2008 Christmas Program--Happy Family Preview

This year, the Christmas program is :

超越時空的聖誕:"遇見祂的過去, 改變他的未來"

This is a musical based on "Journey to the Manger" by David T. Clydesdale. It will take audience to a journey through different historical eras such as the Depression, the Renaissance, Victorian England, and old Bethlehem, to discover the true meaning of Christmas.邀請您來參加！

Our family will be participating in 2 scenes: Great Depression and old Bethlehem. In the picture, you can see that Stephen is one of the wise men, Ha and I are the shepherds, and Hee is a cute sheep. (Ha didn't want to be a sheep), and there are more shepherds, sheep, and wise men from our fellowship. We rehearsed our scene on the past two Sunday afternoon and Friday after fellowship, and we also rehearsed tonight from 7:30 to 9:30pm, and I knew that many other people even started practicing their scenes in September or October. May God bless their hard work, and may God bless many people's lives through this musical.

Today, we took some pictures of ourselves. If you want to get a preview of the scenes that we participate in, please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/happyfamily.huang/2008ChristmasProgram

第一場：Saturday, December 20 at 7:00pm　　　　　　
第二場：Sunday, December 21 at 5:00pm
基督之家 第五家, Home of Christ Church in Cupertino, 10340 Bubb Road, Cupertino, CA 95014(408)996-8208
http://hoc5.org

Snowing and icing

Yesterday, when I dropped Hee at school and was going home, I saw snow on the mountain, and I was so excited, and I wished that I could somehow get there. Since I needed to prepare lunch for Hee and prepare fruits for Hee's recital, I went home to do these first, and then, off I go to find the snow land.

I tried two different routes, but both of them ended before I saw any white stuff, so I didn't see the snow.

From the news, I heard that overnight, the temp would be very low, so I wished that I would see ice in our backyard. Around 1:30am, I woke up to check on the kids, and I opened the door to the backyard and checked to see if there's any ice formed; however, the answer was still"NO". I tried again this morning, but we still only had water, not ice. I guessed that we are not cold enough, oh well...

Hee's keyboard Recital

Today was Hee's last keyboard class for this term as well, and he had a recital. He's the youngest one in the class, and he's playing the easiest book, but comparing to Ha, he is more interested in playing the piano, and he already told me that he's going to enroll to the next class. Hee was so cute to bow and so cute to play; anyways, he is so cute. His voice is not as good as Ha, and he sometimes 會走音， but he has better eye-hand coordination, so he can draw and write better than Ha. God is fair!

Ha's first keyboard recital

Yesterday was Ha's first keyboard recital in his keyboard class. He goes to the group keyboard class in the community center since September this year, and yesterday was the last day of his class. 8 kids took turns to play 3 songs each, and Ha did a good job. I thought that he would be shy, but he acted fine. He's not very interested in playing the piano, but he didn't hate it, either. He only practiced about 2 to 3 times a week, and I thought that he might be the worst one in the keyboard class; however, fairly speaking, after listening to all 8 kids, I ranked him number 4 out of 8. He hasn't decided whether he wants to take the next level class yet, and I still encourage him to do so because even though he's not very possible to be a great piano player in the future since he doesn't have too much passion on it, I hope that at least, he can read the notes well because it will help him if he wants to join the choir when he grows up. He has beautiful voice, better than mine and Stephen's, and he has good ears and good sense of music. I don't feel that he will be very good at playing the instruments (he didn't have too good eye-hand coordination and concentration), but he may be good at composition or singing. Anyways, we just want to help him to get a closer taste of the music world, and God will have His plan for him.

Here are Ha's recital videoｓ：不管你覺得好不好，就告訴他很不錯，他才會有動力繼續學。

Calendar Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kY3Kkz7Bx4
Row, Row, Row your Boat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKrJK5OhTkQ
Rain, Rain, Go Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdgY2pEdnTg

Favorite Gift

Last week, the sharing topic of Ha's class was "my favorite gift". I helped Ha to go through the gifts that he ever received over the years, and he chose this one as his favorite gift. This was his grandpa's handmade "something" . Actually, I had no idea what it is, and I only knew that it's something about "electricity" or "solar power" or "charger".....,but Ha knew very well about how to use it.

Congretulation, Grandpa! You won the first prize!

Bethlehem---We Went!

I was thinking about going to "Bethlehem" show this weekend; however, it was raining on Saturday evening, and I thought that we won't have the opportunity to go this year. Last time when we went two years ago, it was raining, too, and the "Bethlehem street" was all muddy (2000 years ago, they didn't have 柏油路）， so if it's raining, we don't want to go there again (我們是被現代產品寵壞的人）。Last night, our church had a meeting with小敏and 遠志明as speaker. We were late, so we didn't go, but we still wanted to see 小敏's 盧山真面目, so we decided to take turns and went, so kids could stay home (that's a good part of living closer to our church). I went first, and when I open the garage door, I saw a full moon: The rain stopped!!!!! It was almost 8pm, and we still had time to go to Bethlehem. Therefore, we brought thick coats and went immediately (of course, we stopped at our church for 5 minutes to take a look of 小敏).

