we had to use our imagination.

Once again, when Kirk decides to do something, he goes all out. I think the mullet speaks for itself. The really sad thing about me was that I really used to wear my hair that way! Check out the pant rolls on Kirk and our friend John. The music was like really awesome and there was some totally rad dancing at the end.

Turned out, neither of us were the murderer or the victim, but we still had a lot of fun.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Kirk & Cronley in Hong Kong



Cronley was in China this week and finished off his trip in Hong Kong. He was free Friday so I took a day trip to spend the day with him. Cronley gets to live the good life when he travels, he gets to stay in the nicest hotels in town. I stayed with him at the Shangri-La Island Hotel which is a very nice and expensive hotel.

We first went to the electronics market to see if there was any new cool gadgets worth buying. Our next stop was the Peak that overlooks Hong Kong. It is a great place to view the city on a clear day, unfortunately it wasn't very clear when we visited. We decided to buy a ticket to the wax museum and the peak lookout to allow us to go to the front of the long line. You will see some nice pictures of Cronley and myself with the celebrities of the world.

In the evening we went out to Lan Kwai Fong which is an area where there are a lot of Bars and Restaurants. We went to a couple of bars including an Irish Pub his brother had been to a couple of years ago. We then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. To finish off the evening we went to an African Bar where they had live music. We didn't disappoint the crowd with our dancing capabilities. I think that we got back to the hotel sometime past 2 in the morning so it was a short night of sleep since we both had early planes to catch.

All in all we had a good time, but Cronley did need to get home as his wife Suzanne is due with their second child in two weeks. Maybe they will have a Christmas baby???

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Elizabeth's Picture with Santa

We finally got around to scanning the picture Elizabeth took with Santa.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Alex & Elizabeth on the Slopes















I couldn't resist when I saw this. Here are Alex and Elizabeth snowboarding and skiing.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The Roessler's as Santa's Elves


Please click on this link to experience the Roessler's as Elves

Monday, December 03, 2007

We miss you Mama!


Mama, we hope you have a safe business trip in India! We miss you! Please come home soon. We love you!

Yes, I'm back in India for a follow up visit to my visit in September. Since I never finished my post then, I figured I'll update you on that visit here.

In September I wrote:

I hope I can copy from word into the blog. I thought I should take a few minutes while I had it to write about my thoughts of India.

Vineeta and just about everyone else said that when I got off the plane, it would smell. Well I guess if you are coming from the US, this would be true. Coming from Shanghai, the stinky capital of the world, I could smell nothing out of the ordinary.

We worked a lot this week and didn’t get much time to tour. It would take an hour to get to work, and some days two hours to get back to the hotel. There is so much traffic here. The roads are not the best, so this makes for many traffic jams.

I have eaten some really good Indian food. They talk about food in two ways, veg or non veg. Many people here are vegetarian or they honor their favorite gods by fasting and not eating meat. They, of course, never eat beef since the cow is sacred. They also do not eat pork. Chicken and lamb are the only meat they eat.

They love music and dancing. In fact, one evening, I watched a wedding procession in front of the hotel. They had a lot of singing and dancing and bright lights. I didn’t know it was a wedding procession at the time, but the next day, one of my hosts Rajiv explained it to me.

The Indian culture is very big on building relationships. This is a different mindset than most Americans have. We met with suppliers and customers and they both were very generous in offering tea, coffee, soda, water, and other munchies. It would be seen as rude if you didn’t have a cup of something while you were talking. I always went with the tea or chai. Many times our business discussion would only take 15 minutes of the hour and the rest was spent in just socializing over tea. Most of the people I met were well traveled and experienced in business.

Thank goodness I talked to a few people before I went with regards to attire. Although it is very hot this time of year, the Indian women dress conservatively. Not that I don’t already dress conservative, but I left all the sleeveless shirts at home. It was a strategy that worked well for me as I think I would’ve been uncomfortable.

We finished all our work on Friday so that Saturday before my flight we could tour. My other host, Rajesh, took me around Delhi. I would’ve like to travel to the Taj Mahal, but that is at least a 3-4 hour drive and timing wouldn’t allow it. I will definitely have to come back to check that out.

Rajesh took me to the Lotus Temple. The Lotus Temple is relatively new and is a place for all religions to worship. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens. You cannot wear shoes into the temple, so you must check them before you walk in. It is a place for calm and peace. No cell phones or cameras allowed. The floors are cool marble, a nice break from the heat outside. We walked around the temple and then sat for a few minutes to pray.

