Griffith 2012 Christmas Letter
The end of another year, a time for recapping and another Holiday Letter. (Go here to subscribe for next year's letter) This year has once again been full of many changes. This my 8th year of writing electronic Christmas letters instead of cards. ('05, '06, '07, '08, '09), '10 and '11).
January
We ended the New Year in the US after Kiah and Ramon's wedding and flew back to Beijing. We had a fantastic time ice skating on the frozen QianHai lake with ice bikes, though Sofi did knock her self out by falling on the ice. And after a very short couple of weeks it was Chinese New year, when its best to get out of China. We spent an amazing two weeks in Burma with the Sheppards. This was our most favorite trip we've ever taken anywhere. The people were warm and friendly, the scenery was beautiful, the light was amazing. We visited temples in Bagan, the amazing water culture at Inle Lake (floating tomato farms), Ngapali Beach and even got stuck there after we missed our plane (military time and Mark's fault) and ran out of cash (no Credit Cards and no ATM's). But we made it back after a day on the last day of January.
February
We arrived at the tail end of Chinese New Year. Which is a treat if you enjoy fireworks. We bought and lit off 10,000 firecrackers and watched in amazement from our apartment as 1000's of fireworks went off all over the city. Mark immediately had to jump on a plane and head back to Seattle for work meetings, where he also managed the sneak in the Polar Plunge as well as take his team from China snowshoeing at Scottish Lakes. On Mark's way back through LAX he got to see his cousin Emily and her son, and then back home spent a belated Valentines out with Stac after spending the actual day on a bromance with a co-worker.March
March brought two late spring snow storms to Beijing. Mark drove up early to the Jiankou Great Wall to capture the Wall in winter snow. Visitors from work meant another trip up to the Wall at Mutianyu. In the middle of the month snow blanketed the city in a beautiful coat of white. Later that weekend, Mark did a Dawn Patrol up to the Wall for his 3rd trip to the Wall in March. Sofi and Miles escorted Mark and Stacey through their school at BCIS where they showed us the work they had accomplished that year. April
The month began with a week off for Spring Break which we spent in Thailand. That place is hot, after a few days in Bangkok we traveld down to Railay Beach where we kayaked, went diving and snorkeling and rode elephants. Back in Beijing Mark and Miles went camping at the Great Wall with some friends. More visitors from Seattle for work and Mark took them on a hike on the Great Wall in the rain and fog. Mark started shooting a rap video with Andrew Doughtery (which he still hasn't finished editing, more on that later). Miles had Experience China Week and visited the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. Mark had a BBQ with work where they at sparrow. Stacey's friend Teresa visited us from Tennessee, and Kiah and Ramon arrived for the summer from Idaho and we spent an overnight at a farmers Hotel at the Great Wall where Mark helped them pull a hand plow to ready their corn fields for planting.May
We drove to Datong with Teresa and Seven to Datong where we visited the Yungang Grottoes full of huge Buddhist carvings. Then we drove down past a small town of YingXian where we saw a 1000 year old wooden pagoda and then on to the small town of Hunyuan where we saw the Hanging Monastery (built into the side of a cliff) and visited HengShan, one of China's 5 sacred mountains, where we saw real Daoist Monks with big beards. Back in Beijing, Miles and Mark went on the annual Father and Son's campout outside Beijing. More visitors from work and Mark took them out to the Wall again. Mark started riding his bike more as his knees started bothering him. And we held our annual church summer goodbye party as people prepared to move on and out of Beijing. And the month ended with one of the prettier sunsets in Beijing.June
The family took a three day weekend trip to Xi'an, we rode the sleeper train there and flew back. The terra cotta warriors lived up to the hype, we rode our bikes around the city wall and we loved the food in the Muslim quarter of the city. Back in Beijing Mark spent another Saturday shooting for the rap video (you can see rough cut here). The kids ended another great school year, Stac and Mark celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary (and Stac's birthday) at a traditional courtyard hutong. Then Stac and the kids (including Kiah) headed to Hong Kong to visit Disneyland and see the sights, while Mark's brother Josh, friend Seth flew in from the States and joined Mark's workmate Zhang Chao as they headed to Yunnan for the annual Mancation (plans for Tibet fell through after China closed the border). They traveled to LiJiang, and then drove 12 hours over very bumpy roads to Feilasi and another 2 hours and then hiked four hours up over 10,000 feet to the small village of Yubeng (there are no roads in). Here it rained and rained, but that didn't stop them from hiking up to 14,000 feet to Holy Lake and having a great adventure. Back in Beijing they dashed out to the Great Wall for a quick hike, toured the Forbidden City and shipped Josh and Seth back to America.July
This was our last full month in Beijing. We celebrated the 4th of July with our church and we took a cooking class at The Hutong where we learned to make home-made noodles. Mark helped plan a work engineering event for the China tech teams. We had some very very heavy rain in Beijing (most in 50 years). Things started to get very busy as we began getting ready to return home to Seattle and the month ended with more beautiful sunsets.August
A very busy month half in Beijing and half in Seattle. We said our sad goodbyes to a few people who made our lives so much easier and better in Beijing and moved into temporary housing as all of our goods were packed up either on the boat or on the plane. Mark took Kiah and Ramon on one last hike out to the Great Wall and said his last goodbyes to his co-workers in the China office. The long flight home through San Francisco and the busy task of finding a place to live and getting the kids ready for school. Back to work, to hamburgers and just in time for the summer run and plunge and some welcome home hikes in the mountains and huckleberries.September
Busy days with moving into a town home, getting the kids into school and back into full swing at work. Lots more hiking before the rain returned, including a trip with Will, a solo trip by Mark up to Mt. Ruth, a twelve mile hike with Miles and Hope (they could both barely walk the next day), and a quick overnighter by Mark, Miles and Hope up to Talapus Lake. The kids settled back into school but not easily per se, coming home isn't always as easy as being somewhere new where everyone is new too.October
Finally settling into a bit of routine things started to feel almost normal as we continued to dig ourselves out of boxes. Mark joined Miles for Dad's at Recess. Mark walked halfway to work and got out on a nice fall hike with golden colors in the grass. The kids and Mark explored a new trail on Cougar Mountain near our home. A work trip took Mark to Luxembourg for a week; back home fall had brought the browns and yellows to the Big Leaf Maples. The end of the month brought Halloween and our annual pumpkin carving.November
Movember, the month of the mustache began again, Mark loving it, Stac hating it. Miles turned 9 years old with a celebration of bowling with old friends. For Thanksgiving we rented a small cabin north of Mount Rainier where we spent blissful days relaxing and enjoying the solitude, the elk, a bit of first season sledding, potato donuts, and Mark turned 45.
