Baby Shower for baby boy Hicks

J recently helped host a baby shower for a dear friend.  It was such fun to reconnect with friends we haven't seen in a long time.  We can't wait for the arrival of baby boy Hicks!

J thought she'd try something new for the party favors - chocolate covered pretzels.  

Looks like they turned out okay.

Christmas with the Dernicks

This year's Christmas Day with the Dernicks was a lot more mellow since the Hardy's weren't here to celebrate with us.  Nonetheless, we still had a fun Christmas morning opening presents, eating a yummy breakfast, and Christmas dinner.

In keeping with the annual Christmas tradition, we went to Champions for our family Christmas dinner.  Unfortunately, our pictures didn't turn out as pretty as the decorations really appear.

Our Christmas gift from Mum and Dad was a day of art class to paint our own art for our house.  We had a great time learning how to paint from a real artist!

We had previously planned a day for D to teach J how to paint.  So, it was a good practice day before our art class from a real artist.  While it was a lot of fun, we won't be hanging any of this artwork around our house. :)

Art class at Mum and Dad's: 

Since she's a first timer, J decided to start with a smaller canvas.  It was scary at first, but slowly felt more comfortable with adding more paint to the canvas.

Since D wasn't a novice, he was more ambitious and chose a more difficult painting to replicate.   It took a lot of preparation, but the finished product looks very similar to the original.  Good Job D!

Lizann had a more creative piece and really got into it. 

Mum later decided to join us too, and whipped up a painting in no time!

Dad and Gus helped supervise our class.

Finished Products.  

Christmas Eve at the Kongs - Girls vs Boys

We've been spending Christmas Eve with the Kongs these last few years.  It's usually a busy day filled with Secret Santa deliveries and then a yummy 'traditional' Christmas Eve meal - Chinese hot pots! This year was no different and in fact, it was even more lively.

We started earlier to wrap our secret santa gifts.  Then, it's off to make the delivery.  Mama Kong decided to join us (D, J, and Lilian), and the whole delivery was almost botched - thanks to a few unfortunate coincidences.  First of all, since there were so many of us, D wanted to detail out everyone's position and plans to ensure we're all aligned.  (of course, mama Kong just wanted to run out and 'wing it'.) It didn't help that we decided to make the delivery during the afternoon, so we couldn't sneak around as easily.  After reviewing and replaying our steps a few times, we decided that J would drop off everyone a few houses away from the recipient's home and everyone else would walk towards the home from at a 90 degree angle.  Once the gifts are placed carefully on the doorstep, D will ring the doorbell while everyone runs to the car a few houses down.  One would think this is pretty straightforward and simple to execute... not quite:

1st Attempt:  Two BIG barking dogs came running, as J dropped everyone off.  Not a good sign for a Kong, but luckily they ran away.  The three walked towards the house and as they got to the house next door, the recipients of the delivery came outside to welcome a visitor.  Of course they saw us next door and asked, "Are you looking for us?  We used to live in that house next door."  Caught off guard, Lilian quickly responded, 'No'.  Not knowing what to do now, the three decided to walk back towards the drop off point with their gifts to meet J.
2nd Attempt:  Since our plan failed, we decided it would be safer to ask a stranger who lives on the street to help deliver the gifts for us.  We found a man working in a nearby yard so D decided to ask him.  As the man approached us, D realized it is someone who knows us!  Yikes!  So, rather than say hi, D yelled, "go, go, go, we know him!"  We had to drive away to a nearby strip mall to decide what to do about our EPIC FAILURE!  What are the chances of two botched deliveries?!?
3rd Attempt:  We couldn't leave until we deliver the gifts, so we decided to try our luck the 3rd time.  After checking out the neighbors, we found a family walking their dog on the street.  We confirmed they don't know us nor do they know the recipients.  They were very gracious and excited to help with our delivery.  They successfully delivered the gifts and we finally were able to return home to celebrate our Christmas!  Phew, it was 1 hour of intense excitement, fear, and pure hilariousness!

After such an eventful, yet successful, delivery; we went home to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. In additional to Kimball and Jane (who's visiting), our Juan family joined us for our fun-filled evening of dinner and games.

The idea of games was inspired by a recent 'The Big Bang Theory' episode.  There was a boys versus girls game night and they competed on very common childhood games.  Lilian and J immediately thought this would be the perfect activity for our Kong Christmas Eve. 

Game 1: Pictionary, English and Chinese guesses are both equally accepted.  

The girls KILLED the boys, 10 - 2.  And, we even had less people on our team!

Game 2:  Where's Waldo.  Who knew he'd be so hard to find.  

Once again, the girls KILLED it!

 Game 3:  Lightning reaction.  The person with the slowest reaction to press the
button is the loser and gets an electric shock.  The boys did do a little better.

 

Pictures just can't do justice to what we experience with the parents, so luckily we 

have it all recorded!  The video isn't great, but the dialog is the best.  To translate, 

nobody reacted after the first two rounds.  It wasn't until Auntie Ruth reacted 

after the 3rd round that we found out that Papa Kong and Uncle Tad both felt 

the shocks but didn't think anything of it.  Here we were worried that someone 

was going to get a heart attack from the electrocution and it was a non-event for the men!

