Family Time
Janae and I have been blessed with a lot of family around us. First of all, my Mom lives nearby, Janae's parents came here just before Verene was born, Autumn and Christian live nearby with Celeste. Nice at times...
It's been nice for Janae's family to be re-united. Both her parents live in Taiwan and both their daughters and their granddaughters live in the same town in Northern Virginia. It was great they came to help with us being first-time parents. The best part of having them here for the first 3+ months is having hands. We miss our hands so very much. Janae than I feels we can do NOTHING when the baby is awake but attend to her every need. It's great when you have a family to help. Too bad we still had the night shift. No relief there.
They left at the end of the year and we had to finally learn how to be parents on our own. Bad - we don't know what we're doing. Good - we don't have someone else tell us that every day! This is them at the airport with their grandkids.
This picture is at a Christmas brunch that Antoinette, Janae's sister's mother-in-law hosted for all extended family - hers and ours! She's truly genuine in treating extended family, no matter how removed, as her own. My Mom and sister were invited to the brunch as well! For them it's my son/brother's wife's sister's husband's mother!
It's nice to have Mom living in the area. Big difference between living in the area and living with you!!! Anyone who has lived with parents or in-laws for extended periods of time must understand. She's a nice constant that we see regularly and still have space for both of us to live our separate lives...perfect. Of course she's also excited to be grandma! It's her first!
Mary wasn't able to make it home for Christmas but sent her love with shirts from Case Western. In the Huang-Lee tradition of cheez, we're cheering her on in her first year of med school. Think twice before sending us identical t-shirts because we have no shame embarrassing ourselves!
