Lion Dancing

Yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year and the kids and I went to see the annual Dragon/Lion dance (I hear both terms used but I think it's technically a lion dance) at the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art Center in downtown Dallas.

It brought back so many memories of my mission to Taiwan. I'll never forget the day that Sister Chan and I were pushed into a mall amongst a throng of shoppers during Chinese New Year, quickly finding ourselves in the midst of festivities celebrated right there in the store! Imagine two lions like the ones pictured below dancing around the make up counters. It was wild!

There is nothing quite like the fifteen day celebration of New Year in Asian countries. The food, the firecrackers, the music, the color - it seems that there is constant action and noise! Sure enough, both Esther and Nathan were a little nervous, what with the beating of the drum and the crashing cymbals. Once I was holding Nathan and letting Esther hang onto my arm while I took pictures, they became brave enough to watch without cowering or crying.

All the kids in the audience had been given hongbaos (red envelopes) and then crowded around the lion to feed him for good luck. Esther didn't want anything to do with it, though. She prefered watching from the safety of the stroller, especially when he came close to us.

We are looking forward to attending a Vietnamese celebration of the New Year on Saturday, as well as hosting a dinner for the missionaries, one of whom is from Taiwan!

Here are a few pictures and two videos of the event.



If you're interested, check out this YouTube video showing some of the 2006 World Lion Dance Championships. They do some pretty cool stuff.

Dallas Bar Association Inaugural Dinner

Last night we went to the big event of the year for the DBA. The theme that the newly inaugurated president chose had to do with the 60s - you know, Peace and Love and all that. Anyway, the decor was a lot of fun: huge colorful flowers on the tables, peace signs, and bright lights. Daron took a picture with his Blackberry of me in the dining area, but it's a little fuzzy.

It was so nice to get all dressed up. And there's nothing like having your daughter's eyes popping out of her head as she stares at you and calls you a beautiful princess! There's also nothing quite like having your husband's mouth drop open either! The dinner was marvelous and the music right up our alley. Of course, any night out, just the two of us (something that doesn't happen often enough) is something to be grateful for! Thank you again, Marsha, for babysitting!!!


Here's a picture of Nathan today during naptime. I've been letting him cry it out a bit after his 30 minute (to the dot) naps recently, allowing him to learn to put himself back to sleep. Unfortunately, since he now sits up, he is prone to falling back asleep like this!

The wheels in her head keep turning...

Esther has such an interesting way of arranging things (i.e. toys, pencils, food, etc.) Having left her playing with the colored pencils, I came out of the shower yesterday morning to find this! If you notice, all the pencils are in the same direction! On Sunday, she got herself under the table and kept yelling out that she was stuck. I didn't think she really was, so I left her there to get herself unstuck. She kept whining at us and asking for help to get out. She was being really funny so I got the camera out to take a video and quickly discovered that I had been right. What a funny kid!

Too Funny!

This was posted on my friend Mardi's blog. It's from one of those humorous emails that get sent around. It is nice to know I'm not the only one suffering from this!

"C. A. A. D. D. Recently, I was diagnosed with C. A. A. D. D. - Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests: I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the laundry room, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired."

Crawling!!

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Classic Novel Adaptations We Love

Of course, the book is always better, but there are some wonderful adaptations out there of some of my favorite novels. Daron jokes that he never has to read them - between me telling him what's happening while I devour the book and then watching the movie!

These are a few of our favorites, with the author of the novel in parentheses. I'd highly recommend reading the novel as well. While the movies are well done, there is much more to be gained from reading the original.

By the way, I would not consider any of these chick-flicks. Fortunately for me, I married a man who had already seen (and enjoyed!!) Anne of Green Gables and most versions of Jane Austen movies when we met. Those were definitely brownie points for him!

Wives and Daughters (Elizabeth Gaskell) - BBC 1999 Starring Justine Waddell (She also played in a version of The Woman in White, the novel of which I adore, but the movie was too short and changed too much of the plot to make it worth viewing it.) This was Elizabeth Gaskell's last book. In fact, she died before she quite finished writing it, but fortunately she'd left notes on how it was supposed to end. Definitely a romance and story of... well, wives and daughters! Highly, highly recommend.

North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell) - BBC 2004 Starring Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage. Margaret Hale and her family move to the industrial city of Milton during England's industrial revolution. She must learn to cope with the changes in her life, situation, and family. Of course, there is a beautiful love story as well. The music by Martin Phipps is amazing.

Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) - Masterpiece Theater 1999 Starring Ioan Grufford and Justine Waddell. This is my favorite version.

Persuasion (Jane Austen) - BBC 1995 Starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. This version has so many great subtle moments to it which really make the film for me. I also just saw the 2007 BBC version with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, which I also really enjoyed. The music for the 2007 version was also done by Martin Phipps.

Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen) - 1995 Starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Even though this is a shorter version of the story, I still very much enjoy it. I think the cast is superb and it doesn't feel like anything too important is missing from the plot. I'm still waiting to see the 2007 BBC version.

David Copperfield (Charles Dickens) - WGBH 2000 This cast is full of old timers to the classical novel turned movie screen. I found this one to be the closest to the book.

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - A&E 1995 Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Who doesn't adore this version? Daron and I love the movies that take the time to develop the characters and get at every nook and cranny the author created. As far as the 2005 Keira Knightley version goes, I enjoyed the cinematography and the music, but I did not like Ms. Knightley in the part at all. I also found it full of historical inaccuracies. Why was she the only one who never wore a bonnet? And they made the Bennett family look like paupers! What was up with that?

Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell) - BBC 2007 This movie combined the plot elements and characters of Ms. Gaskell's book by the same name as well as some of her short stories. I was a little nervous about it, especially as I hadn't read any of those works yet, but I really enjoyed it. I'm trying now to read the works that they created the movie from. The plot has many sad parts, just to warn you. But the characters are beautifully developed, there is a lot of humor in it (ever seen a cow in gray flannel pjs?) and it definitely shows the good of humanity.

Horatio Hornblower (C.S. Forester) - A&E There are several movies based on the Hornblower series, of which I've read several, but not all. The books seem to be written more for young boys and the movies have made them more palatable towards a larger audience and have added more depth to the characters. Definitely good high seas, swashbuckling, adventure, British navy, Napoleonic Wars type movies. My only concern with them is one of the last movies surprised us with a shot of someone's rear! Yikes! How'd that get in there?

Our Mutual Friend (Charles Dickens) - BBC 1999 This is based on my favorite Charles Dickens' novel. The story of a young man who comes home to England to claim his fortune arrives to find that he's been pronounced dead. So he goes into hiding and tries to find out what happened. The will leaving him all the money also stipulates that he cannot have it unless he marries a specific girl, whom he befriends under a false name. Of course, it wouldn't be Dickens without several other sub-plots, but that's the main one. This movie version treats the story very well and we enjoyed it.

Nicholas Nickleby (Charles Dickens) - There are three versions of this that I know of and I've seen two. Acorn Media did one in 2002 and this is my favorite version by far. Of course, it's longer and has more time to develop the plot and characters which the shorter version (MGM 2002) with Anne Hathaway did not. The third version is still on our list of to see and it's A&E from 1983. I've heard good things about that one.

Middlemarch (George Eliot) - BBC 1994 Starring Juliet Aubrey. I loved the novel. In fact, I've loved almost every Eliot novel I've picked up. The story is somewhat slow moving, but the depth of characters and their plights is so moving and well done. The movie captured it very well, I think.

Bleak House (Charles Dickens) - BBC 2005 Starring Gillian Anderson. Love, love, love this version! I was hesitant to see how an alien-chasing Gillian Anderson would do in a major works by Dickens, but she was excellent! The plot was very well followed and the cinematography was eerily perfect! We also did enjoy the BBC 1985 version with Diana Rigg. It is worth watching both of them and comparing.

If only...

In our minivan, there is a volume control on the steering wheel. It's very handy to be able to quickly turn the music down without having to search for the knob near the radio. Anyway, I use it without thinking now as it's right there by my left hand. What surprised me though was the day that Esther was being so loud that I found myself reaching for the button to turn her down!

BOING!

Nathan is so curious about everything around him. Everything has to be touched or go into his mouth. Last night he discovered a new toy in the hallway!

Best Buds

Granted Nathan is only six months (nearly seven!) and Esther is closing in on three, but they already just adore each other. Nathan gets so excited whenever Esther enters the room. And who wouldn't? She has a knack of taking charge the minute she comes in! Their favorite activities include splashing each other in the bathtub, dogpiling (this is more on Esther's part and it makes Mommy very nervous), and making each other laugh.

By the way, Nathan is cutting his first two teeth!