Christmas Greetings!!

It has been another memorable year for the Haynes family. We are extremely blessed that Jim is gainfully employed, we continue to live in our Tempe home, our health is outstanding given that we both just turned 55 (oh my!), and our lives continue to be enriched with family and special friends. We have created a special album entitled "2009 in Review" which can be found in our "Photo Album" which is linked to this blog so that we can share some of our special moments with you. Here are the highlights of 2009 in the Haynes family:

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  January. Dave and Megan welcomed Owen Andrew Haynes into their family on December 29, 2008, and Diane went to New York in January to help them and to fall in love with her grandson.


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  February. THE ARIZONA CARDINALS WERE IN THE SUPER BOWL!!! This was definitely THE best Super Bowl party we have ever hosted, although the outcome was a heart breaker for Cardinal fans. But we certainly enjoyed the moment. Even Baby Owen was in the moment with a special bib from Grammy and Papa.
  


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  April. Dave, Meg, and Owen came to visit their Arizona family, and "Papa" got to meet his grandson for the first time. We had an early 30th birthday celebration for Dave with the Henning family and spent Easter with the Haynes family. We had a very special photo op with 4 generations of Haynes men.


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  June 6. We celebrated 34 years of marriage.


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  July. We celebrated Owen's christening on July 25 in New York. We had a fun week with Dave, Meg, and Owen, which included a day at the beach and a trip on the ferry to Mystic, Connecticut.
  


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  August. Jim turned 55. We went to Angel Fire, New Mexico, to spend a special week of hiking, looking for wildlife, making jigsaw puzzles, and enjoying our 35 year friendship with Becky and Russ.


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  September. Kevin celebrated his 26th birthday with us as we traveled to South Korea to visit Brian, Ann, Natasha, and Tatyana. Brian has been teaching at The English Village since April of this year. We FINALLY got to meet Tatyana who was born in November 2008. It was a very memorable trip, and we all left part of our hearts in South Korea.


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  October. Diane had a "purrfectly" wonderful time celebrating Halloween and autumn in New York with Owen, Dave and Meg. If you look at my October posts, you will see a picture of the fantastic pumpkins that we carved. :)


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  November. Diane turned 55. She went out for dinner at Shula's and then wandered into the casino at Wild Horse Pass with friends. It was a very special evening for Diane, especially since she walked out of the casino with $568 in her pocket!
  


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  December. After family get-togethers, Jim and Diane will be going to New York on the 26th for a second Christmas and 1st birthday festivities with Owen.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and much happiness and good health in the New Year. May you be richly blessed with the peace of our Lord whose birth we celebrate with joy.

Happy Halloween

It was a very busy Halloween for us in the Hamptons. Melissa, Meg's sister, and her son and daughter came over to the house to decorate Halloween cookies that Meg had baked earlier in the week. Gavin is in kindergarten, and Kate is going to be 3 in January; they are very high energy little people. I was pretty wiped out after our decorating session. :( When they left, we took Owen over to Meg's parents so they could see the little man in his lion costume. We visited for a while and then came home for dinner and to answer the door for our trick-or-treaters. Poor Owen was pretty well fried after all the hub bub, so he went to bed fairly early. Actually, we were all pretty tired from the day's festivities and turned in early. It was fun to spend Halloween here as it is celebrated like it was when I was a kid. The elementary school children in Southampton don their costumes in the afternoon and parade down the main street of the Village. Since Gavin was in the parade, Meg, Owen and I went to see it on Friday. It was fun to see all the kids in their costumes and to go back to a time when Halloween was celebrated for the fun of dressing up and getting our fill of candy.

Pumpkin Carving

Dave, Meg, and I carved pumpkins tonight once Owen went to sleep. Meg and I had the help of a little mulled cider laced with brandy (her idea!). It was a lot of fun; I discovered that the pumpkin carving kits are a great idea. The tools are pretty fantastic. Tomorrow we are going to decorate Halloween cookies, put on our costumes (not Dave), take some pictures, and do a little trick or treating. Happy Halloween!!!

News from the Hamptons

It is great to be in the Hamptons with Dave, Meg, and Owen. The trip here went very well. Once we flew over New Mexico, the scenery below was a winter wonderland. However, moving into the Midwest brought a lot of clouds. As we broke through the clouds to land at Midway, I saw all the beautiful reds, oranges, and very vibrant yellows. The clouds continued all the way to New York. It was disappointing that the visibility was so bad as we took a different approach into the airport and were flying over a lot of the mansions; however, the clouds were too thick to get a real good peek. Luckily, as we were preparing to land we were low enough that I got my thrill of seeing the beautiful landscape below. Times like that make me aware of the awesome scenery that God has given us on this earth. Everyone greeted me at the airport, and my little man was all grins and came to Grammy right away!! Oh quiet my beating heart. :) Since my arrival Meg and I went shopping, and I am happy to say that my grandson is THE best shopper. I was thrilled to get my gifts for Owen for Christmas and his first birthday: mission accomplished. We are going into the village today to see Meg's nephew march in a Halloween parade and then will come home to an evening of pumpkin carving. With the natural artistic qualities that Dave and Meg have, I fear that my pumpkin will pale in comparison. Owes is taking steps ALL the time; he prefers to be upright, although he eventually ends up on his fanny and then crawls. I have never seen such a happy little guy, and it is great to see him play and wrestle on the floor with his daddy. I have to capture some of those moments in video; what a great way to start the day hearing those delightful little squeals of laughter.

