The happiest family on earth!

I last blogged about Ella and i wanted to give her her own entry because she is special and deserves it, but now I would like to gush for a bit about my family, and more specifically about my parents and siblings.

They are the best ever.


When we knew that Ella would be baptised so close to the holidays we didn't know if any of my side of the extended family would be able to make it, but my parents made a special trip to be here for her special day. A trip from Hong Kong to SoCal is no little deal. They came out a few days early and spent some real quality time with us, it was wonderful to have time without a lot of demands, time where my kids got to really share their personalities with their grandparents.




Saturday morning, my sister and her family flew in from Massachusetts, they stayed with us at a very inconvenient time for them, right in the middle of a household move to Washington state. They cut their move short to be able to be here with us, I can't say how grateful I am for their willingness to do that, and how much it meant for them to do that.


Finally, my baby brother who is not a baby at all, but a highly successful marketing manager with Harper Collins, took time and money, and time (again) away from his lovely fiancee, and plans for their fabulous wedding this August.

Everyone made it in Saturday morning and were there to celebrate Ella's Baptism with us. We spent a lovely Sunday together, mostly just visiting and talking.

Then came Monday.... I am very grateful to my Brother-in-law and Sister for including us in their trip to Disneyland.

This is a feat I have never before attempted, and for good reason. We had 7 adults and 7 children and as far as I am concerned, that is the appropriate adult to child ratio.

We had a lovely day, the children had a lot of fun. Although I personally think "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" should have a bigger disclaimer, something along the lines of "unless you like to be shaken around in the dark with a loud cacophony of sound do not enter here." Thankfully things got much better after we convinced my scaredy girls that not every ride would be like that. Highlights of the day included personal audiences with princesses, Goofy's backyard, and Small World.

We ended the day with a nice sit down dinner at IHOP close to Disneyland, but far enough thst we got to have a whole back room area to ourselves. A great end to a great day.


Tuesday brought with it a reality check, Mark had to get back to work, and the big girls had to return to school. Though Nina enjoyed a morning with her cousins all to herself. My niece L set up a fabulous school for spies, she called her students her "paddo-wad learners" (we ate lunch next to the jedi-school training camp at Disneyland).

Wednesday we said good bye to our cousins and sighed as we got back to our routine, grateful for the fabulous time we had, but now a little more sad because we remembered what we were missing by not living close to this part of our family. We are so grateful for such loving, generous, helpful, family.