The next place we went was to the Incon (I need to check on this name) temple. This is a Hindi temple which is dedicated mainly to the Hindi god, Krishna. Again we had to remove our shoes. It was much smaller than Lotus Temple and was decorated with many paintings as well as statues. Here, there were a group of men chanting.

It was starting to get hot now and really humid. I guess I didn’t realize it during the week because we were in the office with air conditioning.

The final temple we went to Akshardham Temple. It was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been to. This is a Hindi temple that was recently build and it was the vision of a Hindu person, kind of like a really holy guy. I have to look this one up on the internet. Here, we couldn’t even take our phones and cameras into the facility. When you walk in, first you pass through security, then you walk down a pathway that is outside. You pass through an area that is surrounded by structures with water falling down and when the wind is blowing, you feel an awesome cool breeze. You can see perfectly manicured lawns and shrubs. Then you walk through a building where at the entrance the pillars have hand sculptured statues of Hindi god servants going up and down the pillar. This building houses a gold statue of the person whose vision it was to build. There is also history of what makes up the temple and how it was built.

After you pass through this building, you go back outside (in the sweltering sun) and walk down a wide sidewalk toward the temple. One thing I noticed is the perfect symmetry as you look at the temple. The gardens, the pattern on the wide sidewalk, the temple itself is perfectly symmetric. I like symmetry, so I thought this was especially beautiful.

Once again, we have to stop and take our shoes off and check them. Oh – you also have to wash your hands before you enter. Now the pavement is reaaaalllly hot! They have carpets that will shield some of the heat, but still hot.

The inside of this temple was all marble. Marble sculptures, marble floors, marble ceilings, just beautiful. We walked around, and had to be quiet the whole time.

http://www.akshardham.com/

You can paste this link into your browser to see pictures. It was breath taking. After this temple, we stopped for a road beer and went to do some shopping. We went to the department store that Ghandi founded and bought some wraps. We also bought some spices there including saffron.

I flew back that night and was glad to be home.

That was the end of the September trip. This trip is a quicker trip since it is hard for Kirk and the kids when I am out of town.

Mal is in town, so I'll get to see her, but I not sure how much shopping I'll get to do.

I really would like to see Taj Mahal, but it is about a 4 hour car ride so you really need a whole day to devote to that. I love India. I think it is an amazing country whose people are gracious and respectful and hard working. You definitely see a lot of poor people and the roads and infrastructure aren't good, but they are working on it. I think it will be a good trip to bring the kids when they are a bit older.

BTW - I really miss the kids too!!!! I miss Elizabeth waking me up and I miss watching Alex run everywhere as he doesn't know how to walk!

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Dinner at the Paulaner


This past weekend, the Paulaner restaurant in the French Concession sponsered an event called, Christkindlmarket. This is a traditional European market, I think mostly German, French, Swiss, that they have in Europe during Christmas. Vendor set up their wares in small wooden huts and people can walk up and down very narrow aisles with mulled wine and purchase Christmas gifts.

We planned to meet San, Sophia, Oia, Chloe, and Bella Eng there. By the time we got there at 6 pm, there were lots of Christmas lights and Christmas spirit, including a Chinese Santa Claus that gave out candy. They made it there before we did and made dinner reservations for us at Paulaner. There are a few different Paulaner locations in Shanghai. This is by far the nicest as far as the ambiance and was decorated very nicely for Christmas.

Paulaner is a German restaurant, so Kirk ordered family style for us. A bunch of meat! Pork knuckle, sausages of all kind with sauerkraut, beef and good wheat beer. The kids of course goofed off together during dinner, especially Elizabeth and Oia. After dinner, we walked around outside for a bit more and let the kids burn off some energy.

While we were leaving the restaurant, Kirk was helping Sophia by holding Bella while she got the kids stuff together. When Sophia went to take her back, Bella refused to leave Kirk. San tried to take her as well, but she was drawn to Kirk. She is a sweet, smart little girl. She just turned one and she is walking and speaking in sentences. It's so funny to hear someone so small say "Wo yao niu nai" (I want milk) perfectly.

The picture on the swing is my favorite. From the left is Chloe (1 month younger than Alex), Oia (1 month younger that Elizabeth), Elizabeth and Alex. They all had a really good time together and were disappointed when it was time to leave.

Bella finally left Kirk! He definitely liked the attention from her.