Don't remember the last time . . .

Amy had a cold! Migraines and stomach aches yes, but never a cold! This dreadful cold of hers sucks, but still did not ruin Christmas! Amy's uncle, his wife and their son came is still here from Norway. It was a complete Christmas this year, minus grandpa and grandma. We are trying to rest up before the big trip to New Zealand. Poor Scooby, we'll miss him so much when we're gone. Now that he's all potty trained to go outside of the house, he's the easiest puppy in the world and lot's of fun. Here's a picture of our youngest cousins, Wilson (2 yrs) & Daniel (1 yrs):

We need to start packing in a couple of days. It will be the first time we're roughing it for so long! We are staying in a sleeper van for most of the trip and only a few nights at a farmstay & B&B. It will be quite a new experience to be in a sleeper van. It will give us more flexibility to move around as we choose, but it won't be as luxurious of course. Soooo excited! More updates on this later.

Parallel 33

So the night before my grandfather's funeral, we attended Allen's Christmas dinner at Parallel 33. It was an intimate and quaint restaurant featuring fusion food that shares the same 33rd parallel across the globe. So we're talking about India, China, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, etc. Can I say that I had the best mouth-watering scallops there for my main course and a delicious fried calamari appetizer. The scallops were big and cooked to perfection accompanied by lentils and sweet potato. I highly recommend this place, located in Mission Hills for anyone willing to spend $90 for a dinner for two. That will give you a main course and one appetizer.

Every year, his boss likes to take a company photo and use it to make Christmas cards that go to all their clients which consists of major hospitals around San Diego and surrounding area. We're talking about Sharp, UCSD, Palomar, etc. so we went to a nearby hotel and borrowed the Christmas tree background for the picture. I cropped them out of this one, but here's just us two.

Grandpa is with grandma in heaven

A year and 1 month ago we said goodbye to my grandmother and now we said goodbye to my grandfather who returned home to the Lord last week (November 28, 2007). During the Thanksgiving weekend I went to visit my grandfather at the hospital twice. The first time, he was still joking around and spoke some English words that my aunt taught him the night before. He was still strong and tried to get out of bed and was a little confused and scared since he didn't really understand what the nurses were doing. He couldn't communicate with them so he thought they were hurting him. He passed away two days after he left the hospital and went to hospice care. My mom and aunt were by his side as he was passing away. I am so grateful to have gone to see him during Thanksgiving. Today was his memorial service and it hit me harder than I thought. It didn't feel real that I just saw him a few days before he passed away and the very next time I saw him was today and he looked different. He is with my grandmother now and they are both in heaven. Their physical bodies lay at El Camino Memorial Park next to each other. It makes me think that no matter how many friends, family or people you have to rely on here on Earth and no matter how dependent or independent you are, everyone must leave the Earth at different times and you must travel it alone until you join again in heaven with God.

Bear face

Scooby is such a bear face. We lucked out and got the best behaved dog in the world. This is how he often sleeps. He can sleep for hours and then play with all his might when he gets up. Look at the picture of him when he was weeks old verses 3.5 months.