Dennis really wanted to introduce Ethan to his grandfather, or Ethan's great-grandfather. His health is not the best, so we used the last leg of our Christmas trip to travel to San Francisco for a visit. We visited with other family members, too, in our quick trip out there. Thankfully, Grandpa was awake and in a great mood when we went to see him. It was so neat to see all the generations of Chen men together, and we are so grateful that Ethan got to meet his great-grandfather. The best part was that Grandpa seemed to enjoy Ethan, and the feeling was mutual. Ethan had many smiles for his great-grandfather. :)
Friday, January 18, 2008
It's a Chen Christmas!
As I look back at Christmas, I can't help but wonder, "what were we thinking????" It was a wonderful time, but we had some of the most intense travel that I've ever experienced. And we did it with an 8 1/2 month old and slightly hyper dog. Thankfully, Ethan is a super traveler and was a great sport. It all started on Saturday, December 22 around 7:30pm. (Note: this was after having Catie's 3 kids off and on for two weeks, meeting Tessa, and spending the day with the McClure family to celebrate Christmas) We left Charlotte for Michigan, and drove straight through the night. (Okay, Dennis drove but I couldn't sleep because I was so worried he would get sleepy!) Most importantly, Ethan DID sleep, which is a wonderful thing. Upon our arrival, we took a short nap and then went to the Detroit Lions game. After a great Christmas Eve dinner prepared by Dennis' dad, we woke up on Christmas Day to load the car and drive four hours to Toronto. We spent the next couple days stuffing ourselves with yummy Chinese food, and drove back to Michigan on Thursday. Friday afternoon we got in the car to drive back to Charlotte. We arrived around 3am, unloaded the car and re-packed to get on an 8am flight to San Francisco. We got to visit Dennis' grandfather, who met Ethan for the first time. (more on that later) More yummy Chinese food, and the red-eye home. We arrived about 6:30am and I had just enough time to shower before heading into work at 8:30am Monday morning. In the cracks of all this travel were laughs and good times with Dennis' family, and Ethan enjoyed a fabulous first Christmas. His favorite part was the wrapping paper! While I missed the low-key cozy Christmas of rest (Dennis would probably say BORING :)), I must say we packed a lot into a week and a half. Actually, I know what we were thinking...I just didn't know I would be so tired.
Posted by E. Chen at 6:41 PM
Off to work with Daddy
Dennis' group at Wachovia had a Christmas party for all of the kids. One of Dennis' co-workers even showed up as Santa! Ethan had a great time...he really loved Daddy's desk chair. :)
Posted by E. Chen at 6:32 PM
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Newest Cousin--Tessa
Teresa Caplan Jackson was born May 11, 2007 in Jiangxi Province, China. Catie and Kenneth left Charlotte on December 13 and returned on December 22 with Tessa! All of the paperwork went really smoothly and everything is great. She's a tremendous eater, but is still working on sleeping through the night by herself. Extroverted as heck, she's a perfect fit for the Jackson family! Everyone is adjusting very well to this happy new addition. She is one month younger than Ethan (if Ethan had been born on his due date, they would have only been 2 days apart!), and I know they will be fast friends. Right now they just enjoy staring at each other. :)
Posted by E. Chen at 10:07 PM
Cousins
We had a few very full weeks before Christmas. My sister and brother-in-law FINALLY got to travel to China to pick up their baby girl, Tessa. (they have been going through this process for several years now!) Ethan's cousins got to spend some quality time with us, and with Mum (grandmother McClure). We had a great time! I (Liz) had a bit of an adjustment getting four kids ready to walk out the door instead of one, and meals were always very interesting. I loved it, though, and it was very fun to have all of this activity just before Christmas. As the pictures indicate, we baked cookies, went bowling (with Phil), raked leaves (Dennis loved the free labor! haha), and had a few interesting trips to the grocery store. Let's just say I have a lot more respect for moms with many kids.
Posted by E. Chen at 9:51 PM
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