Our Full, Fun February!!

This is the best thing that happened all month.......the birth of our 22nd grandchild!!  

Little (or big  9 pound 2 oz) Cora Frances Towers was born February 20th. 

She is the 6th child and 4th daughter of Tyler and Jamie!

How we wish we could hug her!

Welcome to our family, Baby Cora! 

NOTICE FROM THE EDITOR:

It appears from this blog that we seldom do church work, but what we do on weekdays we usually don't take pictures of.  

So just know that we DO work, but we take MORE pictures of our play time!

Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year has been crazy!

Red lanterns, orchids, Mandarin orange trees of all shapes and sizes, bright yellow mums and blossoming cherry trees have decorated every home, business and park. 

 It is beautiful everywhere you look!

It's the year of the monkey so they pop up everywhere!

On a beautiful sunny day we went down to the promenade to watch them practice for the parade which was going to be the next night.  These people are trying to maneuver this giant puppet.  During the parade, he was all lit up inside with blue lights and called the "Gentle Giant of Light". It was my favorite part. 

 The picture just doesn't do it justice!

 We were invited to a New Year dinner party by the Area Presidency.

Of course we had the required group picture taken.  This is the Asia Area Presidency and wives, all of us Area Missionaries who work in the Wan Chai building,

 the temple president and wife and the Hong Kong Mission senior couples.

After dinner we went out on President and Sister Funk's balcony and watched the fireworks.

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The Super Bowl was a fun occasion for us.  Unbeknownst to Americans, the rest of the world doesn't give a hoot about football!  While the Super Bowl was going on, we got boat racing and bull riding on our TV!  But that was no problem for us!  We got a little of the 1st quarter while skyping with Kim and Tim, some of the 2nd quarter while visiting with Geoff and Jolene, Evan and Kelli and families in Ohio, and during the last half, Ben just sat the computer right in front of the TV and dad watched the rest of the game with the Salt Lake Families and half the neighborhood.  

Luckily, Kristin sent pictures! 

Since we were too far away to participate in the Towers Family tradition of  making secret Valentines for each other, we decided to do it with our families here in Hong Kong.  

 It was lots of fun and exciting to make something for someone else and there were lots of happy tears and hugs when the Valentines were given!  These Sisters need that extra love!

This is Sister Lyrma holding her very first Valentine from her real sister, Novalyn in the blue.  Lyrma has been bringing Novalyn to church each week in hopes that she will want to become a member.  They are both domestic helpers, but Novalyn just arrived in Hong Kong.

 Guess who drew MY name!  I love my Valentine and of course I agreed to be his!

Sister Remy made me a Valentine when she drew my name on Saturday.  I really love her!

Thursday Family Relief Society Presidency gave all of us a Valentine Surprise!

This bouquet is made out of strong smelling soap carved into roses!  

My eyes were watering!

We and Scott and Karen Smith were invited to go to Disneyland with some of our friends and some Sisters in our Wednesday family.  

Scott loves taking selfies on the MTR.

Meet our friends Quentin and Angela Lee.  He plays the part of Scar at the Disneyland production of Lion King.  They attend Wednesday family when he has to work on Sunday.  This picture was taken when he ran over to have lunch with us between performances.

 They generously treated Analyn, Marjory and May Ann to a day at Disneyland and we just went along for the fun of it!

It was one of the coldest days we've had here in HK, but we had fun anyway!

We really enjoy working and playing with Karen and Scott Smith, our counterparts in the branch.

Buzz Lightyear was on hand so we stopped for a photo op.

Whoa...this was weird!

The props and scenery for Lion King are amazing!  We loved it!

Here's Quentin doing his thing as Scar!

Sunny, clear days are rare, so on this one we rode up to the Peak on the top front seat of a double decker bus.  It was a real trip!  The view at the top was magnificent!  Coming down we hiked the Old Peak Road.  It was super steep and my legs were totally rubber when we got to the bottom!

We sometimes find time to play games on weekends with our friends. 

 One night Sister Orton made this delicious Swedish cake for dessert!

Judy, Matthew and Natalie Staples came to visit for a few hours.  It was great to see them, but not nearly long enough!  We took them for a ride on the Ding Ding.

And to the Lantern Festival.

This lady is writing Chinese characters with white sand on a piece of plastic tarp. This picture shows less than a third of what she had already done.

Karen had a turkey breast in her freezer, so we decided to have Thanksgiving Dinner in February! Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, yams, fresh veggies, rolls, Jello salad, and pumpkin cake!   What a treat!

The fun just never ends when Sister Smith is busy thinking up things to do!  Here we are having a posh lunch at the Hopewell Center.... a revolving restaurant 60 floors up!

Broom Hockey was the sport of choice at Family Home Evening one Tuesday.

 Our Wednesday Family Sisters went crazy making cakes for dinner.  They had never used an oven before so it was a learning experience for them.  They turned out great!

 Saturday Family planned a Lipsync and Aerobic Dance Battle for FamilyHome Evening!

We have so much fun at our activities!

I have some new piano students!  They are quick learners! 

As a parting shot, David wanted me to include this. 

 It seems that there is nothing you can't get here in Hong Kong!