Christmas 2016!!

Hello everyone!

I stopped blogging after this summer because a lot of changes were happening in my life, and I didn't feel like documenting everything here during that time. I know some people record everything on their blogs--the good and the bad--but I wanted to keep this as a place to look back on fond memories.

When I stopped blogging this summer, I actually thought that I was done with blogging forever. I didn't really even think about this blog very much until this winter when a few people asked to reference the memories stored in these blog posts. It was so nice to look back on the memories and the pictures accompanying them (and so easy to find!!) that I thought it would be fun to start again and record the memories that we are creating now for the future! 

This Christmas was a really special one for our family because our family was the biggest it has been yet!  Baby bro brought his girlfriend and Zenas came with me to visit Seattle, and it was so nice to be a part of a big, bustling household! =)  Usually, we open presents on Christmas morning, but this year, Peter, Zenas and I decided to go skiing, so we put off the normal Christmas festivities until the next day.  Last winter, our family went to Schweitzer to ski, but due to a few scheduling conflicts, we stayed near Seattle (Stevens Pass) for this winter break! 

It was probably better this way anyway because it was Zenas' first time skiing and Schweitzer might have been a bit too intense  haha

Except for that one time in the beginning when we accidentally took him up the blue (intermediate) slope and he was afraid for his life, I think he enjoyed the experience  ;)  

My favorites!

And of course, the mountains were beautiful...  especially when the sun was setting!

The next day, we refueled our post-ski-workout bodies with some Korean BBQ!  twice! I never thought I would say this about Korean BBQ because it's one of my favorites, but twice in one day was a bit of an overkill... haha  

But it was so much fun spending time as a giant family!  (5 kids!  =D haha)

My loves

After we had our fill, we came back home to open some presents!

We took turns going around opening gifts, and in true Joo family fashion, it took forever.  You know, commenting on every item being opened and erupting in laughter every few seconds will do that to your gift opening process  ;)

Peter and Michelle  =)

baby cousin, Chang!

hehe my parents are the cutest  =p

and of course, the newest addition to our family celebrations, Zenas.  So glad he could come and experience the Joo family traditions and craziness this holiday season  =) 

Coming together like this and getting to spend time together as a family definitely makes this season my favorite time of the year, and what better time to start blogging again, right?  

I hope you are all getting to enjoy some quality time with your loved ones as well!  =)

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny