too-tee!

i got a higher christmas bonus from tutoring than i got from work this year. i'm not sure whether that's more surprising bc they nixed christmas bonuses (again) at work, or that a family threw in cash in my christmas card.

in general, gifts from my students have been a pleasant surprise. over the years, i've gotten some interesting ones. (like the year linds gave me fancy soap from o&co because "you have to wash off all the sweat from practice!") though every time i get a cash gift i feel compelled to spend it on something specific (as if that person had gotten me a gift). maybe i'll just put it towards the need-furniture-in-new-apt-fund.

anyways.

the holiday festivities have left me wanting to take a vacation day during the week just to recuperate from busy weekends.

secret ninja - the gift exchange was pretty funny this year. in the tradition of mit, i had each person write a poem to describe themselves so the recipient could guess. poems ranged from clever to haikus to not-a-real-poem. scott had me and his poem was the best:

roses are red
violets are blue
you are my "sister"
and i am a jew

he got me a christmas tree! well, more like a christmas bush. but it was really cute, i decorated it and everything. (with leftover ribbons and random keychains and medals i had lying around).

the family xmas get-together was a zoo of kids and a carnage of wrapping paper. jordan has become such a ham, she's a fun one. good counter, at the age of two - she got such a kick out of counting blocks with me, though she kept saying "eleben, telf, TOO-TEE!" and then giggling her head off. i thought she was skipping to twenty and kept correcting her until i realized that TOO-TEE meant thirteen - dang that malaysian nanny and her accent!

matty was totally antisocial - he's one good looking kid, but suffers from only child syndrome, bad. i swear this is why people have multiple kids.

o (at 1.5) was taller than the 2 yo's...possibly taller than i-man (who's 3.5). i think it's her chinese genes, patrick is tall...then again, so is gina.

allison (5?) is a sweetie - she was picking up after i-man and every year she looks like a princess. i don't think i've ever heard her talk. ever.

the kang boys are an interesting example of phenotypes. alex looks just like his dad - cj looks just like his mom (or her brother) - jackson is an exact hybrid. 3 boys...that house has got to be a zoo.

emily is getting so old, she's practically a teenager. it's crazy, i remember when she was born.

and then there were the rest of the kids. the ones i see all the time, and the ones i never see. they grow up so fast, it's a little crazy. but i think it's great that they can all get together and hang out and get along...big families are nice and i wish i had had that as a kid.