The Roberts in Korea

New Year!

Hi everybody.  This is a just a note to say thanks to all of you for your faithful readership of this blog and please let us be the first to wish you a Happy New Year!  At the time of this writing it is Dec. 31 here in South Korea and the new year of 2009 is just hours away.

Here are a couple of pictures of us at one of our favorite downtown spots here in Daejeon, South Korea.  The lights and the people are amazing during the Christmas season.  We are so thankful to be able to share this time together as a family.

As we move into the new year we all leave behind a 2008 of various experiences and memories.  Hold onto the good, as that is from God, and be done with all the rest.

In Christ all things are new...even 2009.

"...Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
2 Corinthians 5:17

Programs and Parties

Christmas included some enjoyable programs and parties.  The elementary Christmas program is always a good one.  Each of the grade levels present three or four musical numbers involving singing, dancing and various instruments.  Dina's Kindergartners were as cute as ever in their little Santa outfits.

On Friday, December 19th we went to the TCIS Christmas dinner celebration.  School was out and we were on the front edge of a three week vacation.  We went to "Mr. Wong's" Chinese buffet restaurant.  The buffet included a lot of good food and a lot of raw fish.  Korean's love raw fish.  It isn't too bad if you like eating fishy tasting mush.

We had a great time at the dinner.  The food was good and the company at our table was great.  We had a fun time talking about lots of things and wrestling with crab legs.  A tradition at the school Christmas party/dinner is that the Headmaster buys gifts for all of the staff children that are in attendance at the dinner (Becca didn't go, so she didn't get a gift-- bummer--oh well she had fun at a sleep over).  It was fun watching Dr. Penland (the  Headmaster) and John Nelson (the Assistant Headmaster) hand out the gifts to the kids.  Things really picked up as the kids opened the gifts and began playing with their toys.  Sarah got a much wanted and appreciated basketball.  Just some great Christmas memories.

Christmas Classroom Visit

Christmas time is a fun time to be a teacher in a classroom of elementary students--especially a classroom full of kindergartners.  Dina's class of kindergartners is no exception.  They did all kinds of fun Christmas activities this year.  The kids learned about the Christmas story from the 2nd chapter of Luke in the Bible, they made gifts for their parents, did all kinds of Christmas related artwork, did lots of singing and had a big Christmas party.

Ryan got in on a bit of the fun as he came into the classroom a couple of times a week during December and led the kids in Christmas songs on his guitar.  On one day he really hit the jackpot as they were having a birthday party in the classroom and there were extra treats...yay!

Fun times in Kindergarten.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Merry Christmas everybody!  Christmas Eve Day is all but over here in South Korea and the visions of sugar plums are beginning to appear.  We had a wonderful evening with the Miller family.  We went to a special presentation of "NANTA" in Daejeon (it is like a STOMP production...Korean style) and then we all went and had Christmas Eve dinner at Jaeyoung's restaurant called, "Azuma Kimbap."  It was fun to have Paul and Roxie Miller and David and Laurie Miller and the kids with us at Jaeyoung's place this year.  (This is our third year to share Christmas Eve with Jaeyoung and his family.)  We ate some wonderful food and had a great time singing Christmas carols.  Here is a little video of Jaeyoung singing, "Silver Bells."  Merry Christmas.

Birthday Girl(s)

Yesterday was Dina’s birthday!  Last night we had a great time celebrating Dina’s birthday and Laurie Miller’s birthday (whose birthday is on the 26th).  We had a party at our house and even though we only had four families at the party (5 if you include the Roberts) there were 23 people in attendance.  The party group included the Zickefoose family, the Moimoi family, the Miller family and the special guests from Idaho, Paul and Roxie Miller (David’s parents).  We had lots of food and lots of fun.  The kids (all 13 of them) hung out upstairs doing kid stuff and the adults had a great time visiting.

The party included two cakes, gifts, and lots of other snacks (we won’t call them Christmas goodies because it was a “birthday party” not a “Christmas party”…touchy subject).

It was a real blessing to celebrate Dina’s birthday with our dear friends.  We won’t comment here on the blog about Dina’s age, but I will wish Dina’s identical twin sister, Dana, a very happy 43rd birthday!

