It's Christmas eve today and the last post of 2025! :) Hope everyone is well and having a good holiday season. We might even get an uptick in viewership as our Xmas cards have our blog on them!
We had already had a joint birthday party for Sora and Jad so Sora's actual birthday was pretty low key. She invited Wally and Barak for a sleepover and they camped in a tent in our living room. They played cards and stayed up late talking and had lots of fun.
Mid-November was pretty quiet otherwise and then we were off on Thanksgiving week break.
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Amy took Sora to see Wicked: For Good..
apparently it wasn't as good as the 1st half |
We've also been in Japantown SJ a lot because of Jad's dance class so we have wandered around the cute little shops there as well as admired some of the murals.
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| Here's a neat daruma doll |
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Mural outside of Moment, a cute collaborative
shop between 4 artists |
Thanksgiving itself was good. With her mom and dad both being ill, Amy wanted to spend time at home so we had a lot of family time (though there was a conference on the Big Island that I was eyeing :). David was around and Matt, along with Nicole and Lukas, came up from OC as well.
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| Jad really enjoys being a big brother to Lukas |
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| Huang siblings! David carving up his delicious smoked turkey |
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| Sunny's (and Uncle Jensen's) families came over as well |
The Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to David's house to hang out. The kids got to check out his workout setup in the garage and we also saw all the work that he put in to replace the hardwood flooring, driveway, etc.
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| Do those pulls ups, Kai! |
The first weekend of December, Amy and three other neighbor moms went to Napa to celebrate Kristina's birthday. There was a lot of relaxing and wine and lots of fun was had by all :)
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| Several hour tasting at the Castello :) |
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I had the kids at home.. look at all those healthy
items I cut up for breakfast! (They didn't eat them :) |
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Then all the dads got together and had dinner to share the burden. Some were playing Magic TG,
others played video games or watched Avatar 2.. good times |
I'm going to save the medical stuff for the end so I'll just round out the erst of this month with a potpourri..
Kai continued with wrestling and, we think, came to enjoy it. He did great in his weight class (82lbs) and went on to win sectionals then lose the county level. He also was 1st in one of the tournaments. I never thought it would be something our kids would do but, hey, we'll roll with it. It's also easier when the other parents are really awesome. I think he's going to do it again next year. Great job, Kai!
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| Take down! |
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| Proud of his medal |
Amy has continued to run to train for her 30k next year. She has been taking Kai along sometimes to keep up his endurance for XC and sometimes we'll go to the track as a family. That's what I get for marrying a runner :p
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| Top of Mission Peak |
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All the kids are great runners.. Jad is the most enthusiastic
and will be fast when he gets bigger, I think |
Sora had a violin perfomance with her school orchestra. She probably won't stick with it as she is already doing piano but wants to try choir when she goes to middle school next year. This girl is growing up fast :)
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| She's in front, just to the right of the conductor |
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We have been watching Physical Asia, which is silly and fun. These
athletes are just ridiculously strong |
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| Dancing after their team won an event :) |
Jad's dance class ended and he had a big performance. I didn't realize but it was a really big event and probably about 250 spectators and 20 different dances from the various classes at the Get Down. There were a lot of adult dancers too which was inspirational for Amy and I. Jad did great and we're proud of him for performing in front such a large audience.
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Sora helping with Jad's last practice. She is interested in
taking class next season! |
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On stage with Coach Tarhata and Mojo..
I love his baggy street clothes |
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| Everyone taking the bows :) |
Not to leave Kai out of the performance art, here he is doing the Winter Show with Advanced Orchestra. He's looking forward to going to Disneyland next year with the orchestra friends.
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| Looking good, Kai |
Ok, now for the bit about the retina. I was doing some decline pushups one day and suddenly had floaters in my right eye, which is a concern for a retina problem, especially since this eye is very near sighted and I had had cataract surgery in it. I went over and saw the ophthalmologist right away and also the retina specialist the day after. They said that it looked ok and there were no visible injuries and to monitor for now. A few days when by (I still took care of the kids while Amy went to Napa that weekend) and it seemed ok but one day, a little dark blob developed in the corner of my vision. Unfortunately, it rapidly grew and though I went to the eye clinic right away, by the time I saw the retina specialist, more than half of my vision in that eye was gone. He confirmed a retina detachment and we planned for surgery the next day. It was a bit scary, even though my right eye is not my dominant eye, as this was a complete loss of vision situation. If this had happened in my left eye, which is more dominant, I think it would be devastating and I wouldn't be able to do much at all.
The surgery was fairly easy and went generally well. They removed the vitreous in my eye, put the retina back on the back of the eyeball and lasered it into place. Amy picked me up and I had to keep my head face down for 24 hours to help the air bubble in my eyeball prop up the retina while it healed. It was hard to be face down for everything but I managed and the kids helped. Follow up since then has been generally good and things are healing now. I think I'll end up with about 80% visual acuity with some image distortion in this eye vs previous. By itself, it's not terrible and, in fact, I only took a week off and am back to work already. Some headaches but I hope that'll improve. Still, it does make one feel old when body parts begin to fail. Sigh, c'est la vie, I suppose.. what can you do but take care of yourself as best you can :)
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| On the way home post op |
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Face down is not comfortable but you
can still look at your phone at least |
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After post op check.. everything is still swollen
but internal parts are in place |
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| My current visual field |
That's it for now. Hopefully everyone has a wonderful holiday season and celebrate whichever holiday you celebrate with loved ones and friends. We'll be mostly home and with family and neighbors through the holiday with a short trip to Tahoe for new year's. I'll leave you with this picture of the neighborhood boys goofing around in AT's garage
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| They like to take off their shirts :p |
Take care, everyone!
