Go Daddy Go!

This week has brought a lot of laughs and tears. First, the tears, because I can't finish anything on a sad note. Ronnie's brother, Robbie, was diagnosed with bladder cancer back in March. He has fought the good fight, but the cancer has spread to his bone (specifically his spine). The tumor they cut out of his back/spine in September has regrown and decided to grow a friend. Ronnie will be flying back home to Florida next week to be with his family as they go through this critical phase of Robbie's treatment. He'll be back home in time for Christmas.

Ok, time for some laughs..... We are currently introducing Redneck culture to the Koreans. With all of our furniture in the house, we don't have anywhere for the Christmas tree, except for the porch. Yes, that's right, we have put our tree on the porch. In true redneck fashion, we have way too many lights, including ones that blink, chase and fade but not all together! I can only imagine what the folks in the building behind us are thinking.

You know you're getting comfortable in a place when you just decide to go to Seoul without a map and barely remember the basic Korean phrasebook. Such was our adventure on Saturday. We got up and decided to head to USAG Yongsan and Itaewon. As soon as we got to the subway station it started to snow. Watching the big flakes come down and zoom past the train was really fun for the girls.

The girls watching the snow rush by

It was lunchtime when we arrived at Itaewon, so we headed to the Outback. Way different than the ones we have stateside, but it was really good. The thing we got a kick out of the most was our lunch came with a fruit juice of our choice. We told the server that we really only wanted a Diet Coke, but he said, no you can have both, but I bring you the juice first, then you can have soda. We said ok, because it sounded like what we would tell the kids.

After lunch, we headed to Yongsan so we could check out their BX and the Chosun Gift shop. Unfortunately by the time we found the BX, the Chosun was closed. But we made the most of it. The USO had hot chocolate and pictures with Santa. The girls were really excited to see Santa but they didn't sit on his lap for pictures together. Maybe this year will be the year for a good Santa picture (crossing fingers).

While walking around the BX, an announcement was made that there was a chocolate covered cherry eating contest. After a little pushing, Ronnie decided to enter the contest. The girls were so excited that daddy was playing and were cheering non-stop for him. Holly even started heckling him a little bit, telling him to just eat them all (see the video at the very bottom of the post). It was the funniest 2 minutes of our trip, and probably the most entertainment the BX staff had had in a while since they insisted the girls get in the official picture.

Look, he's smiling... Of course it's because the girls were cheering for him

The final group picture - the BX staff insisted the girls get in the shot

Weekend Excursions

Well, it's the last day of the four day weekend. Besides our big turkey day with the squadron, we didn't plan anything big for the weekend. They don't do Black Friday like we do in the States; besides, all my Christmas shopping is done anyhow.

We decided to head to Everland yesterday. The weather was really nice albeit a little chilly and the park wasn't all that crowded for a weekend. The girls had a great time feeding the parakeets, seeing the monkeys (who were just as curious about the people looking at them), riding the festival train, and then playing in the ball pit. We also got to go on a few different rides than before, our favorite being Flash Pang Pang. It's a tulip seat that bounces you up in the air, but you can push on this lever and start spinning too. The girls started fighting over who would ride with daddy, since mommy can't spin too fast.

The day was topped off with a ride on the "Teacups," which at this park is a flower. Both Holly and Sarah rode with daddy who spun them so fast they both had slid over to his side by the end.

Today brought a slow drizzly rain, so we went to the bowling alley. The lanes on base are really nice and they have 4 shorter lanes dedicated to little kids. Holly narrowly edged out Sarah, who was leading until the 8th frame. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, else we would have some great video of the two of them cheering on the ball to knock down the pins.

Thanksgiving in Korea

Happy Turkey Day everyone! The sweet potato casserole is made, the pies are baked, and the turkey is sitting in the brine getting ready to roast. Sounds like an all-American day huh? Well, this year is rather interesting. You see, the Koreans have already celebrated their Thanksgiving, or more specifically, Chusok. Chusok is the major harvest festival and is celebrated on the Autumn equinox. So we're the only ones eating and celebrating. The stores are even open.... which makes it really convenient if you need something last minute.

To start our Thanksgiving celebrations, Holly's class had a Thanksgiving feast. The kids sang songs for all of us - It was really cute! Videos to uploaded soon!

Holly's class

Today, we are headed to the base to take part in the Thunderbolt Feast, our squadron's annual dinner with the AMU (read maintenance squadron). We prepare a full Thanksgiving dinner and serve the guys and gals who make sure that our A-10s are "ready to fight tonight" and bring our pilots home safe everyday. It's a wonderful tradition, and we are so proud to be a part of it. We fixed Ronnie's momma's macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, and Grandma Iris' pecan pies. The girls were such big helpers in the kitchen. They helped chop the pecans, wisk the eggs, mash the potatoes and stir the macaroni. It was a lot of fun telling them about who gave us the recipe.

