Merry Christmas!! (almost)

Isn't this the coolest nativity you've ever seen? Well I think it is but I may be a little biased. Us Tangs made this natvity out of flour dough in 1986. I actually thought it was later than this but when I was in Maine, I found a paper my mom had written on when she donated the creche for the creche exhibit in Maine a few years back and she wrote made in 1986. Knowing how good of a journal keeper she was, I have no reason to doubt it's true.

I know that I made baby Jesus and the manger (with dad's help), mom made Mary, Andrew made the wise man with the red crown, Clarence made the one with the black crown and Jason made all the animals (I've always loved the "popcorn" sheep and the race horse). I can't remember what Michelle or dad made, but it's gotta be Joseph, the shepherd, or the third wise man . And someone must've made 2 or something. Later on (like in the last few years), Steve made the stable for the nativity and straw got added... for extra effect? I dunno, but I think it's pretty darn creative and has lasted so long!

I went to Andrew's house this morning to help make some potstickers and these little munchkins were there being extra cute. Above is the boy (Andersen) practicing his joystick coordination on the Wii, and down below is Michael, just 3.5 weeks old, finally showing me that he DOES have eyes!

Anyway, I'm off to Michigan on Tuesday for Christmas with Clarence, Annie and family so I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

A Maine-ly Lovely Thanksgiving

My thanksgiving break actually started off in Arizona. Alyssa, her sister Jenna, and Jenna's twin boys drove down to Arizona where I spent about 2.5 days there before flying out to Maine to spend a week with dad. We didn't do a whole lot while I was in AZ, but we did go to a foot reflexology place which was great. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures... yeah basically this one was taken on the drive to the airport when I left for Maine.

It was fun to be in Maine, it had been 3 years but really not much has changed. A couple of new buildings here and there but still good old Bangor Maine. In true Tang fashion, our holiday revolved a lot around food, food, food, and movies. I did go to the dentist after 3 years and my teeth felt amazing afterwards. And no cavities! Dad and I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Strong's then later that week, Annie came out from Michigan for a few days!

On Saturday the 29th, we had a memorial service for mom. It was nice to see many of the people in Maine that I haven't seen for a while. It was a lovely service, where Annie and I were privileged to speak along with 4 other people in the ward.

Instead of having flowers at the service, dad decided it would be more mom like to display some of her favorite books, which included the scriptures, church books, cooking books, nutrition books, childrens books, health books, and Chinese books. We also displayed her picture and the book that Michelle made.

Right after the service, there were refreshments and visiting and then we got right to work and helped with the upcoming annual creche exhibit. I'm pretty sure people thought we were crazy, or that it was typical of us to stay... "of course the Tangs' would be helping right after they had their memorial service!"

Here's dad and Tony Bernatche "working" so hard. Haha, ok fine, they just finished painting those black things.

And they actually did some manual labour (but only after they realized I was snapping photos! haha)

Annie ironed many many large pieces of fabric while music was playing out of her bum (no, Jason, not THAT kind of music... she had her iPhone playing some tunes in her back pocket!) And me, well I helped Sis. Rand organize all these papers, and then I helped Annie iron... sorta.

Sunday night we made sushi. YUM! Dad the master teaches Annie the art of sushi making. We had a few kinds of fillings... lobster, imitation crab, carrots, avocado, egg, bbq pork.

Yup, they turned out amazing and delicious. And very pretty with the asparagus and carrots dad cooked up. OOOOO. AHHHH.

Because Maine is so primitive and still a little behind on things, we have to use outside toilets.

Uh right, using modern toilets sitting on a driveway. Hahaha. Dad got a new toilet back just before Jason and Heather visited and the old toilet is still waiting to be hauled away. In the meantime, it makes for funny pictures.

Annie left on Monday afternoon but not before she and I saw the movie 'Twilight'. Yeah, we were 2 of 3 people in the theatre. Probably because it was the first showing on a Monday morning. I can't even believe we went and saw it. It was laughable, but I wasn't expecting much so at least I didn't come away totally disappointed.

By the way, this VitaMix machine is incredible. Dad and I had a breakfast drink from it each morning and a few nights, we also enjoyed a delicious smoothie.

