Christmas Break recap

The first weekend of Christmas break Jamie and Robb graced us with their presence! It was wonderful to see them again as we hadn't seen them since they got married 1 1/2 yrs earlier! TOO LONG! And shortly after they arrived Merrilee came and shortly after that, Steve arrived! It ended up being about a full week with everyone (of course we were missing Joey's brother Jesse and his family! :( ).

As all of our guests have been previous residents of Taiwan, their trip did not include many of the touristy things you would think of when entertaining guests in another country. The only requests our guests made were for: bubble tea, night market and Taiwan Costco! hehe :) Those were easily gratified! So instead of the normal touristy things we did a lot of this:

Well some of us did that while most of us just ate that!

We also did a lot of this: (You won't be able to tell what "this" is from this picture. "This"= playing at the playground.)

We had a somewhat traditional meal for Christmas Eve dinner with the exception of eating a somewhat American entree as opposed to a chinese one. But the candles were out and we were all dressed up (from the waist up and Robb is so kindly demonstrating)!

We even sang Christmas carols while Joey played piano and the girls played their instruments

And then we sang happy birthday to Jesus.

On Christmas day the girls opened stockings

And then we headed off to church.

And....unfortunately that's about all the pictures I have of the Torgersons' trip! SORRY! :( We had a wonderful time and were so thankful to celebrate our first Taiwan Christmas with family!

Man-Made Music!

After a long intermission, Man-Made Music has returned. This song is the result of the time afforded by a much-needed Chinese New Year holiday break (and the benefit of living near my school’s band room and nice microphones!). Your comments and feedback are always more than welcome! Happy listening!

Fill Anew

The cold of it all will never shake away

With shivers that were meant for other places than today.

With black unblinking eyes she watched me sing upon my grave

In hopes that grace would maybe let me walk away.

O, skull; O, dew show me roses.

I care not for any color but crimson red.

Fill anew my brittle empty cup

And fill it full and fill it red

And let it spill upon my hands.

The frost that skirts my shoes is not a frost that melts or fades

But hardened callouses from scuffling frozen stones.

The brown beneath my nails is from the cold and ancient way

She bids me wallow ‘til the hardness touches bone.

O, skull; O, dew, show me roses.

I care not for any color but crimson red.

Fill anew my brittle empty cup

And fill it full and fill it red

And let it spill upon my hands.

Let mem’ry not betray the image you have left,

The issue of your heart on barren earth.

Her eyes must look away from full and perfect birth

And shivers that will shake the cold away.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!

Yes, we are "celebrating" Chinese New Year here in Taiwan! Basically for us it means a week off of school AND on Thursday and Friday we can not drive on the highways with only one person in the car as that would mean we are not carpooling and to avoid traffic overload on the elevated highways, you MUST carpool! YAY! So we took that as our warning to stay off the roads lest we want to sit in traffic all day.

After doing lots of entertaining over the Christmas and Gregorian calendar new year, we are happy to have a quiet break to ourselves, though it is only because we thoroughly enjoyed our guests that we now feel we can rest! (I WILL post pictures of the family visits!)

Here are some pictures I took a few months ago that I never posted. Two things the girls love to do: 1. Wear their fluffy skirts. 2. Play in their room and on Ellie's bed (For some reason when I take the sheets off of Ellie's bed to wash them, the girls think it's SUPER fun and that they then have permission to jump).