Better than the Post Office

Joe is the district clerk, and it's his responsibility to order and distribute the curriculum material for the new year to the different branches. He had done so for every branch except Daegu, which is about 4 or so hours South of here. Joe's schedule is pretty nuts, so he asked me if I would mail the boxes down to Daegu (there were like 10 of them - heavy). I said yes, I would.......and then I didn't. So, unbeknownst to Joe, I made reservations at the hotel on the base down there, and decided to make a little trip of it. Sometimes I'm lazy, and sometimes I have really good ideas;)

We went to Donghae (the East sea) and played at the beach.
It was nice because it was 49 degrees down there, as opposed to the 20's up in Seoul, so it was just warm enough to have fun. One thing down there at the coast is the underwater tomb of King Munmu, who said that after he died he wanted to be buried there because he would become a sea dragon and protect Korea from Japan. There's not much to see, but apparently his remains are in a gold box somewhere out among these rocks.

We found other things to occupy our time, like collecting cool rocks.

Building sand castles as close to the water as possible, so they would be washed away.

Throwing rocks into the water, and NOT at people.

Getting wet, even though Mom told everybody not to.

There were some decent sized waves, and the tide was also coming in, so there was some running and dodging as well.

After the beach we stopped off for some cruisin' in Gyeongju. Alex is old enough to drive his own mini-ATV now, so he was pretty excited about that.

When Alex rides on the front of the motorcycle with you, he wants to be in charge of the acceleration, and sometimes that can be a little scary, because he likes to go fast, and at the same time he tries to move the handlebars from side to side really fast too, so it a little death defying.

When you eat at Korean restaurants, you always get a bunch of little side dishes, usually about 3 or 4 different kinds. We ate at a place that gave us SIXTEEN different side dishes! Here's half of them.

I think I tried a little bit of every one (I was the only one brave enough to try every one), and gobbled down the best ones. Mmmmm, I've craving some Korean food right now.

We also went to Donghwasa temple, which we'd never been to before. It was about 35 degrees, and up in the mountains, but even in the middle of winter this place was beautiful, and worth the trip.

While the kids were sitting on these stairs, a group of older Korean came over. They were especially taken by Alex and Madelyn (JT hid behind me because he doesn't like it when Koreans touch him or fawn over him). Madelyn had her boots on the wrong feet, so one Korean woman took them off, fussed over her socks because they were also on backwards and one had a hole in it, put back on her boots, then lifted up her pant legs and then lifted up Cora's pants and wondered why in the world they weren't wearing any long underwear, and the guy next to her kept fake coughing, insinuating that they were going to catch phnemonia or something, and they kept asking Cora if she was cold (in Korean), and then Joe would ask her if she was cold, and she would say no, and they would just keep asking, and pointing at Alex's red little cheeks and nose. This is exactly why Joe is soooooooo adament about the kids wearing socks and shoes everywhere we go, even though they take after me and want to wear flipflops almost year 'round. I give Joe a hard time about it, but he's the one who has to hear (and understand) the Koreans critiquing his parenting skills.

I think it's completely absurd how some people get offended, and how other people are so afraid of offending by saying Merry Christmas, as opposed to Happy Holidays. And yet, here at this buddhist temple, they had a Christmas tree that said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on it, and guess what? NOBODY CARED!!!

Our branch president mentioned the same thing - he and his family went to Japan during December, and everywhere they went there was Merry Christmas everywhere, and that's a country where less than 1 percent of it's population is Christian. I think we can all learn a lesson here.

This buddhist monk gave Joe and I some pastries.

This woman literally ran up the hill so she could give Madelyn and Alex some oranges.

JT wondered why he didn't get anything, and I reminded him that he was hiding earlier to avoid people, and then he didn't seem to care so much.

Christmas is Dangerous

If your little brother has possession of the remote controller, DON'T put the remote control car on top of your head - you'll lose a LOT of hair.

Wishing Yours a Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends. It has been a wonderful year for our family. Here's what we've been up to.

Alex - One of his successes this year was at the very beginning when he finally got the hang of the toilet, and we have been a diaper-free house ever since. He turned 4 in April. In the summer he turned into a fish. In the fall he turned into a preschooler. Alex has worked hard on his ninja moves and dance moves, both of which would impress even Jackie Chan and Michael Jackson.

