Merry Christmas 2014!

So I suppose it has been a while again. But really there are only two things to say that happened in November:

• Thanksgiving was delicious. My brother stayed with us and we bid my parents farewell as they left Germany for their next adventure.
• Ray Kickstarted his very first game!

The game is called "Build Up- The Tactical Block Stacking Game." It is tons of fun and 100% Ray's brain child. He came up with the idea, rules and prototypes. Then went on to design the blocks, make the blocks, sand and paint the blocks, create his kickstarter campaign, get it funded and then mail all 100+ copies. I could not be prouder. But also, it is a huge relief having that over. Our house was covered in blocks for far too long...

And yes, that is someone sleeping in the background; it's Ray's mom! She came to visit us for a week at the start of December and got roped into helping sand and paint blocks for a few days. We didn't work the entire time though. We made sure we traveled and had some Christmas market fun.

We first went to Brussels, Belgium to see the light show, and eat all manner of delicious Belgian treats. The light show was absolutely beautiful. They put thousands of lights on the exterior of century old buildings and then light the facades to the beat of cheerful seasonal tunes. Here's the Grand Place during the day- just try to imagine the walls lit in hues of red, blue and purple.

They also had a "live" nativity. Meaning life size mannequins and some live sheep in a partitioned off section of the stable. The scene included a young girl who we're not sure how got into the story- but there she is.

There's Ray and his mom too.

After coming home from Brussels, we went the next day to one of our favorite places: Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This small, beautifully preserved medieval town will never tire or bore us. Especially at Christmas time. The festive decorations, huge Christmas tree and tempting treats kept us mesmerized for hours.

Here's Vicki standing just outside the main square in front of some sweet homes and shops.

We ended Vicki's week long stay with a visit to the Heidelberg market which we took the train to get to. It was a fun ride and beautiful market set below the towering castle. It was all over very quickly and the next day we had to take Vicki back to the airport to send her home. Thanks for coming to visit!

Ray and I had a splendid, quiet, peaceful Christmas to ourselves yesterday. We slept in, and then leisurely enjoyed opening gifts from each other while cinnamon french toast baked in the oven. Ray got lots of techie toys: wireless speakers to go with his pocket projector, a digital sketch art app for his iPad, and  a stylus to fully utilize that art app. He also got a new notebook to keep all his game ideas/sketches in one place, and a "How to brew your own Root Beer and Soda Pop" book. He has been very excited about all of these; I really can't wait to try some of the authentic, classic sodas he'll make from this new book.

Ray gave to me this year a FitBit, a calligraphy pen set and how-to books, crochet supplies, cake decorating supplies and a baking scale set. I'm so excited to hopefully develop some crafty talents next year with all of these awesome gifts!

Our cute 2014 Tree. We waited until a week before Christmas to get it, but I think we still found a pretty excellent tree. Loved waking up to this Christmas morning.

Ultimate in-home movie experience. Here's Ray playing with some of his new toys.

We spent several hours talking to family over Skype, which was the perfect way to end the day. We miss our families very much and think of them often. A new year is around the corner and maybe it will bring more time with family. But for now we're grateful for technology that keeps us close. 

To one and all then, we may not be geographically close, but know we think of friend and family often and are thankful for you in our lives. Merry Christmas!

A Very Happy Thanksgiving To You

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We're so thankful for the opportunity we got to come here to Taiwan and teach. We're thankful for the timing of this blessing in our lives, and for everything it has taught us.

Being in Taiwan has made our relationship grow stronger and develop more than we could have expected or hoped. It has challenged us as individuals also, and given us perfect opportunities to tackle the things we have been too afraid to try before. We are so grateful for this all around development and recognize none of it could have been possible without faith in Heavenly Father. Mostly we are thankful to Him for guiding us together, bringing us here, and keeping us safe while still helping us progress. (Everyone knows progress always comes with some bumps and bruises along the way- we're thankful for those scrapes too, the scars make great stories!)

On top of all our blessings, we're thankful that some of my extended family was willing and able to come visit us and spend time with us here in Taiwan. My fabulous aunt and cousin came to spend a week in Taiwan; see the sights, eat the food, and help us have a marvelous Thanksgiving.

Even though we still had work everyday, it was so fun spending the evenings chatting with them and playing games. On Saturday we finally got to spend the whole day with them so we took them to Lukang where they bought some temple fans of their own, plus some other great gifts to take back to family. Here's some pictures of all the fun we got to share with them.

Cousin Carie, me, and Aunt Deb. My cousin is gorgeous. My Aunt is a rock star (literally, everyone wanted pictures with them.)

Armed with a hand drawn map and directions, my family trekked to Costco in Taichung for the *last* pumpkin pie, just to make our Thanksgiving that much better.

You can't eat pumpkin pie in Asia with a fork, come on! Are you crazy? You gotta eat it with chopsticks!

Here's our whole group with some of the waiters who wanted a picture with us at our favorite restaurant: TASTY. It was our official Thanksgiving meal on Friday night since we worked late on Thursday and we don't have an oven. Duck is pretty much the Taiwanese turkey, right?

While doing some shopping before Thanksgiving dinner, we came across these good lookin' mannequins. We couldn't say no to a photo op.  

Ray has been working hard designing a new game, so while Carie was here they played a couple tester rounds. It was super intense and lots of fun to watch them get into it!

While we were in Lukang there was a random huge parade full of temple shrines carried on structures like this one. There were also fire works and lots of drumming and crashing of symbols. They were obviously happy and having fun. We, a little shell shocked from the sudden crowding of the narrow street stepped aside and whipped out our cameras and then enjoyed the show!











Later that night we put my family on a train and sent them off to Taipei so they could catch their flight back to America this morning. It was so great having them here, we will forever be thankful for this particular Thanksgiving. With only 40 days left in our journey we're working hard to soak up every last experience and memory we can. Again, we're so thankful we came, and we're excited for our next adventure after Taiwan.