Christmas 2004
Last year 2003, our family moved
to Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the day of Gloria’s one-year birthday December 19th
and we spent our Christmas holiday unpacking most of the time. Other times we
were marveling at how beautiful a white snowy winter in Iowa could be which we
did not see in Texas. We were excited to see flocks of deer by our window as we
were once excited to see cows in Texas when we moved there in 1998.
Now a year later, we feel pretty
much settled down. We are enjoying our house and the beautiful trees and the
abundance amount of plants we have around the house though it does mean a lot
more yard work. We had a new roof put in and new landscape for the front of the
house. We are meeting new friends and often find ourselves entertaining at home.
This Easter held special meaning
for us as a family as we reconfirmed our faith and joined all four of our
children in baptism. Victoria also began to lose her baby teeth and she would
like the tooth fairy to visit her more often so she could get rich.
This past summer we visited New
York City because Yayu was invited to sing at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center
with the Hai Yun Chorus, which she used to direct for many years. We got to
spend some time with Yayu’s parents and see families and friends we missed for
years. We also visited the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia and had a great
time.
Steven is happy with his job at
Rockwell Collins. His work does keep him very busy and he travels occasionally.
He has recently established a collaboration program with the Department of
Electrical & Computing Engineering at the Iowa State University to study
network security. In addition to leading several wireless communications and
networking projects, he is helping his department in business development. He
has been involved in winning several programs from the Department of Defense and
the Department of Homeland Security. With four young children, he no longer has
the time to play in bridge tournaments. However, he still performs the recorder
once in a while with Yayu’s piano accompaniment and sings regularly in the
church choir.
Yayu is busy with our four
children and their many activities and learning, maintaining household order and
teaching voice privately both at home and at Kennedy high school where Priscilla
attends. She is also teaching some evening classes at Kirkwood Community College
plus running a Chinese school she founded this past August with 35-students,
both children and adults in Cedar Rapids. She is also busy with directing the
church choir at the First Baptist Church-Church of the Brethren in Cedar Rapids.
Occasionally she is still involved in directing a Chinese community choir in
Cedar Rapids, which meet occasionally, and another Chinese choir in Des Moines
in preparation for festive events. Our family is invited to perform at the
Chinese New Year Festival in Des Moines in February where the whole family will
perform.
Priscilla is 14 and is in 9th
grade in high school this fall. She is a tremendous hard worker and always put
the best of herself in everything she does. She is an “A” student in school
and is a member of many clubs and activities and a member of the show choir. She
is very creative with art. She painted a chair for charity to auction for $80
last month. She takes ballet very seriously and is in training with many hours
in each week. She also studied Chinese dance with a teacher in New York this
summer and will perform at the Chinese school up-coming presentation. She danced
with the Moscow Ballet Company in the Nutcracker performances this season in
Cedar Rapids and is considering becoming a ballerina some day. She attends
mom’s Chinese school and also takes piano and voice lessons from mom. She is
growing beautifully and is almost as tall as mom now.
Evan is 10 and is in 5th
grade. He has many friends and is a very sociable boy. We are seeing him
emerging into a young man with a delightful sense of humor. He is into baseball,
sports, computer games and “Legos”. He is very good with his hands, in
building models, helping dad fix things and helping mom around the house. He
helps to blow snow, sweep leaves and takes care of his little sisters. He is
also doing well in school and is also a member of the school choir. He is very
diligent in practicing his piano and clarinet and can play many wonderful tunes
on them.
Victoria is 6 and is in first
grade. She is very creative, and has wild imaginations with much fun though she
could be quite crazy sometimes. She is good at starting up a conversation with
anybody young and old and seems to have no barrier. She could also be very
funny. She told us God has made her to be silly. She is an excellent artist and
loves to read books. These days she is into spelling her words and writing books
with illustrations. She also likes counting money – a math assignment –
because she wants to be a millionaire. She is a very good singer and is studying
her Chinese and piano diligently. One of her karaoke Chinese song performance,
“ni wa wa”, was so impressive that the Des Moines Iowa Chinese Association
is inviting her to sing a solo at the New Year Celebration.
Gloria is turning two very soon.
She is as cute as she could be with her puffy cheeks and bright smiles always.
She has a very gentle and calm temperament. She is a very good eater. She loves
food, songs and dances. She learns very quickly. We had sent her to the Rockwell
Day Care Center for four months and all the teachers in the toddler class loved
her. We decided two weeks ago to let her stay home to have more time with mom.
On her last day at the Center, the teachers took turn to hug and kiss her for
half an hour, which make us feel bad. Gloria also missed her teachers very much.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with much health and happiness in the coming year. Take care. God bless you!
Love,
Steven, Yayu,
Priscilla, Evan, Victoria, Gloria
December 4, 2004
Email: yayu@mchsi.com
Tel.: 319-378-1144
4923 Oak Grove Rd. NE
Cedar Rapids, IA, 52411