Christmas with the Clarks

Christmas is the time of year when we're reminded of God's great gift to us - Jesus Christ, Immanuel - God with us. We are so blessed to be able to spend each day with hope, joy, love and peace because of Jesus' gift of life. And thankfully, though maybe not so obviously on the day or in the most outwardly traditional of ways, we were able to celebrate these blessings with family and friends here in Taipei.

It's our fourth Christmas in Taipei... and several of these friends have been around to celebrate with us each time!!! That's a blessing of God's family for us here!!! This year we hosted a Christmas Eve potluck for a few friends and enjoyed a feast of friendship!

Our little bro, Erick, has celebrated Christmas eve or day with us all four years! Next year he'll have to take a trip to NZ to join us! Wouldn't that be fun!!!


It wouldn't be a Clark Christmas party without some kind of game... Tony chose Rich as a back-up singer for his rendition of "Away in the Manger".

The 'winners' sporting their new NZ footwear!

Tony's chocolate cherry cake was a major hit, along with dad's ambrosia.

What's with kids and early morning rising on Christmas?! Hunter's not even 2 and doesn't really even know what the day is about, but for some reason the boy was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6.30! I guess they just want to make the day last longer!!!

Before opening presents on Christmas morning, we read a Christmas story together. Actually, Tony & Hunter read while Helena ate her breakfast.

Helena's first NZ sheep

Hunter and the table of bounty!

He got some really fun toys and books this year. And was even able to open them himself! A skill which didn't bode well for our chocolate bar a bit later in the process.

It's been a while since we've celebrated Christmas with another Clark. It was great to have Dad be here for our final one in Taipei.

We had Janet & Jay join us for breakfast - it was fun to catch up with them.

Then we headed out for an outing - Christmas at the Taipei Zoo!

After our untraditional day out, we decided to go out to dinner instead of cooking at home - I don't think I've ever gone out to dinner on Christmas - but I could get used to the idea!


Even little Helena got to enjoy the evening out!

Merry Christmas from Taipei

Grandad Comes to Taipei

Tony's dad - aka "Grandad" - arrived on the 20th of December. We've been all over town trying to show him the sights, sounds and flavors of Taipei. Here's a bit of what we got up to "pre-Christmas".

Sunday, December 21 was the ING Taipei Marathon. Since my mom will be walking in one at home next year, I wanted to check out the marathon scene. It was pretty buzzy still even though by the time we got there most of the runners were finished. This was just the start of our own mini-marathon... we walked from our place to the flower market - about 3-4 km. Not bad for a Sunday stroll.

Grandad & Helena

After our long walk to and through the markets, it felt really good to sit down for a bit on the bus! Hard to believe it's winter here... it's still pretty close to NZ's summer weather.

The following day we took a morning walk to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall... Hunter decided to test the guards and snuck under the rail to say hi! Apparently they didn't like that too much as they stomped their feet and held their guns at attention! I think he may have learned his lesson.

Grandad & Hunter with Dr Sun

We'd never stopped to try this before, but we all took turns getting our height/weight measured inside the building. As it turns out - all of us are overweight! The scale prints out your ideal weight for height with an appropriate comment in Chinese - translated it said "You're too fat". Not recommended for the sensitive among us.

The next night we took dad to the Shilin Night Market. Dad said he didn't queue for food... but when we explained how it works around here "queue up or go hungry" he decided queing wasn't so bad. Hunter needs a bit more convincing. Anyway, by the look on dad's face when he ate it, the fried chicken seemed to be worth the wait!

This was our first time really letting Hunter out of the stroller to explore parts of the night market... needless to say - he loved it!!!

"How much is that doggy in the window?" Don't even think about asking, Hunter...

Three generations of Clarks

Hunter's Latest LOVES!!!

Having a toddler around opens up new worlds of interest... and Hunter's got lots of them! These are just a few of his latest 'loves'...

Part of our building's Christmas display is this little BBQ set that Hunter LOVES!!! It has provided a bit of inside entertainment outside of our own apartment since it's cooled down a bit.

