Christmas Card 2009

Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2009


We’ve had a great year in Saint Paul, Minnesota! We’ve been blessed with health and happiness but most of all, another addition to the family. In April we welcomed our first baby boy, our second child, Corban Jao-Yong Chen. Time has flown the second time around; on Christmas day he’ll already be 8 months old!

Reuben has continued to practice Judo about twice a week. He likes the intensity and strategy of Judo; he’s also able to incorporate his rehabilitation medicine training into practice as he helps both his teammates and himself with injuries from the sport. Reuben continues to practice acupuncture as well as some other alternative therapies like cupping therapy. Now in his third year of residency, he’s spent the last half of this year working at the Veterans Hospital in Minneapolis, which is one of the four largest VA’s in the US and has a large regional traumatic brain injury center and spinal cord injury center treating young vets returning from the Middle East. Reuben served in the church first in the Elder’s quorum and now in the Young Men’s and scouting program.

Katie spent the winter being pregnant, which helped keep her warm during the cold weather. She’s also been taking Chinese classes at the University of Minnesota and enjoys having an intellectual outlet and teaching the kids Chinese too. As the Primary music leader at church she is always thinking of fun ways to introduce songs to Children. After Corban was born, she trained for a triathlon which she completed near White Bear Lake in September. Along with training, she and Reuben have been doing a new intensive exercise program, P90X. At the State fair they both entered the Marines pull-up challenge and while Katie did pretty decent considering that she had just had a baby a few months prior, Reuben totally dominated. He did 20 pull-ups, the max number for the challenge. We’re proud of him!

Ariana, two years old but getting close to three, has continued to go to Chinese preschool a couple of days a week. Her parents also speak to her in Chinese. Although she still has a bit of confusion over language, she is learning all the ins and outs of being bilingual and loving it. She especially loves the Chinese Dora the Explorer who speaks in both Chinese and English. Ariana is an active child, usually hoping or running rather than walking from here to there. She started a kinder class at Circus Juventas, a youth performing arts circus located in a permanently built big top around the corner from our house. The trapeze, trampoline, and the balance beam are her favorites and she is a natural! Her major accomplishment this year happened after a year of training- she decided one day herself to be done with diapers and hasn’t gone back since then. Ariana is her mother’s little shadow, always willing to be a “helper” which can be both endearing and annoying. Her new little favorite person is her little brother who has become a tough little cookie from all of her tight hugs.

For Corban we can truly say that he is just a sweet joy to his parents. Though having two children now is much more difficult just as expected, with such a good baby around it hasn’t been too bad yet. However, now that Corban has entered the puppy stage- getting around everywhere on all fours and chewing on everything in sight- we can tell that things are going to be getting a bit more complicated around here! He’s a good fast eater and has already about reached the 20 lb mark, a feat his sister accomplished at twice his age! Corban also loves his sister and always gets a smile on his face and laughs from her many tickling attacks and grappling hugs.

Though we live far from both of our families, we’ve been able to make a few visits to see them, attend weddings, meet new babies, spend holidays, and also go to Katie’s 10 year high school reunion. It’s been something of a multistate parade as we’ve visited Washington, Utah, California, and even Hawaii this year with family. We made perfect timing for our Hawaii trip- we left in January and skipped out on the coldest week of the Minnesotan winter (40ºF BELOW Zero with the wind chill). We were enjoying over a hundred degree temperature difference in warm Oahu with most of Katie’s family. Now living in the Midwest, Nauvoo Illinois, a historical site for our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is a lot closer and our family was able to go for all of our first times and even ride on an covered wagon pulled by oxen.

For the most part it has seemed like a normal year but busy year as we have become accustomed to life here in Minnesota. Now with two children, we feel like we’re growing up and getting used to family life. This year with Christmas it’s been even more fun as Ariana is started to understand holidays and how things work. One thing that we are trying to teach her is the true meaning of Christmas, about love, peace, and kindness, traits of our Savior for whom the holiday is named.

We hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Reuben, Katie, Ariana, and Corban Chen katiebchen@yahoo.com www.chenschristmascard.blogspot.com