Merry Christmas!

We pray that you have a blessed Christmas!

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men."

Luke 2:9-14

Holiday Festival of Trains

Last Friday I took the children to the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda. I had seen on the news that they are having a special exhibit called A Holiday Festival of Trains and since both my little ones love trains I decided it would be a fun excursion.

Here are Joshua and Mercy right outside the exhibit room. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to use the flash on the camera so I didn't get any good pictures of the trains (they were all blurry). But it was a large setup with at least 8 trains running through various villages and Christmas scenes.

After looking at the train exhibit, we toured the entire library. The children enjoyed looking at the decorated Christmas trees throughout the library. Each tree was themed. They had trees decorated for different countries, trees dedicated to the presidents, and even one with the first ladies. Next to the trees for the countries, there was a short description of how that country celebrates.

Overall, it was an enjoyable day. A perfect way to spend a rainy day. I didn't think the children would be that interested in the history side of the library, but I found that certain exhibits did pique their interests (such as a piece of the Berlin wall, the life-size statues of 10 world leaders, & the White House East Room reproduction), which led to some interesting questions and discussions.

Joshua is 7!

On November 12, our little guy Joshua turned 7!
WoW! Where does the time go? To celebrate, we went to John's Incredible Pizza in Montclair. It was a surprise for the boy, when he arrived and saw his grandparents and aunts and uncle waiting for him he was so happy!

After we chowed on the all-you-can-eat buffet, we had chocolate-chocolate cake which is both Joshua and Mercy's favorite.

Joshua went home with a trunk-load of gifts. His Uncle Isaac gave him this nice Stratego game which Joshua loves to play. He can already beat his dad.
After pizza, cake, & gifts, we all went over to play games.


I don't know who had more fun playing - the children or the adults. This is my sis-in-law Cathy, and Jason getting carried away at the shooting gallery.