Christmas Ivo and more

We all went to Taipei for Ivo's 2nd birthday. Took the bus up friday night after an Xmas party at my school and left Sunday afternoon.

Very fun!

On Saturday, we went to the Taipei Astronomical (sic) Museum. Lots of fun for just 40nt + 70nt for the super spaceship ride on the 4th floor. Lots of info (all in Chinese) about constellations, the history of astronomy and space travel. Nice interactive stuff - lots of buttons to push! My camera had been acting funny, so we used Ryan's video camera for all pics - coming soon to the blog.

Saturday evening, we went to Taipei 101 to look at Xmas scenes, Santa and the book selection at Page One. While festive, no trees or santa to be seen - just tons of people. So many that Ivo couldn't walk 2 steps ahead without being engulfed in the crowd. It was too much - and seemed likely to be the case in the adjacent malls - so we beat feet back to the hotel.

This year really drums home the importance of celebrating Ivo's half-birthday with much fanfare... cuz no matter how unabashedly atheist you are and regardless of living in a non-Christian country/continent, December 24th is always gonna be overwhelmed by the baby jesus, the shopping, the santa etc.

Ivo opened a few pressies up in Taipei and most at home. Pics coming soon . Thank you to grammie & grampie, great aunt Joanne and uncle Bob, grandma and chrissy, ally and mikey for all the excellent long-distance swag! Love to all.

Here are some pics of Ivo objecting to wearing a footie/jammie zip-up thing. He doesn't care for socks or sleeves - but is coming along... Also opening pressies at hotel and playing in the nearby park from 23-24 December 2006.

Wow - big earthquake just hit - and we're still swaying! Not only in Ivo 2 - but the big tsunami was 2 years ago today... And another one!!! All the dogs are barking and neighbors out on the street. And aren't we happy we're not at Taipei 101 now!

First one was 6.7 located in Hengchun, Pingdung County - that's right outside Kending... Second one not posted yet...