Friday, December 29, 2006

at home in December

More home happenings at the Morgan household...Fiona tries on her new backpackFiona walking! She likes pushing around this walker thing, but she's also able to walk on her own now, without any supportDaddy reads a bedtime storyIt's a little big maybe? Fiona tries out some new clothes: a seemingly huge-sized kimono-type housecoat. Maybe by next December it will fit...Mmmm, coffee. Vivian knows how to brew a tasty latte with our home coffee maker. She's even learned how to do pretty designs on top with the foamChristmas morning! Time to open some presents Ya-ya!! Fiona loves ducks, so we got her a plush ducky
More ducks! The floating kind for the bathtub. Fiona loves fish too: on the right are sticky plastic fishes to go in the bath. Fiona also got a special gift all the way from England -- a special cardigan hand-knitted by Gareth's Auntie Ruth
Vivian opens the package from the Morgans in Canada. More nice surprises! Book, calendar, tea-cosy and more. Merry Christmas! As Dickens' Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, every one"

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas happenings

'Tis the season to be jolly! Here's how we spent Christmas this year

At this year's annual ORTV Christmas rally. The theme was "Christmas and You"
Another annual tradition: The HOP Christmas Party at Pastor Kirt's house. We played the unwrap the present game, and had a white elephant gift exchange Christmas Eve was on Sunday this year, so there was a service at the House of Praise. The HOP has moved to a new location now, in the nearby district of Neihu. The Huguang Church has welcomed the HOP to join with them in this nice new building Cute kids sing in the Christmas program

Pastor Kirt and Meilan share the messageLunch was served on the patio afterward. Lily and Jenny smile for the camera Benjamin and Nicholas
Christmas Day: After opening our presents at home in the morning, we popped over to Steve and Angus's house in the afternoon for a meal and some Christmas celebrating. Andrea, Melissa and Marci share the joy. Melissa flew in from London to visit before traveling to Bangkok
Angus, Gareth, Leo, Vance, Beth and Melissa
Vivian and Fiona find themselves caught between two love birds...

Fiona and Mikayla knock out a duet on the piano

Fiona composes a new tune

Visiting Yangming Shu Wu

On Boxing Day we drove up the mountain and paid a visit to Yangming Shu Wu (Yangming Library), former summer home of the late Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang.

Walking the long approach to the houseFront doors
Chiang himself wasn't there to play host, but his likeness was present in this life-size painting. Aparently he was a short kind of fellow
Nice airy rooms, carpets, fancy furniture, old-style Chinese round doorsThe view from the upstairs balcony: looking south towards Taipei City. Shamao mountain is in the foregroundIn the upstairs reading room, we nod to the good old country founder, Sun Yat-SenOut in the back garden
Mum takes a turn carrying Fiona on her shoulders
Time to get packed up and head home

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Flowers in the park
耶誕節,爸爸放好多天假

Christmas Eve in Taipei this year and it's around +20 c. A good day to pop over to the park across the river
孟楷的公司這次讓他們一口氣在耶誕節放了4天假,真過癮
24號星期日天氣好到不行,決定騎腳踏車去河濱公園
有片新的花圃,還蠻美的
Fiona hangs on tight
孟田現在有時候會用雙手緊緊的抱住我們的脖子,孟田式的抱抱


A carpet of flowers


Fiona gets curious
孟田對什麼都很好奇,她已經會說「花花」了


Taking a closer look
難得髮夾還留在頭上,可能看花看到忘記頭上的夾子了,終於露出美美的額頭


Thursday, December 21, 2006

Out and about in December

Here's a random sampling of what we've been up to this month...

BBQ time with Vivian's old students from KojenDinner out with Blackie and Jing-Jing. Blackie runs his own travel agency. He was also a former Kojen student, and Gareth was his teacherSipping a drink in the strollerAttending Vivian's schoolteacher friend's wedding Swing time at the ACC. Fiona looks a bit apprehensive...
...but she likes it!

Hanging in the air And hanging in the lobby, with Santa

Monday, December 18, 2006

Christmas pictures, and a new blog!

Recently we visited the photo studio in my office to take some Christmas pictures. Thanks to that camera guru fellow Vance for shooting these.
...and did you notice that we changed our blog template? All the same posts, but with a new look and feel, plus more cool functions -- better archiving, tagging, etc. Cool eh?Our 2006 card -- Merry Christmas!
(if you'd like a high-resolution copy of this photo for printing, leave a comment and we will get back to you)
We managed to get some really nice shots of little Fiona. She seems to enjoy playing in front of the camera