Happy Holidays

It has been a busy year for everybody here at casa de Bearbower. I’m not even sure where to start.

I’ve been working on my Masters in International Business degree for about 5
years now.  I’ve taken one course at a time and that has been plenty.  This
May, as part of the program, I traveled to China with about 20 other students
from the program.  We visited the cities of Beijiing, Xian, Shanghai, Hong Kong
in China and Tiapai, Tiawan.  Seven months later I’m still having a hard time
describing to others what this experience was like for me.  All I can say is
that it was an AMAZING experience and that if you ever get a chance to travel to
Asia you should do it.  During our trip we visited a number of the tourist
sites; The Beijiing Zoo, The 2008 Olympic Village, The Forbidden Kingdom,
Tianamen Square, The Great Wall, the Terracota Soldiers (pic of me on card), The
YuYung Garden,  The Tiawan National Museum and Taipai 101.  In addition we
visited a number of business in each city and enjoyed a number of markets as
well.  In Beijiing I had Peking Duck for the first time and it was awesome! I
also experienced eating at a HotPot.  This is a device that reminds me of a
fondu pot except you use hot water or broth instead of oil.  You put various
meat and vegtables in the liquid to cook it and then eat.  In Xian I had
dumplings that were also great.  I also finally learned how to eat with
chopsticks while on the trip, which was a handy thing to know.    If you want to
view all my field study pics you can go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbpics/sets/72157618180578900/show/.

As far as the Master’s degree I am officially finished after I turn in one
last paper over Christmas break.  It will be nice to have this accomplished.

Josie turned 9 in June, can you believe it!!!!   She is still in girlscouts.
She is an avid reader and seems to be doing well in school.   She has started
taking riding lessons from Grandma Passow this summer.  She enjoys riding Breezy
and Grandma reports that she’s learning fast for such a late start.  Josie is
in her 2nd year of piano lessons.  She took recently put on a Christmas recital
at the church.  You can view that at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuKwZhyVoiw.

James is in 7th grade.  This year he started football.  He played offensive
tackle, defensive end, was on the kick off,kick return and punt teams.  The team
was undefeated and is looking forward to next year as the 8th grade team.  James
is in his 2nd year of guitar lessons.  He also put on a Christmas recital
recently.  He played as part of a group of students.  Pictures can be viewed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbpics/sets/72157622874394081/show/. 

James does well in school and is turning into quite the young man.  As you can
see from the pictures he is nearly caught up to his dad on height.  He passed me
up last summer.

Roger continues to work at Semcac on the weatherization crew. He has been
holding down the fort as I spend additional time with my Grandmother, finish my
degree and get those unexpected calls to go into work.  He’s looking forward
to taking a hunting trip to Texas at the end of January.  He is going with a
group of guys to hunt wild pigs.  (I don’t get it, but he’s very excited.)
James would LOVE to go as well.  However, we feel that he needs some local
hunting experience before making a large of investment for a big game trip.

I hope that you and yours are doing well.  I hope that you have a wonderful and
safe holiday.