Chusok

One of the things I love about the Korean culture is their love of tradition. One way of the ways they show this is by celebrating the biggest holiday in Korea is called "Chusok". This is their version of the American Thanksgiving. We like to say it is Thanksgiving on steroids! It is bigger than Christmas. Everyone travels for hours to be with their families for the weekend. We had friends that traveled to be with family that lives 3 hours away. It took them 13 hours to get there over Chusok weekend. This is what people do. The tradition of gathering with your family for Chusok has been around for years.

The women get together and cook and cook and cook. I think they do a little bit of talking too! I don't think the men watch football, probably out working in the fields. When the food is ready, there is a nice table set with a large variety of traditional Korean foods. Everyone stands around the table and pays respect to their ancestors that have died. Everyone then turns their back to the table and allows the ancestors to partake of the nice spread of food. After what they feel is enough time, everyone eats the food!! My friend says they only allow a minute or two because they are soooo hungry!!

I love traditions. I love the unity it brings to a family or group of people. I love the respect it shows to those who have gone before. The Air Force is full of traditions. Some are very silly. Some are very funny. However, most of them are a sign of respect. Korea is full of traditions. Some are very silly. Some are very funny. I love what value Koreans place on traditions.

The first grade had a Chusok party, the day before the holiday, with a huge spread of Korean foods. Here are some pictures of Lily in her Hanbok, the traditional Korean dress that she wore to school.

We are making sure the bow is right. I'm not sure I know what I'm doing.

I love traditions. I love Korea!!

Cade's First Haircut

We had a big occasion this month. Cade had his first hair cut!! We love his long, "hippie" look, but a lot of people were giving us a hard time saying he was due for a trim. So, in we went for a TRIM. The pictures tell how the time went:

Cade is thinking, "I like sitting so tall, I can do this."

Now he's thinking, "I'm not so sure about this thing around my neck. Can I breath?
All is good, I have my sucker."

Now there is some concern regarding the scissors. From mom and Cade!

The tears are coming..."I don't want it that short!!" Again, from mom and Cade!

This doesn't do it justice...there was a rather large melt down at this point.
We had to hold his head still so Ms. Yi could finish!

Actually, this is when the real meltdown happen. Cade realizes he has hair ALL over his sucker. He was not happy. We gave him another one so he would be a little bit happier.
We actually went through about 5 suckers!!

Here is Lily showing Cade how wonderful it is to get your hair done.
She didn't understand why Cade didn't like it.

When Tyler got home, he took one look at Cade and said, "Wow, his hair is short. He looks Korean!!" I wonder why????

Dancing Queen & King

One of our family's favorite things to do is dance. Lily has been teaching Cade how to get his groove on!! He first learned how to move his hands up and down and then he learned how to twist his upper body. Now, he has moved on to swinging his hips!! Anytime these two hear music they stop and do a little dance. Here they are dancing to Madagascar!!