We have learned to become more and more silly every year. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! 2016 was a fun year full of adventures and new learning for our family. Isabel is now eight and a half and Alexis just turned five. There is constant sound in our household as both kids are non-stop talkers. We wouldn't have it any other way. :-)
Jaime and I continue our travel tradition without the kids. We opted for long weekends this year - New Orleans in Feb, San Diego in August, and Miami in September. We are thankful to have adult time on weekends and on vacation. We also did a few family trips to Livermore, Houston, China, and Tahoe (twice). Isabel and Alexis LOVE hotels.
Isabel is become quite a young lady. She is in 3rd grade now.
Adapting to doing homework everyday took a bit of sweat and tears, but finally we got into a good rhythm. She agreed to manage her own homework schedule on the weekends, which has been working well. She still plays soccer, goes to Gymnastics, take swim lessons, and go ice skating. She also chose to take up Piano lessons again. Our deal is at least 2 -3 15 min practice between lessons. We will see how long that will last. I took Isabel to China for the first time this summer. It was a bit stressful but quite awesome at the same time. Her Mandarin is getting much better. She loves joking with her aunt in Chinese.
I also took Isabel for the first time skiing just last week. She also loved it, although she is already requesting "free ski" time instead of more lessons. We will see.
Alexis is a constant charmer as usual. She just turned five on Dec 15. I can't believe it. She goes to Mandarin preschool twice an week and can count to 100, do some basic addition, and write some Chinese and English. Like her sister, she loves puzzles and board games. We have over 20 games at home for family night. Her favorites are kids charades, sequence letter, zingo number, stone soup.
Alexis takes "Tumbler class" every week and really loves it. It's like Gymnastics for smaller kids. In late October, she decided she wanted to learn how to hola hoop. So for two weeks she practiced daily for 100+ times a day. It was so cute to see her enthusiasm. Soon, she became a master.
Jaime continues to love his start up life. Now he is head of Marketing and head of Culture for a small
Start-up called FuelX. He loves it. I know as I never hear him complain about work and he doesn't have the Sunday blues. I wish we can all be so lucky. He stopped doing Jiujitsu and is now in search of a new sport to love. While he searches, he enjoys binge watching Homeland, House of Lies, The Wired, etc...I guess I have learned to share him with our multitudes of TV entertainments. We still go out most Fridays and Saturdays nights for dinner and hang out with friends or enjoy a movie. We also still "go clubbing." It seems to be our MO on vacation - Stay out late to enjoy good music and dancing plus eat great food.
This year, I learn how to do a handstand, cartwheel, and snowboard badly :-). I am glad my kids constantly inspire me to learn new things. I am also still learning the piano and did my first recital during Halloween. It went poorly but it's okay. I am learning to enjoy the journey vs. dwell on the results. I have more experience now to do better at the next recital :-).
I am still at Wells Fargo, but changed jobs in April. Thank goodness, as I probably had some of the worst bosses in my career before then. Now I love my leader and my team. Life is good. I still wonder whether I should move to a smaller company. We will see in 2017. For now, I am happy with my 8-5 job where I have autonomy and impact. In my spare time, I still write my blog -
Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA. It's been my passion since 2010. I love being able to help people I don't know navigate their careers. I now have 6K subscribers and 30K readers a month. It's fun to tinker with this blog and test new services. I am thankful I found this passion to help others and learn at the same time.
Agnes continues to be part of our family. She has become a master cook, so we are quite blessed with good food at all times. She also works out 3-4 times a week at Wheelhouse. She also inspired me to try a few morning class. Waking up at 5:30am is not easy!
We also continue to do races together. This year, we did the 15K in Jan, 10K in September, and 5K on Turkey day. We have another 15K Jan 8 next year. Yikes. Haven't been training yet.... Yikes. wish us luck.
Alexis and Isabel continue to love hanging out with Agnes. Next year is a big remodel year for our rent-controlled apt. We aspire to have a shed on the balcony so we can put all the toys away and make more space in the living room. Also looking to get a queen trundle bed and customer built closet in the kids bedroom so they can have more room during the day and tons of sleeping space at night. :-)
Best wishes to you and your family in the New Year!
Lei, Jaime, Isabel, Alexis, and Agnes
No comments:
Post a Comment