Madelyn – She went back to short hair again this year after getting gum stuck in it. She's always happy with her pixie cut because I tell her she looks like Tinker Bell. She turned 6 in July and lost her 2 first teeth. She has stopped changing five times a day, which has lightened my load of laundry. She is learning to read this year in 1st grade, and we're pretty sure that her goal in life (as a 6 year old) is to be cute – so far she's finding a lot of success in that.

JT – He was very brave when he got 5 stitches in his chin, and now he has an Indian Jones-like scar to impress the future ladies. He finished up his first year of piano lessons (which was required by his parents) before he moved on to Tae Kwon Do (which is what he really wanted to do all along). He turned 9 in October. He is enjoying cub scouts. He also has a great 3rd grade teacher this year who does a lot of fun things with the class, but he wasn't very excited about dancing with a girl in their class program - we loved it though:)

Cora – She turned the ripe old age of 10 in February. She has a GREAT teacher in 5th grade this year, and it has made a huge difference in the way she feels about school and about herself, and she has made big improvements in her schoolwork. She was a Dolphin Delegate (which is basically a school representative) the last school year and loved it, and this school year she ran for Vice President, but didn't make it. She is still taking piano lessons, but has also started guitar lessons, and she is in the art club at school. She doesn't understand everyone's obsession with Justin Beiber, and she definitely marches to the beat of her own drum.

Ruth – She continues to serve as the District Primary president. She has kept us busy, thinking up knew places to go and things to see here in Korea, and she vows not to leave here with any regrets. She completed two 5k's this year. Her major accomplishment was that she got a Bachelor of General Studies with an emphasis in Family Life from BYU. She'd like to eventually get her Masters, possibly in Counseling Psychology or Social Work. She continues to keep the house, and the people who live in it, from falling apart, and enjoys volunteering at the school and chaperoning field trips for the kids.

Joe – He is serving as the District Clerk. With two district callings in the family, we have traveled quite a bit. He completed his goal of riding his bike 100 miles in one day. He has had a very difficult schedule at work this year, working 12 hr. shifts, with a 45 minute commute each way, and switching back and forth between day and midnight shifts every 2 weeks. But he has endured. He is currently training his second person on the job, and he does enjoy that. He has improved his Korean language skills a lot, but has also tested out of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

We are very grateful for all our blessings and opportunities, especially at this time of year when we celebrate the birth of the one who makes it all possible. We miss you all so very much, and we are looking forward to moving back to the States in about 8 months, and just maybe we'll be able to see people more often. We are excited to see what the New Year brings us. Until then, you can keep up with us on our family blog liddell6.blogspot.com.

Merry Christmas to you all, and Happy New Year!


(it was an early morning, since we had to leave for church by 9:30;) - how was your Christmas?)

They Say That Her Heart Shrunk Three Sizes That Day

We'll get back to that title in a bit.

This post has a LOT of pictures, none of which have anything to do with me turning into the grinch on Christmas Eve. We'll get back to that in a bit.

We continued our advent calendar this month with so much Gingerbread, that it was coming out of my pores. We made over 100 cookies for single airmen in Joe's unit. We also made a bunch of cookies for some friends. And we also had some friends over and made some more cookies. Mmmmmmmmm, gingerbread - one of my favorite Christmas traditions.
But I guess all the cookies weren't enough, because then we made a gingerbread house. I've bought gingerbread house kits in the past, but this year I decided I might as well make one from scratch. It was WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY harder than I ever imagined (much respect for those who do these for competitions), but I think it turned out pretty good, and Cora had fun decorating it with me (nope, the other kids weren't interested after all the cookies they decorated).

I even put in "glass" windows with crushed up Lifesavers.

Here is Alex's personal creation that he made in Madelyn's class. Unfortunately, Madelyn accidently left hers at school:(

We made some stars.

Cora had a Christmas piano recital. She also played for the Children's Sacrament Meeting Program this year.

We had our branch Christmas party, combined with the Korean ward that shares our building. There was your typical turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc., but there was also kimbap, chop chae, bindaeduk, kimchi, chopsticks, etc.:)

The primary sang a couple of songs (my kids are in there somewhere).