The Parents

The kids

Game 4:  Jenga.  The boys got the point no thanks to J. 

Game 4: Dizzy Math.  This was by far the best game of the night!
No pictures available, but the video caught everything.

D and J

Kimball and Jane

Kevin and Lilian

Final Score:  Girls - 14, Boys - 7.  It wasn't even close!  The losers got to do all the dishes.
But, the girls helped clean up too.  While everyone was cleaning, look where we found Papa Kong!

Where's Waldo was a big hit that night, especially for Papa Kong.  He couldn't put it down!

Christmas Card

A first for us, we have a Christmas Card.  Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

After enjoying the Christmas festivities in NYC with the Todds, J was inspired to add more Christmas spirit in our house.

D wanted to surprise J before she returned, so he bought some lights and 

decorated our balcony.  Isn't that sweet?  It's hard to tell, but the lights are along the railings. :)

Before and After pictures of our Christmas Miracle 'Grow'.  It's nothing like the 

Todds, but it's a start.  We'll just have to start a little sooner next year.

 It's a Dernick family tradition to see the christmas lights in River Oaks every year.  

The people in River Oaks take their christmas decorations very seriously!  

We also ventured out to the Tanglewood area one evening to see some 'interesting' decor. 

Girls Trip to NYC

Lilian and J have visited the Todds in NYC every year since they moved up there in 2006.  This year was no different.  We took another Kong girls trip to NYC to experience another cold Christmas in NYC. Unfortunately, D couldn't join us because he had to work.  We had no plans to do anything touristy, just to hang out with the Todds.  It was so fun to catch up with good friends and spend time with their beautiful children.

First stop, the 9/11 memorial.  We grew up in Flushing, Queens and used to visit the twin towers all the time.  It was always part of our NYC tour when we had visitors.  So, this memorial was something we really wanted to see.  It's amazing how much things have changed, and how peaceful that area is.

After our one sightseeing trip for the day, we're off to buy a real christmas tree in NYC!  It's definitely a an interesting activity to buy a real live tree in the city with a push cart as our only mode of transportation.  Luckily, the tree farm was just two blocks away.  

The next day, we all helped decorate the tree.  It was fun to see all the fun ornaments they've collected via their international trips and from Ryan's childhood.

We didn't get enough Christmas tree action at the Todds and decided to go see the real big tree at Rockefeller.  It probably wasn't the smartest idea to visit such a popular tourist attraction on the weekend, especially 3 weeks before Christmas.  There were too many people and too many ways to get separated from our group.  Nonetheless, we survived and won't make the same mistake again.

Funny story:  Lynda really wanted to take a group picture of everyone in front of Radio City.  Unfortunately, the kids were tired and not in the mood for pictures anymore.  After a few attempts, the best picture we got was of Brandon and Ryan looking at the camera, but the rest of us looking elsewhere.  Oh well, it just wasn't meant to be.

 A few pictures of us hanging out with the kiddos on Sunday.  Seriously, they are the cutest children!

 Strolling in Central Park, Seeing the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and Playing with the kids.

 Last night with the Todds.  Lilian is a pro at bedtime stories!

Andrea Bocelli Groupies

We couldn't miss the opportunity to hear Andrea Bocelli live in concert.  Although we had nosebleed seats, we still had a great time at this amazing concert.

Turkey Day

We spent Thanksgiving with the Dernick Family this year.  The Hardys were in town too, so there wasn't a dull moment with three kiddos around.

While everyone is busy preparing for our Thanksgiving feast, D and Grandma helped watch the kids.  The boys enjoyed some time outside racing remote controlled cars, while Elle enjoyed snuggling with GiGi. 

Rawson found lots of acorns and decided to help open some for the squirrels.  He also found flowers for the ladies... what a gentleman!

Grandma D is a big NFL fan.  We found her catching up on the game before dinner.  She's a true fan!

We also had our annual family photo shoot for the Dernick Family Christmas cards. 

F1 Austin Weekend

This weekend was a long awaited weekend for the Dernick household - Formula 1 finally returning to the US after a 5 year hiatus.  Dan worked really hard to organize this weekend for his family, starting from the day the Austin race dates were announced, literally!  It was all worth it, as we were able to enjoy the first Austin F1 race with his whole family and cousins.

First view of the race, from our amazing seats at turn 12.  

We then ventured off to explore the rest of the race track after Practice 1.  The view from turn 1 was pretty amazing too!

Impressive turnout on Day 1.

 The fun and always entertaining S's.  These were the historic grand prix cars - notice the six-wheeled car. 

 A few more close ups of the cars as we wondered the track.  

GT3's for the Porsche Cup series.

A few candid pictures as we wait for the race to start! 

 Of course, it's impossible to attend a major Texas event without finding smoked Turkey Legs.  

 Red Bull vs Ferrari... may the best team win! 

 And, the race begins... Go Red Bull!

Though our favorite driver (Sebastian Vettel) didn't win and clinch the driver's championship in Austin (he won it in Brazil afterwards), the Red Bull team did win the constructor's championship.  We just happened to be there when they were celebrating their win.