Christmas Letter From Holly

When we were home last summer in Idaho we felt it was time to give our dog, Holly, a new home.  We were living in South Korea and she stayed at our house for two years with a "house (and dog) sitter."  She needed a home--with kids and care and the love of a family.  Thankfully, she found a wonderful new home with the Zickefooses (Gale and Robyn).  They took Holly in and have given her a wonderful home.  We received a nice Christmas letter from Holly (via email).  I have posted it and the attached pictures below.

Hello my family!  

I am doing well at the Z's place.  My new best friend is Ginger.  We like to play with each other...we wrestle and growl and bark at each other.  We also play tug of war with a rope.  We sleep on the same blanket in the garage.  My new owners took some pictures of me last night and they wanted to send a few of them to you so you could see how well I'm doing.  It was fun being in the house last night since it is so cold and snowy outside.  We watched a movie...I slept through most of it, though.  I hope you're doing well in South Korea.   

The other pictures were taken during the summer when my new owner, his sons, and Mr. Stauffer and his son took Ginger and me backpacking.  We had a lot of fun at Blue Lake near Cascade.  We actually found some snow to play in!  I liked sleeping by the tent at night and playing in the lake during the day.  I behaved a lot better than Ginger.  She got tangled up in her rope a lot...I just found a place to settle down and took naps.  

If my new owners were more with it they would know how you're doing by checking your blog site!  Feel free to send them an email though...  

Merry Christmas...Love, Holly

Celebrating the Millers

This past weekend was a fun one.  We had the chance to have supper with Santa on the TCIS campus.  We went with the Miller family and the highlight of the event was getting to see Ethan visit with Santa Claus.

On the TCIS campus this past week the drama department presented the play, "A Christmas Carol."  The play was directed by our friend Heidi Zickefoose and Brittney Miller (11th grade) and Kallee Miller (4th grade) starred in the play.  They both did a wonderful job.  Brittney played the roles of Scrooge's older sister and Mrs. Cratchit, and Kallee played the part of a little orphan girl who was integral to the story and the transformation of Scrooge as she entered various scenes singing the chorus to the Christmas carol, "The First Noel."

Friday Night with the Millers

On Friday night the Roberts and the Millers deserted the children and grabbed a few spare moments and went out to dinner at Cin Cin's in downtown Daejeon.  We had a great time just enjoying the sights, the lights and the activities.

Throw Away the Key

Find a good spouse, you find a good life—
and even more: the favor of God!
Proverbs 18:22 (MSG)

Last October we took a sightseeing trip to the Seoul Tower in South Korea.  It is one of the highest and most famous points in the giant city of over 15 million people.  The view of the seemingly never ending city is amazing from the vantage point of the tower.  While we were there we noticed thousands of locks hanging on the fence that surrounds the base of the tower.  On many of the locks there was written something in the Korean script.  The locks were all shapes and sizes--some were key locks, some were padlocks, and they ranged in the various colors of metallic silver, gold, green, purple, orange, black and red.

I asked one of the ladies that worked in the gift shop near the fenced area about the locks and she told me, in broken English and charades like gestures, that the locks are placed there by couples that are in love.  They write their names and their anniversary date on their lock and then they attach their lock onto the fence and throw the key over the edge into the dense foliage and forest that lies below the tower site.  Obviously, it is a sign of true love and faithful commitment.

Today Dina and I are celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary.  I now have known Dina and have had her presence in my life longer than I haven't, and I am a better and blessed person because of it.  I am so thankful for the 21 years that I have had to share life with Dina.  She is a wonderful wife, a terrific mother and my best friend.  She has the key to my heart.

The next time we go to Seoul Tower I am going to take a lock that says,

Ryan and Dina Roberts
December 11, 1987
True Love

I am going to lock it onto the fence and...throw away the key.

Decorating

It is officially feeling like Christmas in our house here in South Korea.  We pulled out the "one" box of Christmas decorations, our three foot tree and I fired up the "Beach Boys' Christmas" album on the iPod and we decorated for Christmas the other night.  Ten minutes later...we were done, whew!

Seriously, we did decorate for Christmas and had a great time together.  Becca and Sarah took care of the tree, lights and ornaments; Dina took care of the periphery decorating (i.e., wreaths, garland, Nativity Scene, etc.); and I covered the picture taking and the drinking of egg nog...except we don't have any egg nog here in South Korea (bummer) so... I ordered pizza instead. 

(I love decorating for Christmas.)