And then Santa showed up......

....."I know that's not the REAL Santa Mom," said Madelyn. To which I replied, "I know it's not, but he IS a real Santa HELPER." Then I saw the light go on in her eyes, and she ran to get into line;)


We went with our Seoul Searchers group to the Hilton hotel in downtown Seoul, and had a look at their fabulous train setup, and other Christmas decor.
It was kind of funny to see the staff react to a LARGE group of American kids descending upon the scene. There were several of them hovering around while we were there.....I'd be nervous too. But I think we left without causing any destruction;)

Cora's favorite was seeing Santa taking off at the airport.

The hotel had a HUGE Christmas tree, and it was on a revolving platform. Beautiful.

Look what else I found there, posed atop a Gingerbread house. I guess this kind of Santa is more popular in Korea than I thought.

And not to be outdone by the effeminate Santa, they had this great display of Santas from around the world.

Really cool.......and kind of weird, since they had these gems mixed in with the bunch (read their signs).

My favorite was the "Santa Skis to reach remote." Huh? And, if you're a mother, I'm sure you will appreciate the fact that as we were leaving the Hilton my kids had the audacity to say, "Is that all?" Oh brother.

And now we come to today - Christmas Eve. It started out about as good as it could have. The kids didn't wake us up too early. We woke up to snow on the ground and I took the kids out to play.

No, we don't have a sled. Yes, we used cardboard. No, we don't have any really good hills in our apartment complex. Yes, we had fun anyway.

When we got back we Skyped with family and had pizza for lunch. We went to base to get a few last minute things for tomorrow. We came home and just enjoyed the rest of the evening......until it was time for the advent calendar. The advent calendar, which has brought us so much joy this season. Yes, that advent calendar. I decided that we would try something out that, surprisingly, we have never done before with our kids - Act out the Nativity story. Nope, we've never done that, and for that very reason I should have had very LOW expectations. But I didn't. I thought it would be a very sweet and reverent way to do the Christmas story. Nothing fancy or elaborate - no costumes or lines - just me reading the story from the scriptures, and them role playing the parts. Simple, right? Well, needless to say, it did not turn out the way that I had envisioned, and then I ruined Christmas Eve! Stink! Stank! Stunk! Yep, killed it dead in 5 seconds flat. My children hurt my feelings (newsflash kids - yes, your mother is a real person with real feelings), and I got really ticked off and totally lost it, and then I ran away to my bedroom, and then I felt horrible and cried a lot (see, feelings....and yep, I'm trying to hold it in right now too). In the end, I finally got myself together, asked for forgiveness, spread some love, and sent them to bed with good feelings. I guess my heart grew back.

Maybe it's not such a coincidence that I've been thinking a LOT about Mary, the mother of Jesus this month - a LOT. I can't help but wonder what kind of a mother she was. I mean, I know that Jesus was perfect, but Mary wasn't, right? Did she ever have days where she would just lose it? I don't know, but I'm sure that she had worries about being the mother of the Son of God - that, like so many other mothers, she might have had feelings of guilt, inadequacy, regrets even. I'm sure that she made mistakes, and had to ask for forgiveness. I love this song sung by Amy Grant - Mary's song.

Do you wonder
As you watch my face
If a wiser one, should have had my place
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong...
Breath of Heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of Heaven

I know how amazing my children are
- precious spirits entrusted to me by my Heavenly Father - and sometimes I worry that I'm screwing it all up. So, I'm offering all I am, and I'm just praying for Heaven to hold me together. I know that they'll be fine, and I'll be fine too. I am soooooo grateful to be there mother. I'm so grateful for Mary and the courage she had to accept the role that she did. Motherhood is already a huge responsiblity without the added knowledge that you're raising the Savior of the World.

It's still a mystery to me
How His infant eyes have seen the dawn of time
How His ears have heard an angel's symphony
But still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep

That's another great song sung by Joy Williams - it's getting me weepy all over again.

Anyway, I hope that your holidays have less drama, that you cherish your little ones, and that you all have a very Merry Christmas! (p.s. I will be posting our Christmas card and letter on here tomorrow - better late than never)