I definitely need to get one... well um, if we get more economic stimulus money. Or when I make more than... well more than I make now.

Well, as all good things must come to an end, I did have to leave eventually, although I did tell dad multiple times that I could stay... He still sent me off though.

Up above the clouds I left, back to Utah...

Winnipeg: Exotic and Obscure

Winnipeg was highlighted in The Office this past week and in the Winnipeg newspaper that was talking about how the writers decided which city to choose for where the Dunder Mifflin team were going on their international business trip, they said that they chose Winnipeg because it was exotic and obscure...

They failed to mention how cold it can get...

Anyway, so I just got back from a real trip to Winnipeg where my family was able to gather together to honour and celebrate the life of my mom. It was a pleasant experience full of tears, laughter, reflection, love, hugs, and plenty of bum swatting. We have been very blessed to have my mom in our lives and in her own life she was able to touch the lives of many others everywhere she's been. Heavenly Father has been very kind to our family and has shown His love to our family through our many friends and other family members. Thank you to everyone who has expressed their thoughts, condolences and love, and who have offered many prayers in our behalf. It is greatly appreciated. Clarence posted mom's obituary on his blog so feel free to read about my amazing mother!

Dad, me and Mic

J, me, and Clarence

Andrew and James (who is Clarence's)

Extended family who was able to come

Our family and my grandma.

You may be wondering where Clarence and his family were during all these pictures. Well, before all those pictures were taken, we attempted to take their family picture, but it was apparent that naps were needed all around....

Well at least Clarence and Annie are smiling. Though James looks like he's being tortured, I promise they are great parents! Hahaha.

The family... minus a very pregnant Liew and Andersen (Andrew's family), and Heather who just gave birth the day after mom passed away, Ashlyn, and brand new baby Jaxon (Jason's family).

Thanks again to everyone for your support and love. We love you too!

MY mom (1947-2008)

As all things go with the Tangs, I'm the last for everything and apparently this includes my tribute to my dear mother. She passed away unexpectedly yesterday in Canada while visiting her mom. She was an amazing woman - beautiful, smart, crafty, caring, understanding, an example of Christlike love... she basically knew everything and taught it so well. The list goes on and on and on. You have to know her to know what I'm talking about. She was faithful in all things. I love her and miss her dearly. But I know we will be together again as a family.

Faithful journal keeper


Faithful daughter


Faithful mother (and team player!)


Faithful yearly Christmas sweater wearer (I've decided to steal the sweater and uphold the tradition... if that's ok with dad and you siblings :) )


Faithful wife and temple attender

Faithful grandmother


I have the best mom. Ever.

Please check out Clarence, Michelle, Andrew, and Jason's blogs. They all have beautiful words to say about my mom and pictures that capture her perfectly too.

Happy Halloween!

Ya! RAH has super fun halloween parties and our clients have some of the awesomest costumes!

A few of us staff. An old co-worker lent me her ketchup costume. And here are some of the participants. There were so many more good costumes but I couldn't post them all.

This girl below is one of our volunteers... dressed up as a Canadian...

Happy Halloween!

Old School

So at work we have an incredible food storage. But sometimes you gotta wonder how often we rotate our food.

I found this in the pantry and all i had to say is "what the...?" There isn't an expiration date on the box so who knows how old it is... or if it's safe to eat! Look at the instructions! That's OLD! On the bright side, that coupon has no expiration date! Too bad no bake chocolate mousse pie is ancient and you can't find it in stores... but 15 cents must've been a lot of money to save whenever this was sold...

And then you compare it to what a non-expired box of No Bake products and then you really see a difference.

And then you see that box of Shake n Bake collecting dust in the back corner and you remember the commercial from 1873, "it's shake n bake, and i helped!" I don't have a picture of what a shake n bake box looks like now, but you know its gotta look more up to date than this!

Ok, so in the last couple of weeks, we did clean out the pantry and all the food is now up to date and we will be managing our rotations much better than before. Rest assured that we will not be serving food that should be displayed in a museum. I can't let go of the chocolate mousse pie though because I'm tempted to make it and serve it to someone one day... so for now it is stored in my food cupboard at home.

