Last Tuesday the boys were due for testing for blue belts; the boys were lined up right in front of the instructors during the testing.  I have to share that the boys were impressive that night, and they put so much power and efforts in their routines; even the instructors commented on that as well.  The boys earned their blue belts with no doubts and they were pleased with themselves too.  On an opposite note, both Logan and Connor feel that they have enough of martial arts and we just placed our notice to end the lessons.  This would be the highest belt they would ever received.

     Theresa invited us over for dinner one night to check out their new house too.  The boys enjoyed playing video games with Martin.

The next day was my lunch date with our girl friends for birthday celebration.  It was for Michelle, Kathy and my birthdays.  We had a nice meal and a great chat at a Mediterranean restaurant. 

On Monday, a few coworkers/friends took me for a lunch; it was rushed lunch but still nice to quickly hang out with them.

    The boys had decided that they wanted to stay up past midnight.  We had a hotpot meal requested by Connor first, and next we tried to have a family game marathon night.  We alternated playing board games with video games throughout the evening.  One of the video games was the new Christmas present, Mario Party; it has been the family favorite since Christmas.  By 11pm, we were tired, so we just watched some TV.  Somehow we made it to the last 10 minutes; so we gathered the boys to watch the countdown.  We stayed together and rang in the new year together.  Wish us all a great 2020!

     We have been thinking about getting an EV to replace my Camry for some time now and we were leaning toward the Hyundai Kona.  Just in the last week of December, Stuart learned about the Kia Niro and became more interested in it instead.  The main selling point is that it has more headroom and space for the passengers which we need for our tall family.  Stuart and I went to check it out one morning, and by the next day 12/29/19, all four of us went to buy our new car. Fortunately Stuart does not mind researching as there are a lot to learn about electric vehicle.  So far it has been fun driving it.

    We decided to sell the old Camry on our own, and Stuart put an ad on 12/31/19 in the morning, and by the late afternoon, it was SOLD.  We said goodbye to old Camry which had served us well, and now we have a brand new car for 2020.

Bye Bye Camry:

Hello Niro:

    This year, due to being a bad season for colds, the grandparent trip to see us was cancelled.  Also, Connor had then just recovered from pneumonia, thus we took it easy and mainly hung out indoors.  The boys decorated gingerbread houses and we watched some classic Christmas movies, like Christmas Story, Muppet Christmas Carol and Elf.  Of course, the boys were excited and counted down to Christmas Day.  They were thrilled when their wishes for this year came true.  Buddy enjoyed his first Christmas as well; he checked out what everyone else received and he loved the big bone he was given too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDfXqy3xQd8

     When Connor was completely recovered, on Christmas eve, we went to Santana Row in the afternoon to look at Christmas lights.  We timed it just right; when we arrived the rain had stopped.  Thus we were able to stay dry and it was not crowded.  We shopped around at the stores to buy last minute gifts and took pictures with the decorations.  Afterward we decided to have an earlier dinner too; it was great to see Connor back to his usual appetite again.  The evening lights came on just in time for me to capture few more of us before we headed home.