Okay... so we're trying the potty thing again (any potty-training tips would be appreciated) - he loves sitting on it, just doesn't get much action other than catching up on world events in 'The Economist' which he preferred to any other book in the bathroom this week!

It was fun to get together with our playgroup friends again on Wednesday morning. The kids LOVE eating popcorn... though my vacuum doesn't necessarily love it as much.

When we gave him his new little chair he dragged that thing all over the house... can't wait til Christmas when he gets the table and other chair to make the set complete... he will LOVE it!!!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted... Vacation Happy To Get Away...

For any of you who remember that old Go-G0's song, start humming and you'll get a good sense of what our recent holiday was like...

We've just returned from our somewhat spur of the moment family vacation to Mui Ne beach in Vietnam where we had it all - good weather, beach, pool, friendly people, good food, opportunities for rest - and lots of it... 14 days to be exact!!!

It was a three and a half hour flight from Taipei to Saigon, but another 4 hour drive north to Mui Ne which is just outside of Phan Thiet. We considered the drive as part of a 'scenic tour' of the 'real' Vietnam because once we got to the Coco Beach Resort we were pretty much living in a bubble with the other tourists from around the world.

Helpful Hunter was really excited to be on holiday!

Helena did pretty well for her first plane ride at 4 months old.

Of course Hunter loved having his own entertainment system on the flight over


On the way home our plane was an older model so he had to opt for more conventional forms of entertainment.


Our 'scenic tour'

We thought Taiwan had lots of scooters... well, Vietnam is even more densely populated so there were even more! But in Vietnam what rode on the scooters was much more interesting than what we see on a daily basis in Taipei. Here's a guy carrying a large pane of glass between him & the driver! We also saw riders carrying a large mirror, a bookshelf, even a refrigerator (I'm not exaggerating either)... we saw the standard 4-5 person families as well as the family pets...

A rideable Chia Pet? A few of these passed by where you couldn't hardly see the driver through all the vegetation - the scooter surprises made the drive so much more fun and bearable.

And of course the classic 'woman wearing traditional dress on bike' photo that you've probably seen on a postcard somewhere... there really were lots of schoolgirls dressed like this traveling by bike - they looked so cool!



And then we arrived at Coco Beach Resort - a piece of paradise!!!

The Challenges of a Typical Day in Paradise

Considering the fact that all four of us shared a one room bungalow, we managed to start most days at the reasonable time of 6.30 or 7.00. Thankfully breakfast was included in the accommodation package so each morning we would enjoy a leisurely meal before facing the challenges of the day.

Who has time for a pot of South African Red Bush tea each morning?? I did... it was a real luxury to sit and enjoy breakfast with Tony since most days at home we're inhaling cereal before he runs out to work.

Than, our breakfast buddy

What a beautiful start to the day - beach views, good food and fun neighbors.

Breakfast was the easy part. The rest of the day was full of difficult decision-making exercises:

What do we do next? Beach or Pool?

Once he got in there, Hunter really enjoyed the splashing waves and sandy coastline.

Brave little Helena preferred the warmer pool to the salty sea.

What are we going to eat today? Something conventional... or something more exotic? div>

The resort restaurants had tasty treats - twice the going rate out on the street, but sometimes convenience wins over frugality (we're only talking US$4.50 for the burger compared to $3.00 elsewhere - food there was really cheap)

Two friends we met at the resort caught a snake while out on a tour so Tony joined them for an evening of snake dishes!! Snake curry was the favored dish.

Pressing questions like where are we going to take a nap?

How will we fit in a workout?

What are we going to play???

Hunter loved the big wooden swing...

actually, he loved everything - who are we kidding - he had the time of his life so far!!!

Future Olympian?


The only time there weren't many options was story-time as we could only pack a few books for the trip... even then the question remained - "more"?!?

So yep... we spent two weeks making some pretty major decisions... just the kind you want to be making on a holiday!!!!