Mark also took on a side project to build himself a new computer, one reason for still not finishing the rap video was his computer wasn't powerful enough. After many trial and errors and much help he finally has a working system and hopes to finish early in 2013.
December
Right after Thanksgiving at the end of November, Mark returned to Beijing for work. The weekend before work he spent outside of Guilin in the rice terraces and a small village at a farmer's home. Back in Seattle after a week of work, we had our annual church Christmas party, where Mark again took Santa photos (his favorites were the crying ones). While Stac was at the hospital (more on that below) Mark took the kids up in the new Seattle Ferris Wheel. The weekend before Christmas Miles and Mark went snow camping up at Snoqualmie Pass. Christmas seemed just a tad off this year, Miles was happy with his Xbox and Legos but everyone else felt a little hollow. Next year we have vowed to celebrate in a different way stay tuned.... After Christmas we drove in one day to Logan to see Stac's folks, who she hadn't seen in over a year. Stac came down with the flu the day we left and spent most of the time stuck in the hotel room while the kids and Mark visited with Uncle Doug & Julie and Alyse and Adam and went sledding down Old Main.Individual Summaries
Kiah and Ramon joined us in Beijing in April after finishing their semester at BYU-Idaho. They taught some English and that fall when we flew back to Seattle they stayed in BYI-I's study abroad program at Beijing Capital Normal University in the intensive Chinese program. Mid-December they flew back (after 8 long months) to spend Christmas with Ramon's family in Las Vegas and then they joined us for New Years before returning back to the 'burg for school.
Sofi is in her last year of middle school. She's a full on teenager now at 13 and she's always had a strong personality and now we get doses of it in teenager mode. She continues to have her very own unique sense of personal style, she still loves to create either through cooking or drawing or making. This past year she's become fixated on her finger nails. She got in the habit in Beijing of heading down to SanLiTun and getting her nails done every Saturday. Back in the States she's become adept at doing them herself, sometimes doing her nails several times a week.
Miles has grown this year, not only is he in 3rd grade but he is the tallest one in his class. Not only up but he's put on bulk, not fat but heft. He is only 9 yet his butt is too big to fit into a size 14 pants. He wears sweat pants a lot and his legs are only 4 inches smaller than his Dad's. He likes to say its because of all the fried rice he ate in China. He is still into Legos, Power Rangers and recently has discovered the world of Minecraft which he likes watching on videos and playing with his Dad. (Lots of digging for iron, gold and diamonds). He still enjoys getting out hiking and camping with Hope and his Dad.In Reflection
This was a year of transitions again. With only 18 months in Beijing 2011 was involved in getting settled into China and this year (2012) was involved in resettling back in the US. That is a lot of change in two years. Especially when you haven't moved in years and you've forgotten how settled your life is until you have everything unsettled. You forget what a weekend free is when you've got weekends of unpacking and putting away to do. Coming back to the US has definitely been smoother, we slid back into so many familiar rhythms : same town, same church, same job (roughly), same commute, same school system. There were times when it seemed we had not even left and that China was almost a dream. Yet when I returned to Beijing for work it was clear it had all happened, I know that city like I know few other urban cities. We are happy to be home but this year hasn't been one without its difficulties.
Mark and Stac have had a few health issues this year, and were not even old yet. Mark's knees started hurting him in May, especially after hiking or running through out the year, and he started biking more and running less, but it took him quite some time to get his bike put back together after returning to Seattle. A doctor diagnosed it as patella pain which would be solved through physical therapy and strengthening the core and alignment of the leg, a slow process which is still in progress and which has left me fatter and a bit less in shape than I'd like to be. Meanwhile more seriously Stac this year started having health problems in May, the symptoms were daily nausea and stomach problems. Things would ebb and get better and then the symptoms would return. Finally we were close enough to returning to the States she just tried to hold on until we returned. Upon getting back in States things were so busy getting settled back in it took a while to get into the doctor and then after blood work and lab tests returned nothing (no Chinese parasites and not celiac [allergy to gluten]) the next step was a upper and lower scope. This is the same procedure that every "real old" person has done annually and so there was a lot of contention to schedule the procedure. After finally getting into see the doctor in December for a second procedure things came back completely normal and were left with a diagnosis of IBS which is basically a diagnosis that acknowledges symptoms with no identified roto cause. So we end the year looking forward to the next year hoping for some answers and for better health.