Spritetribe Times

Final throes of packing!

Well...it's finally here....tomorrow we leave home, tuck Sophie in at Grandpa Mohlers and head to Portland....to catch the next days' plane to China. I don't know that I will have time to add any more before we leave....so the next time we post will be from Beijing, China, LORD WILLING! Our plans, as we know them (don't have the official itinerary yet) In China Jan 7-24. We are going a day early so that we can see friends in Beijing...the Proctors and the Davis's. Saturday and Sunday are touring days, then fly to AJ's province of Sichuan on Monday.

Our weather outlook is a frigid Beijing: Highs 30, lows 10!
Chengdu, Sichuan: Highs 50, lows 30, maybe rainy
Guangzhou,Guangdong: Highs 75, lows 35 (is that a typo?!)

Here's some of our last minute details...

Making a countdown chain with Sophie!

Notarizing paperwork for power of attorney for Dad's

Playing around with ALL THAT MONEY!

Celebrations into the New Year....

We celebrated Tyler's 24th birthday at Dynasty with Tyler, Ana, Isaac, Randy and Bev. Yummy food! and great company...so great...i barely picked up the camera...shame on me...this is not good for a scrapbookers memory pages! Anyways....Happy Birthday Tyler....may God bless your steps along the path of a new year!

Took the family of our 6 wonderful kids and 1 awesome grandson to Applebees for a last meal together....(well, kind of a last meal...cause we are eating together again tonight. We are being blessed by a meal by Ana, since we are in the last throes of packing for China!) Anyway...back to Applebees....we are blessed with a table filled with children! They were there...honest. But the only pictures I got were pictures of Isaac opening Christmas presents, since he wasn't feeling good on Christmas Eve!

LOOK at Father and Son's lips below....caught them in the middle of airplane noises!

Hit a great sale...holiday dresses for AJ and Sophie for next Christmas. However Sophie wanted to give hers a twirl now! Hopefully it will still fit 12 months from now...there weren't lots of size choices left!

Christmas and New Years

New ornaments...a beaded snowflake.

Jordan gives his ornament a toss!

Travis takes a more careful placement approach!

Jenny gives Sophie help up.

Lindsey gets a lift from Jordan.

...then comes the hot chocolate!

Morning chore!

Keeping the Root beer cold!

Christmas Eve...Tyler gets the GNOME for a year. New tradition!

Ready to take Dwobknock the Gnome home.

4 Generations

Beautiful women in our family!

Grandma Irene is the new owner of a heated throw blanket!

My Great Grandma is the BEST!

Gpa and Sophie on the autoharp

Tradition...Tradition... (Can't you hear Tevia singing?) We make snowballs...made of ice cream, some are rolled in coconut, stick a red candle in the middle, sing happy birthday to Jesus, then see if we can eat the snowball, while the candle burns down to nothing!

Sleeping by the Christmas tree.

Next morning...Sophie wakes on the futon by Lindsey, instead of the floor. She must have got lonely!

Luci's Merry Christmas pig ear!

Stocking time...

Christmas kisses...

...and more Christmas kisses!

Travis is WEARING the Christmas stockings!

A snowy Christmas!

Pineapples make beautiful center pieces. Travis and Jordan put this together...no...they are not going into decorating! They pulled out the center leaves and hollowed a place for a candle. It started with a tall candle, and burned beautifully all afternoon!