Sarah and her sweet potato hands. What you don't see is the Group Commander and his wife sitting across from us cracking up at Sarah.

The dessert table - as someone put it, think of the millions of calories sitting on this table.

Finally, tomorrow we will have our family dinner while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that we DVRed. Yeah for watching on delay - we can fast forward through commercials. Still have more cooking to do but I have two wonderful helpers to assist me.

As I head off to the land of elastic pants, just one final thought.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Love, the Olivers

It's an old... family tradition

Thankfully, I put my prized cookbook in our quick ship things. Prized meaning it's the one with all the family recipes that my mom put together for my sister and I for Christmas back a few years ago. Truth be told, she was probably sick of us asking her how to make cornbread dressing, or banana pudding, or how to cook a turkey (that's another post). These aren't recipes that one can find in one of the family bibles, they are only the ones that you learn by the side of a great cook cause they sure aren't written down anywhere. Luckily and thanks to my mom, they are now in a cookbook and in electronic form on my harddrive (that's somewhere in this mess). I broke into the family recipes today and started my holiday cooking with one of my favorite memories - Grandma Carter's banana bread.

Grandma Carter is my great-grandmother on my mom's side of the family. When I was growing up, we would go and visit that side of the family almost every summer. As soon as my sister and I got off the plane, my grandparents would head straight over to my great-grandparents house, as they had the good fortune of living 15 minutes from the airport in Seattle. When we would get there, my grandma was in the kitchen whipping up a snack for us while my Grandpa Homer would give us all sorts of grief and really bad Homer jokes.

Once the bread went in the oven, we sat down for a game of Cribbage and my sister and I did our level best to beat my Grandpa Homer. He cheated, bad - even worse than I do, cause at least my "cheating" is merely loopholes in the rules. Then the bread would be done, and we would have to convince my grandma to cut it early. The aroma was too much to bear to wait for it to cool properly! We would get a slice, then take a loaf over to my grandparents' house for later.

So, I broke into the family cookbook and this time, I even had helpers! Holly and Sarah donned their aprons and together we mashed the bananas, sifted flour, and mixed the batter until done, but not overly mixed. The girls decided that they wanted to add chocolate chips (for some reason, I think Bill was here egging them on......) Then had to wait the excruciating long bake time until the timer went ding. Guess I don't need to tell you what we had for dessert tonight.

The other family tradition - Daddy licks the bowl

Our banana bread!

Let it flurry!!!!

We woke up on Sunday morning to the first snow flurries of the season! The girls were so excited, so we ran downstairs as quick as we could get warm clothes on. It wasn't cold enough to stick around long, but there were some big beautiful flakes coming down.

Sarah showing me her gloves

The girls trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues

Not sticking much, but there are some flurries on the car

Everland!!!!

This week has just flown by! We have been unpacking boxes, sorting and organizing most of the week. But, Wednesday was Veteran's Day, and since we all had the day off we headed to Everland.

Everland is the largest theme park in South Korea and, conveniently for us, it's about an hour's drive from us. This place is amazing! They have a little bit of everything that you need/want in a theme park - zoo, roller coasters, kid rides, and the best caramel popcorn! They just started their Christmas Fantasy festival, so the park was decorated with Christmas trees, wreaths, and ornaments galore! We were greeted at the front by Santa who gave us Rudolph noses.

First, we headed to Aesop's Village. Holly and I went on the Tortoise and the Hare train ride, while Ronnie and Sarah went to scope out the "ball pit." Let me tell you, the ball pit is fun for ALL AGES and I challenge you to find anything like this in the States.... Loads of small soft foam balls with tons of compressed air shoots that either shoot the balls up in the air or at someone.
The rest of our day was spent riding rides, watching the parade, riding even more rides, then going into the zoo area and Safari ride.

We had a lot of fun! Good thing we bought season passes, the girls are already asking when we can go back!

Moving Day - Korean Style

It should come as no surprise that life in Korea is a little different than life in the US. We know this and accepted it long before our passports were stamped. However, the way they do moving day was a sight to see.

As any other household goods delivery goes, the truck rolls up with a couple of workers ready to go. There is also a point person who works with you on the paperwork, keeping numbers straight and noting any damages done to the crates, boxes, or furniture. So, how do they get everything up to the apartment. One would assume via elevator right..... If that's what you thought, you are dead WRONG!

So, for your viewing pleasure, here is move-in Korea style:

Now remember, we live on the 11th floor. They used a lift and taped the top of the lift to our rail. Then they zoomed boxes, furniture and everything else up and down the lift. Pretty amazing sight to see, especially when another worker magically appeared in our apartment. We figured out that he had "ridden" up with our boxes.