Happy New Year!

It's been a while since the last post, because... well, things have been busy! So here goes a quick wrap-up of the past month. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit back... it's a doozy!

The girls making almond cookies for Christmas. These were way too delicious and none actually lasted until Christmas.

Lin showing off her cookie decorating skills

Ruby trying to break the record of silver balls on a single cookie

We had a very Merry Christmas!

Making homemade noodles with pesto for the girls. It should also be noted that we spent this evening at the ER after Ruby tumbled hard off her bed. Nothing was broken, but she was "high" in this picture with medication

Mongolian hotpot! It's kinda become a staple in our household

Ruby was proud of the veggie dip she created

Self portrait

Ruby going rollerskating for the first time

"The blind leading the blind," you could say!

Ruby definitely enjoyed her birthday skate!

Speaking of which, it's hard to believe she's 5 already

Can't go wrong with Hello Kitty, can you?

Okay, yes, we know... there's technically more than 5 candles, but Ruby wanted a ton of them!

Enjoying Ruby's pick for her birthday dinner... Wendy's!

She loves anything ballet, My Little Pony, playing dress up and... Deadly Animals! That's our special girl!!

In addition, we also celebrated her 4 year "Gotcha Day" anniversary on our purple couch

Here she is 4 years ago on the famous red couch inside the White Swan in Guangzhou

Here is the dinner Dave cooked for our annual Chinese New Year feast

Digging into the goodies

The girl in the blue qipao was also in Ruby's travel group

The girl in front of Lin was also from Shanghai and now lives nearby

I just love this pic of Ruby laughing it up on the couch.

Our friends recently welcomed their little girl home and we were excited they could join our New Year's feast

After dinner, we watched the Chinese New Year Celebration

Ruby onstage after the show... the Year of the Dragon has arrived!!