We were just in time for the 8:30pm show, and we drank Hot Chocolate before we went in (貼心的教會）. I was very excited to be in that "city", but there were too many people there, so it's hard for the kids to see the whole scene, and we needed to hold them, so they could be "taller". It's nice to go through the journey of Jesus' birth again. (per Joshua, he asked me to say that in our church, we also have a show on 12/20 and 12/21/08, and a scene of the show will bring us back to Bethlehem, too). One warning: Soldiers in Bethlehem show will look serious and mean, so be sure that little kids won't get scared. Joshua said that he saw a baby getting scared by a pretend solider. ( In our church, we don't have any soldiers on the show, so you can bring little kids or babies to see the show, Joshua said.)

"Bethlehem" will have 2 more days, Sunday and Monday, and the last show will be on 8:30pm. For more information and video, please see their website: http://www.bethlehemsc.com/

撒嬌

This morning, Hee had a hard time to take off his pants, so he said:＂褲子在撒嬌我。＂

原來他撒嬌的定義就是　“黏住不放”，難怪每天從Ｓｔｅｐｈｅｎ一進門，他就黏著，“爸爸陪我玩這個”，“爸爸陪我玩那個”，一直到睡覺才放手。

Mortgage Rate from the Loan Agent that we know

We just got the email from the loan agent who helped us to loan our current house that the 30 year mortgage rate is going down.

Rate for 30-year fixed conforming (up to $417k) : as of 12/11/08

For primary residence, Loan amount fall within 80% of the property value was at 5.25% for no closing cost refi. This is also required with FICO scores of 720 or better.

For rental properties, you may refinance up to 60% (only) of the property's value.

Sounds good?

我家的有機菜園-轉載

【德芳】先生是眷村長大的孩子，從小到大都居住在寸土寸金的北部，對園藝有濃厚興趣的他，想要擁有一片私人的菜園，可說是一個遙不可及的夢想。居住北美每家都有庭院，自從我們擁有一棟屬於自己的住家，先生欣喜若狂地想著，總算可以大展身手，實現種菜的夢想。

先生於是開始開荒闢土種植蔬菜水果，從原本只是一小塊菜圃，發展到現在十幾塊大小不一的菜園。菜園裡的蔬果琳琅滿目，隨著四季更迭，我們的飯桌從不缺少新鮮的蔬菜，省了不少買菜錢。
每逢蔬果盛產期，還可送去中文學校義賣或饋贈親友，與好朋友分享豐收的成果，廣結善緣。
播種培苗是一個令人愉悅的過程，每日看著整片的園地，一天天抽芽、變綠、茁壯，抽長成莖葉綠蔥的一株株青菜，那分欣喜只能體會，無法言傳。

更令人高興的是自己種的蔬菜，就近摘採，隨即下鍋，吃得安心衛生又新鮮，颱風天也不怕沒菜可買。像上次大颶風侵襲路州，停電了7天，我們全靠自家後院菜園度過非常時期。
其實自己栽種無農藥的蔬果，並沒有想像中的困難，只要肯揮動鋤具、不怕流汗、翻土整地，你也可天天浸潤在菜香果樂之中。

種菜最基本的條件是土壤要鬆、陽光要充足、水份要充沛，植物才可以行光合作用，才有好收成。
首先翻土是一項很吃重的活兒，先生把土壤翻了再翻，經太陽暴曬幾天之後，敲碎結塊狀的泥土，把買來的木屑、沙土跟泥土拌一拌混合。因美國土壤較貧瘠乾硬，不易鬆土，如果省掉了這道過程，只把買來的木屑與沙土直接倒在泥土上，那是無法種出好菜，別指望來年它會準時回報。
一番整地之後，接著就可著手撒種，種子行老闆教我們把要種的種籽先泡上一個晚上，這樣種籽發芽的成功率較高。

種籽接受陽光的照耀和水份的滋潤後，我們就可細細觀賞它的成長，不知不覺中從發芽、生葉片、開出小花，結豆結果，也別有一番情趣。在菜園邊漫步，常常有許多令人驚嘆的發現。
在施肥部分，我們皆利用選剩的果葉、果榖、樹葉枯枝、木屑等做堆肥，適時添加進土壤裡。把草鋪在土壤上，既可防止雜草叢生，兼收堆肥之效，對大地和生態都有益。

在面臨全球金融大風暴，經濟低迷期，市井小民荷包大幅縮水，如果能自己動手開闢一處菜圃，提供了充滿陽光、花香和泥土氣息的休閒活動，和家人一起來耕耘，藉此親近大自然，強化心肺，鍛鍊身體，不僅可以為庭園增添秀色，為餐桌提供新鮮的蔬果，種些東方植物除能解鄉愁外，還有種歸屬感。更可為移民北美老年寂寞的生活，開啟另一扇門，與家人沈浸在有機生活的幸福中，做個健康快樂的「草食族」。http://www.worldjournal.com/wj-books_news.php?nt_seq_id=1816168&ct=88

Before Going to Bed

I hope these clips are not rated R; however, they are so cute, and I really want to put them here so people who love Ha and Hee can see them. Ha and Hee don't need much of our help to take the bath or brush their teeth now, so I want to capture these precious moments before they don't let me come into the bathroom while they are showering. 這是誰家的孩子，怎麼這麼可愛？