Great Grandmum

Over Christmas K-bao visited K-Great-Grandmum and other family in southern California. One evening K-bao even had the opportunity to bring in some fruit to K-Great-Grandmum and offer her a few pieces. K-Pop was on hand to snap a few priceless pics.

Shake It

"Higher, C-bao. Lift it higher"

Whenever K-bao visits K-Grandmum & K-Grandpops in LA, she feels the urge to put on a performance. Perhaps it is the long, grand staircase, so perfect for presenting to an adoring crowd below, that inspires her. Perhaps it is the untiring enthusiasm and unending patience displayed by her long-suffering grandfolks and great-grandma for K-bao's every initiative (see here, here and here - or even this post from 2009).

Recently, K-bao's proclivity to perform has been further enhanced by her infatuation with all things Taylor Swift.

Below is one scene among many that the K-Grandfolks and K-Great-Grandmum witnessed. The first video below is only the introduction to the show; K-bao insists on properly "Setting the Stage," including allowing her co-performer, sister C-bao, to also have a few words.

The second video captures most of the actual performance - set to Swift's Shake It Off, of course - including K-bao spending a good amount of time with her back to the audience observing her own moves in the reflection she sees in the television set. A few gymnastics maneuvers are also thrown in for good measure.

Lucky 13

Over Christmas and New Year K-bao got to spend some time with K-Mum's side of the family. Indeed, with K-Great-Grandmum in the house, along with all the cousins, there were 13 happy campers in all. It was a festive gathering which extended over many days.

There was plenty of lounging time...

...but also some intense activities. In the below "friendly" Bocce ball match, the judge (Uncle Calvin) had to resort to taking off his shoelaces to measure the distance between the balls in order to resolve a dispute between the teams. (One can also see contestant Aunt Christina - clearly not fully trusting in the process - on the ground closely inspecting the measuring activity.)

"Pull that string tighter! Tighter!"

A highlight for K-bao was of course spending time with her cousins, particularly J-Cuz, i.e. Cousin Justin. The two built Magna Tile castles, read Bible stories aloud and even tested their arm strength against each other (refereed once again by Uncle Calvin). K-bao and sister C-bao also had fun playing with Justin's younger sister, Cousin Kaitlyn, who is a few days older than C-bao.

"Don't let my expression (or my 2 hands) fool you, J - I'm only using 30% of my strength"

"Don't try this at home, kids"

As usual, K-Grandmum, saint that she is, spent most of her personal time cooking up great heaps of delicious food to feed the hungry crowds.

Thanksgiving Tree

Over Thanksgiving K-bao engaged in an exercise with her extended family to encourage all to reflect on their blessings.

Predictably, K-bao's favorite part was not so much writing out her blessings, but handing out the activity pieces and instructing everyone else on what to do.

Each person was supposed to write out up to 3 things they were thankful for, on individual leaves, while putting prayer requests on pieces of red fruit.

K-bao's Thanksgiving Leaves were: "Family," "Friends" and "Food" - unclear what order those were supposed to be in, but everyone appreciated the alliteration - while her Fruit prayer requests were for "Uncle Calvin and Aunt Christina" as well as for "K-Great-Grandmum" (represented by a stick figure).

Here she is working on the project.

The finished tree after various family members wrote out their leaves and fruits.

K-bao's prayer request, and what she is thankful for: 

Taiwan!

K-bao is back from her first ever trip to Taiwan to see the birthplace of her parents. There she ingratiated herself further with K-Grandpops and K-Grandmum, completely took over Xiao Goo-Goo's (Aunt Catherine) schedule - not to mention iPad - without permission, and cavorted shamelessly with Shu-Shu (Uncle James). In the last few days, in a pleasant surprise, she also managed to see Da Goo-Goo and family, including Cousin Elizabeth, as will be detailed separately. All in all a great trip, and worth several posts.

Here she is at SFO about to board and enjoying a moment with EVA Air's cardboard cutout air stewardess.

The entire trip was filled with hugs and more hugs. Here are a few with the K-grandfolks, as well as K-Great-Grandmum (on the paternal-maternal side), whom she met for the first time, and who by the grace of our Lord is still well at age 98.

More to come!