Tag I'm It

... sorry Jason. I'm actually not into this whole tagging thing. A few people have tagged me over the last year and I never participate, but this picture thing seemed pretty harmless. So Heather, I'm doing your tag which just goes to show how much i looooove you! (For all you others out there who tagged me and I didn't participate... well, you're loved too)

So, I don't have any picture files because I don't own a computer... But this is the 4th picture that is on my camera currently so it's just gonna have to do. This was taken this year in August. It's my very good friend Rebecca Keller at her wedding reception (hopefully you got that from the dress she's wearing...). Becca and I were companions in the MTC! We never got to be companions in the mission but we finally got to be in the same zone our last two transfers! It was most excellent.

For Jason's sake (and because I feel the same way), I refuse to tag anyone else.

Disneyland!

My first time to Disneyland. And I got paid to go. Whoo hoo!

I got this fancy button from one of the store clerks and stuck it to my bag.

We visited Disneyland and...

California Adventure which is right across the way. We only spent one day over here, and 2 1/2 days at Disneyland. It was really pretty fun. Although the price to get in there is RIDICULOUS. But RAH got a great deal which included a 4 day park hopper pass, disney gift cards that we used for food inside the park, and a breakfast buffet with Minnie and

friends (tigger, eeyore, captain hook, the fairy godmother, the white rabbit, rafiki, chip and dale)

Here is Princess Lilly's castle (my niece Lilly in case you non Tang's are confused). It is a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be.

These are all 15 participants that we took on the trip. It was quite the task to keep everyone together fulfill all their Disneyland desires, get all the souvenirs they wanted, and not get them lost. We rode a lot of rides, saw a bunch of 3D shows, did a few interactive things and spent a lot of time here...

Ok so you'd never see a sign that said Washrooms in the states. The picture was taken in Canada. But still, we were taking restroom breaks every 30-40 minutes. With 15 people, someone is always having to go, and sometimes it's the same people going every time! You might say that we spent as much time in the bathrooms as we did in lines for rides. Truly. But the lines weren't bad at this time of the year. I don't think we ever waited more than 40 minutes to get on something.

Mickey Mouse in his Halloween costume.

Mousekateers!

Anyway, most everyone rode all the rollercoasters and other rides, although we did have 2 people who refused to even try most of the rides, even the easy ones. We got them in things like the bumper cars though, and also to the shows.

These bumper cars were the silliest bumper cars ever... they hardly gave you a jolt when you bump into other cars... plus, ants move faster than these cars did.

Everyone who wanted a chance to drive got to drive around the track at Autopia. If I ever see any of them driving a real vehicle on the streets of Provo, I'm staying off the roads!

We watched several 3D shows but the one at A Bug's Life had the funniest glasses. They do a great job making you feel like you're a part of these shows with smells and things jumping out at you and poking you on your seats and wind blowing at you. I had to convince of few of our guys that what they felt poking them or sprayed at them wasn't real!

This is the Finding Nemo submarine ride. It was pretty cool. My favorite rides included Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Soarin over California, and Big Thunder Mountain Train. We actually covered pretty much everything cool in both parks.

Inside California Adventure.

There was this area where they had the streams of water jumping from hole to hole and Cheryl (my boss) told the participants that she would give a prize to anyone who could catch a stream and bring it to her. Oh boy. That was hilarious to watch.

This is the result. They tried catching it in their hands, their shirts, their hats, and one even got a face full of water. It was so funny. Unfortunately, no one got a prize.

On Friday night, it got SO crowded at the park. But we fought the crowds to watch the nightly fireworks show at the magic kingdom. It was much cooler than I expected.

I was told I must get a churro at Disneyland. Well I never got an opportunity until after the fireworks as we were leaving the park for the last time. I saw a churro stand that had no line and stopped the group so I could get my $3 churro. Totally delicious. Totally not worth 3 bucks. But hey, it's part of the Disneyland experience.

Along with my first Disneyland experience, I saw my first ever speed limit sign just outside of a hotel not in an increment of 5...