The Zoo in Seoul

September 27

We spent the day at the zoo in Seoul. The weather was perfect - slightly overcast and cool. We discovered that this was THE best zoo that we had ever been to; it truly was spectacular. The zoo had a very large amount of animals in natural habitats. There were a total of eight lions and about eight tigers; unlike The Wild Animal Park in San Diego, the animals were totally visible. The zoo grounds were very lush with a lot of beautiful trees, plants, and flowers. Despite the large number of people that were there, it was as clean as Disneyland. Our only regret is that we didn't go to the zoo while we were staying in Seoul as we would have had more time to spend in the zoo instead of traveling from The English Village. Tatyana slept a lot during our walk around the zoo, and interestingly, Tasha wasn't quite old enough to be into the animals just yet. For the five adults, it was a fabulous day.

The English Village and Yongmunsa

September 25-26
There is a beautiful park about 10 minutes away from The English Village, which contains shops, restaurants, a small amusement park, and an amazing hike to a Buddhist Temple. It was a pleasant day outside, and we enjoyed the fresh air and being away from the mass of humanity in Seoul. While the temple itself was not very impressive, there was a ginkgo tree that is said to be 1100 years old just before reaching the temple grounds. It was quite impressive, and the stores had many pictures that had been taken of it in the fall when its leaves were a vibrant yellow. (Brian and Ann later went back to visit Yongmunsa and sent us pictures of the tree adorned in its fall foliage.) We had early birthday celebrations for the girls - Tasha's second and Tatyana's first, complete with a delicious cake that we purchased in town. Our days were more relaxed in The English Village, and it was fun to play with the girls in their environment. Brian got a studio apartment for Jim, Kevin, and me; we enjoyed some solitude at the end of the day. :) We also had a washing machine, and it was good to be able to get some laundry done. Brian and Kevin had a chance to kick the soccer ball around the soccer field, and we actually managed to get Tasha to give the ball a good kick. Her preference was to keep Grammy and Papa busy chasing after her as she climbed the bleachers. We also used this time to plan the remainder of our itinerary for the trip.

Gyeongbokgung Palace and Shopping

September 23 and 24 - Seoul/English Village

Our main goal for the 23rd was to see Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was the main palace when in it was completed in 1395 of the Josaon Dynasty. It was also at this time that the capital of the new dynasty was moved from Gaeseong to Seoul (then known as Hanyang). The palace was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasions of 1592 and was not reconstructed until 1868. During the Japanese occupation, most of the palace was torn down. An effort to fully restore Gyeongbokgung to its former glory has been ongoing since 1990. For the most part the grounds of the palace were unremarkable except for the area which was the king's retreat - where we took most of our pictures. The best part of the palace experience was seeing the changing of the guard which takes place daily from March to November. It was extremely ceremonial and quite colorful as evidenced in the pictures in our Photo Album linked to this blog. We also went to Insa-dong, a very quaint street market, which was a bit like the art fair on Mill Avenue in Tempe. We wish we could have spent more time there as the merchandise was unique and the atmosphere seemed more conducive to the type of shopping we wanted to do. Instead, we went to Myeongdong which is described in TripAdvisor as "hyper shopping." This, too, was a street market, and, from all appearances, a mecca for Korean young adults. If you have ever gone by Abercrombie & Fitch at the Mall, music pulsating out of the store, well, this was Myeongdong - store, after store, after store. In addition to the stores, tables lined the streets with all sorts of merchandise. Honestly, we walked away, the only purchase being dried sticks of squid (we think) - by Ann and Brian. Tasha entertained us and everyone near us on the subway with a variety of faces (she had this act down last October. She has just expanded her repertoire.) After being in back packs and front packs all day, the girls were thrilled to be back at the hotel and found great delight in looking at themselves in the mirror and then squealing in very high pitches. We left Seoul on the 24th and traveled by train to Yongmun and then embarked for the short taxi ride to the English Village where Brian, Ann and the girls live. The change in scenery was incredible. The English Village is a beautiful campus nestled in the mountains. It was definitely fall in the Village, evidenced by the changing leaves, although the usual chill in the area heralding the onset of fall was absent. Kevin, Jim, and I had a studio apartment in the building next to Brian's. Once we had our luggage settled, we went for a tour of the campus and then Brian, Ann, and I went back to town to buy food and a cake to celebrate Kevin's 26th birthday.