Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！
Unfortunately, we are not in the habit of sending out an
annual Christmas card, though we have enjoyed many cards from all of you, our
family and friends! This year, we
decided to send out a quick link to our letter giving you a little update on
our lives!
The time has passed quickly now that we’ve been back in
California. This July, it will be three
years that we’ve lived in Redondo Beach.
That was the total time that we spent living in Saint Paul, Minnesota,
where we lived while Reuben was finishing his residency in Physical Medicine
and Rehabilitation. In that time, there
has been a lot of change, as well as becoming true wimps when it comes to cold
weather! (Hang on there Minnesota
friends with your subzero temperatures!)
Reuben started his own private practice, SunLiving Health
and Wellness (www.sunlivinghealth.com ) and deals
with all the pressures and adjustments of his own business. His practice entails pain management,
acupuncture, prolotherapy, as well as cosmetic procedures, Sunrider herbal
supplements, and a fitness program. If
that wasn’t busy enough, he also manages new projects in Sunrider and also
travels with the business often. At
church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as LDS or
Mormon) he is involved in the Elder’s quorum as a secretary, (and the founder
of the men’s organization “Movie Night”) as well as a faithful home teacher,
where he visits some of the families in our congregation on a monthly
basis. Besides that, Reuben has explored
many different hobbies since moving back here.
While he dabbled in Aikido and a different form of karate, he’s still faithful
to his weekly Judo practices. He’s also
responsible for getting the entire family involved in archery and we’ve enjoyed
outings as a family to the SouthCoast Achery range, which happens to be in a
beautiful location overlooking Catalina Island and close to the tidepools in
Palos Verdes.
Although Katie feels like she’s always doing something
exciting, sometimes there isn’t always much to show for it as a mom with three
kids! She was able to do a fitness
challenge with Reuben in the first three months of the year. Both of us lost a lot of body fat and enjoyed
healthy eating habits and great muscle mass.
Now she is pregnant with baby #4, a boy, due in the middle of May, which
means we’ll have a great opportunity to do the program again (Fitness Brigade,
yeah baby!!!) much later this year. Katie is involved in the youth program at
church and works weekly with the Young Women, in teaching Sunday lessons,
Wednesday night activities, and helping with the secretarial duties. Katie has enjoyed being part of two book
clubs monthly and also “reads” a great deal of her books through Audible, while
she’s doing something else, like organizing closets or chauffeuring kids. Really, that is what she seems to be doing
most of so let’s get on with the kids!
Ariana (almost 7) is at Chadwick school in the 1st
grade and is doing well. She has been
involved in many activities this year, including jazz dance, gymnastics,
Chinese dance, ice skating, art club, piano lessons, girl scouts, church
activities, and several Chinese classes a week.
She’s a busy girl! One of the
biggest adjustments this year has been the introduction of homework. Although it’s only about 10 minutes a day, it
has totally changed Mother and daughter’s concept of “free time” at home. Yes, and we know that it will only continue
to evolve in the next several years! Ariana
has totally given up on “toys,” at the ripe age of almost 7, and only really
likes art projects and technology, besides playing with siblings. She is often in charge of whatever new games,
crafts, or forts that go down at home and directs her siblings on their
respective duties.
Corban (4) is still a jolly optimistic guy most of the
time. He’s really into building things
with legos or magnet creations or just playing in the mud. Corban is always in the search of new bugs,
animals, or plants and every yellow flowering dandelion that we pass he’ll pick
and hand to his mother. He never misses
a chance to watch while Mom cooks or grills.
While he’s already been going to “preschool” for 3 years in one shape or
another, this year is the big preparation for kindergarten as he attends Town
and Country Nursery School and also Ni Hao Chinese school. Town and Country has a great playground and
he is often caked in mud from head to town when he is returned to us
parents. Corban has had some great
accomplishments this year as he’s tried new things in gymnastics, soccer, T-ball,
ice skating, Chinese classes, and Hip Hop.
One big accomplishment has been in ice skating. The first term that we were at the rink with
Ariana, he didn’t participate but Mom urged him to try when the next term
arrived, even though he didn’t like ice skating in the slightest. The first lesson was full of tears, but now
he’s skating better and better each week.
The best thing was that he was able to see how much he had improved
himself, after only a practice or two, and his big sister urged him to “Never
give up!!!”
Our baby girl Elena will not be the baby of the family
soon. She is turning 2 in a week and is
already a participate in the mighty “terrible twos” group. Elena is not the hardest baby as she eats and
sleeps well most of the time, and she is finally somewhat adjusting to the fact
that things will be alright, even when Mom isn’t around, though this is a hard
concept for her. She has recently
accomplished a big feat, in learning how to climb out of her crib and is also
an expert on making a mess. But she is
also quite sweet and knows when her siblings would appreciate a hug, while not
always freely giving them. As the
youngest, she can be quite feisty and defensive, but also likes to play by
herself and others. Elena loves animals,
babies, swinging outside, walks, books, and just hanging out with Mommy.
This year we’ve been able to do a lot of traveling. We’ve braved jet lag traveling 3 times over
the oceans with our three children and managed to visit more than 10 countries
this year. I feel it’s safe to say that
while we may thoroughly enjoy visiting famous ancient ruins, eating exotic
food, and shopping, our kids are not big fans.
Thank goodness all three of those trips we were with family members
while Reuben was also traveling and doing business with Sunrider. Two of those trips were also cruises so the
kids might not have actually hiked up to the acropolis, but had a great time
hanging out in the kids club on the ship.
Besides the visiting several countries along the Baltic and
Mediterranean seas, we also spent Christmas in Taiwan and New Year’s in Hong
Kong. Besides that we’ve also been able
to visit family in friends in Utah, South Dakota, and Washington State. I feel it safe to say that we will probably
not be traveling as much when we have our fourth little bundle of joy!
There are a lot of great things to be looking forward to in
this new year! We hope that this year
the Horse will carry you to success and happiness!
-Reuben, Katie, Ariana, Corban, and Elena Chen
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