Journalist I Am...Not

I decided on Journalism as my future major when I was in high school. I was on the newspaper staff as a writer for a year. I really enjoyed writing feature stories..human interest stories about other students. I did not like writing news which was probably the easiest to write. You just stick to the facts. Sports was even boring-er to write. Just stats. I guess Journalism wasn't my passion. I guess I just liked seeing my name in the paper. The by-line, to me, was probably the most important part of the article. It made me smile and gave me a happy feeling inside. I was actually proud of myself. For the traditional Chinese, having your name publicized in a positive manner is looked upon very highly. It's kind of like bragging without saying a word. I still have every article that I've 'published' somewhere in a box in my closet. 

In my senior year, instead of continuing in Journalism, I took Yearbook. That was fun. Pictures, Creativity, Design. Yes, I really enjoyed yearbook. It was during a time where we did not have computers to 'design' everything for you, We had to do everything by hand.. manually.. glue and stick with font tape where every piece of the designed page was cut and pasted onto the graph lined paper. I think I still have some of the fancy border tape we used to decorate the pages. 

When I graduated college and started working, I 'designed' a newsletter to send to my family and friends during Christmas time just as if I was designing my own little yearbook page. It was very archaic. But to me, it looked professional. That was 16+ years ago.

Now with the awesomeness of Apple's Pages, our annual Christmas newsletters have transformed from 'archaic yearbook pages' to 'cut and paste word documents' to full-color-glossy 'brochures' (as our Pastor refers to them).

Below is a tiny copy of our annual Christmas newsletter which usually goes out snail-mail. If you did not receive one, then you are lucky that you get to read it here! We're not going full-ecard just yet. There is something to be desired when one receives a letter in the mail to read and hold in one's hands. So... enjoy and from our family to yours, we wish you a very blessed Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth!

Volume 17   Issue 1   2011    The Ma Messenger

Dear Family and Friends - The Lord Jesus has been continually faithful to our family, and we pray blessings for your family as well. If you’ve been following Cezanne’s blog that she started in June, this update will be familiar news to you. If you haven’t, then we hope to catch you up on the happenings of our little family.

Enjoying the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean

2010	Ma Family Statistics	2011
0	IKEA furniture built	13
2	Matt’s sprained ankles	1
44	Books read by Cezanne	17
0	Blog posts by Cezanne	87
0	Bird Species in our Backyard as seen by Emily	11
156	Emily’s Littlest Pet Shop Toy Figures	253
0	Hannah’s Squinkies Toy Figures	92
0	Number of Haircuts for Emily and Hannah	1

Cezanne 

My wife really enjoyed her schedule this year, balancing part-time subbing; exercising at Curves; and serving in her women's bible study or church retreats. She also spent a lot of time working on digital photo albums, both for personal projects as well as for her clients. Cezanne and the girls had a busy but fun summer, going on many outings (usually with Cezanne’s sister and nephews) to local museums, state parks, and Missions. She also coordinated a good friends’ 25th wedding anniversary ceremony at church. This year Cezanne decided to try something new: blogging. Even though she refuses to join Facebook (she stalks all of you on my account), she felt a need to express herself by writing. She used to send sporadic e-mail updates to family, but the e-mails would get quite lengthy because they were so full of pictures. All of her writings were scattered in various e-mails, but now they are consolidated into one place. Writing is her main hobby now. She’s even stopped reading as much (but not entirely). She finds it very therapeutic to write and reflect on her thoughts and our family. She hopes to eventually make the blog entries into a book for the kids to enjoy. In the meantime, you can get a glimpse of what’s been going on in her mind and our family by following mamacez.blogspot.com. Please leave comments on her posts. She loves to hear your feedback!

Discovery Cove, Florida

Teresa (& Tony's) 25th Wedding Anniversary

Matt

Matthew celebrated his 16th year working as an architect at his company. No job is perfect, but overall he enjoys the work and the people. Work has been quite busy for most of the year, so he hasn’t been able to get to his weekly lunchtime basketball games as much as he would like to. Matthew continues to lead a men’s bible study at church, and is also involved with children’s Sunday School and playing guitar on the worship band. What started out as a bunch of guys going to track days and ski/snowboard trips, has evolved into the dinner club! Through these informal gatherings, we’ve both enjoyed getting to know some of the other couples and families at church. Matthew still loves bringing his giant camera everywhere we go, and we always have to wait for him while he’s taking pictures, but I have to admit that I appreciate the photos very much. Matthew’s mom turned 70 this year, and we celebrated with a safari trip and a surprise party for her. Many friends and extended family came and shared their testimony of how Mom has touched them. Not only was it a meaningful tribute to mom, but we felt blessed to hear so many stories of Mom’s love.

Skiing with Emily

Father's Day portrait at church

Emily Ka-Yen (11 yrs)

Emily has grown into a very responsible pre-teen this past year. Some of her 4th grade highlights include: competing in the ACSI Spelling Bee and Math Olympics; and going on an overnight field trip to our state capital with her Daddy and her classmates. She was especially overjoyed and proud to receive a ribbon for the first time ever, for finishing in 5th place at the Math Olympics. This year she transitioned to 5th grade, which is a part of the Middle School at KHA (same school, new name). Now she rotates through 4 different teachers each day. She continues to play clarinet in the school band. She gets up early every morning to be a part of the school Safety Patrol. She has a lot to keep track of and be responsible for at school and at home. We haven’t been as involved in her school work as we used to be, but thankfully she is still doing well. Her newest passion now is wild birds. She’s created an avian sanctuary in our backyard, filled with numerous kinds of bird feeders and bird baths. It’s been quite entertaining for the whole family to watch all the bird activity in our yard. It’s almost like going to the zoo! She loves reading bird books, and she journals daily about the birds she sees and what they are doing. The birds can make quite a mess, but Emily regularly cleans the yard all on her own, even taking over some of the tasks that her Daddy usually does.

5th Place

Hanging around at Kennedy Space Center with Shawna

Hannah Ka-Wai (8 yrs) 

Hannah has grown and matured in many ways this past year. Both her previous and current teachers have been very supportive in helping us deal with her separation anxiety. After a year of therapy, we all have learned a lot about parenting and how to manage her anxiety. It’s still a daily struggle for her, but she’s improved significantly. She is definitely a mama’s girl, which makes it even more special whenever Daddy gets to spend one-on-one time with her. During the summer she expressed a desire to play piano, so she started lessons. It’s been really nice to hear the sounds of piano being played in the house. Even though she complains about practicing, she told us that she has a rule: finish all homework and piano practice before playing. Like her sister, she has a hard time with new or difficult tasks, but she is a diligent worker. Unlike her sister, she was a risk taker as a young child, and now she’s showing signs of becoming a thrill seeker. This year she was finally able to ride the adult rides at Disneyland, and her favorite rides were all the wild ones: Hollywood Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones. One thing we enjoy about Hannah is that she continues to be very expressive verbally, telling us all about her day in detail, and often volunteering to pray for dinner, even when we have company.

Handmade dress from Auntie Bonnie (Matthew's cousin)

Biking Trip with Daddy

Celebrating Mom's 70th Birthday

Cousins at the 8th California Mission

[Editor's Note: Right after this was sent out, Hannah quit piano. It was getting too hard for her and her anxiety increased every time she had to learn a new song . Apparently, she did not want to learn how to play the 'black' keys (sharps and flats.)]