Henry & Alice's Year in Review

At Travelers Agent Conference in San Francisco

In April, Alice and Henry went to an event, sponsored by Travelers Insurance Company, in San Francisco where they stayed at The Fairmont on Nob Hill.  They had a great time, after the business sessions were over, taking complimentary a cooking class and a bus tour to Sonoma County for wine tasting.  To end the event, they were surprised to be entertained by the legendary Tony Bennett.

Immediately afterwards, they had to flew back, grab the family and drive down to San Diego for Spring Break.  Together with Kitty and Ma, they visited San Diego Wild Animal Park as well as taking Erin to check out the local colleges, UCSD, Pt.Loma Nazarene and UCI.  Yes, it's time for Erin to visit colleges.  And a sobering evaluation time for mommy and daddy's college savings fund!

Alice, Lucy, Hada, Patricia

Cute gardener!

This year, Alice began power walking with a group of friends, all moms, from Westwood Charter Elementary School.  It's great that they stayed in touch even though all the kids are spread throughout 4 different schools now.  They encourage one another to stay and healthy.  Good job, ladies!  From YouTube, Alice also learned to trim the bonzai tree after Mr. Bob Tamada retired after age 90+.  Mr. Tamada would be so proud of you, Alice!

This summer, Henry & Alice were invited to go to Alaska with the Kou Family, Jennifer, Nelson, Kevin and Samuel.  It was Henry's dream trip.  No, they did not go on a CRUISE.  They flew to Anchorage, rented 2 SUVs for 10 days driving north to Denali (Mt.McKinley) and south to Homer and Seward.  In Homer, Henry and Nelson went fishing for halibut (1/2 day) and salmon (1/2 day.)  Henry can now check off "Alaska" from his fishing bucket list.  The families all enjoyed the wildlife, sea life, wonders and beauty of Alaska. There were many highlights including the food, the Marine wildlife and glacier cruise and more.  If you are interested in seeing more of our Alaska trip, Henry put together a music video of the highlights of our trip.  CLICK HERE.

Ashland House -work in progress

As for the Ashland house, the final plans should be submitting to the City of Santa Monica by the time your read this.  They should be getting the permits soon, starting the bid process and groundbreaking in a month or two.  Hopefully, they finish the house and invite you to come over by early 2013.  The irony is that Erin will have graduated from SAMOHI (Santa Monica HS) by then.

Early this year, Ryan and Henry, along with some church friends, rode the VW City of Angels bike tour together.  It was 38 miles around key areas of Los Angeles.  It's a great ride because everyone rides together through major city streets with the LAPD making rolling traffic stops at every intersection.  Ryan did great.  He finished strong, all by himself.

Also this year, Henry tortured himself, but successfully completed the RAT Beach Bike Ride (68 miles.)  The ride started at Redondo (Right After Torrance), up to Marina Del Rey, down past Westchester and LAX to Gardena, up through Rancho Palos Verdes, down to San Pedro and up and around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and back to Redondo Beach.  It took him nearly 5.5 hours. The smell of the double-double In-N-Out burger at the finish line kept him going.  Although he was not the fastest, nor the fittest and finished near the end of the pack, finishing the ride was a moral victory for him considering his 2008 accident.  Thanks to church friend friend Hoover Liao and his company, Pureness Vinegar, they had company-sponsored team ride.  After the ride, I'm sure they all smelled like vinegar.

Henry & Alice are thankful for Erin and Ryan most of all.  Although sometimes they want to strangle them, they are great kids and they are both so proud of them!  Please read Erin and Ryan's Year in Review.  This year, Erin finish her CM (piano certificate of merit) Level 10 and should be getting her drivers permit this winter break.  She started a musical duet called TwoSimpleEG (EG for Erin and George) and have posted 5 music videos on YouTube.  It's for fun.  For Ryan, we are thankful that he is growing big and strong and getting his black belt this Friday, Dec.16th.  He is growing and maturing right before our eyes.  In January 2011, he also posted a YouTube video call "Protect the President."  It's slightly different from what Erin posts.  Enjoy.  Wow, this new generation is amazing.

SCROLL DOWN to read Erin's and Ryan's blogs.

Teaching Ryan to tie a tie.

Henry enjoys his job and career at New Century Insurance Services.  He enjoys training and mentoring young adults and new producers on their career path.  God is faithful.  Despite the economy, the agency continues to grow.  Alice continues to taxi Erin and Ryan back in forth in her beloved silver Prius.  On our spare time, Henry and Alice continue to serve at HarvestLA (EFC Los Angeles) as Media Elder and small group leaders.  Henry loves playing Rocksmith on the Xbox360 with his real guitar.  He says he is "taking electric guitar lessons."  He also enjoys being a dad, like giving advice to Erin about boys and teaching his son how to tie a tie.

Ryan, Kitty, Erin

"Did you say 'SNACK'?"

Overall for 2011, we are thankful to God that everyone in our family is healthy, especially Ryan due to his past illness with gastritis.  Henry's nose and ear is all healed.  He had surgery in Nov. 2010 to repair his broken nose.  Click here (and scroll to the bottom) to see his before and after pics.  There goes Henry's modeling career.  Angel is still healthy and cute.  All thanks to God.

Alice's mom turned 90 this year.  Last month Kitty escorted Ma back to China.  They booked a very nice hotel+flight+tour package.  Ma amazingly climbed the Great Wall and visited many other sites.  My agency's Senior Partner, Simon and his wife Rae, joined the same tour package and were amazed my Ma's strength and stamina. She is doing great for her advanced years.  We're glad that she got a chance to visit her 2 older brothers in China.

Thanksgiving dinner, family and friends

Dad and Chun-Mei are doing fine.  They've been serving together and very active in their church fellowship.  Dad is trying to get Chun-Mei to drive.  We'll see who gets their drivers license first:  Chun-Mei or Erin.

Pictured here is our Thanksgiving dinner together.  Henry deep-fried the turkey this year for the first time, but overcooked it.  Oops.  The 2nd time, on Saturday, was the charm:  He deep-fried a 20 lb. turkey to perfection.  Yummy.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Thanks for reading our electronic newsletter and God bless you in 2012.