Tsai Family of the Parklands

Happy Holidays from the Tsai family, 2016! Dear family and friends, Wow! Another year has passed. We began with a surprise blizzard in January which granted us a week reprieve from work and school. Our trips included Harpers Ferry, Virginia Beach, and Utah. May was filled with concerts, recitals, and graduations. In July, we were delighted by the visits of our friends the Gerber-Kai's and the Pascual's. Megan started her first year in an extracurricular activity, which kept us plenty busy. Our oldest moved to a new house. And we even had an engagement in the family. For more details, read below. We hope you had a great year as well. Here are our individual reports of this year. This fall, I was given the long awaited opportunity to teach a new class, Thermodynamics. Although I had been making the request for a new for many years now, it came as a surprise. As a result, I have been very busy, spending many hours in developing new homework

Signing up for color guard also meant attending the marching band competitions, taking up most of the day on Saturday.  Sometimes, it was from 7am to 5pm.  At other times, it was from 3pm to 11pm.  The venues for the competitions were as follows: September 24 - Herndon High School, Virginia October 1 - Navy-Marine Memorial Stadium, Annapolis October 8 - Paint Branch High School October 15 - Reservoir High School October 29 - Towson University November 5 - University of Maryland Megan attended every competition and loved it through and through. As parents, we volunteered to be "roadies" or helpers with setting up the equipment and instruments. We helped at the home football games as well, setting up for the pre-game and half time shows and then taking down the equipment. At the competitions, we helped with loading a rented truck, unloading at the competition, loading to go home, and unloading back at the high school. It was moving 4 times in one day. Li-Fang also

As part of the color guard, Megan was required to perform at the pre-game and half time shows for Quince Orchard High School home football games on certain Fridays.  For each game day on Friday, they stayed after school to prepare, eat a little dinner, rehearse, and perform the pre-game and half time shows.  Their home football schedule was as follows: September 2 - Damascus September 16 - Wooton September 23 - Clarksburg October 7 - Churchill October 21 - BCC November 4 - Paint Branch Since the QO football record was 9-1, they advanced to the playoffs, playing at home against Blair on November 11, against Richard Montgomery on November 18, and against Annapolis on November 25.  QO won all the 3 games, so they advanced to the Maryland State Finals at the Navy-Marine Memorial Stadium in Annapolis on December 9.  Megan was sick that week, so she did not attend the last game.  It was very freezing, and QO lost in the finals to Wise High School.  What a season! Enjoy the photos.

On a beautiful summer day in August, we took time out to drive up to downtown Philadelphia to attend the Open House for the newly completed Philadelphia Temple Open House. Leaving the house at 7:30am, we arrived at the Philadelphia Temple garage underneath the temple at around 10:30am.  We started the tour in the stake center across the street.  The tour led us walking through most of the temple and ended in the visitor center next door.  When we finished, we walked up to the roof garden of the temple to view the temple and the surrounding city sites. It is a special place where the Spirit will dwell and the ordinances are performed. I am happy we were able to see this magnificent temple in the middle of the contrasting busy and noisy city.

This year, Megan decided to embark on a journey that has changed her life.  She joined color guard.  This also changed our lives, since we had to adjust our summer vacation in Utah to accommodate for Band Camp.  Beginning August 10, the color guard along with the marching band worked hard in the hot sun to learn the music and routines according to this grueling schedule: Wednesday through Friday 8/10-12 10am-4pm: Guard & Percussion (new and returning members) Monday 8/15 - 8:30 am - 3:30 pm Tuesday 8/16 - 8:30 am - 8:30 pm Wednesday 8/17 - 8:30 am - 3:30 pm Thursday 8/18 - 8:30 am - 8:30 pm Friday 8/19 - 8:30 am - 3:30pm Friday 8/19 - 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm- Band pizza party- Watch DCI Finals Wednesday 8/24 - 2:45 pm - 5:00 pm Wednesday 8/24 - 6:00 pm Freshman Picnic performance Thursday 8/25 - 7:00 am Freshman orientation performance Friday 8/26 - 2:45 pm – 5:00 pm Friday 8/26 0 6:30 pm Parent Preview Show/Ice Cream Social

On a warm summer evening, friends old and young were privileged to gather at the home of the parents of Caleb Wertz, one of our distinguished Montgomery Branch missionaries. In fact, all who came were our esteemed missionaries or members or friends. A total of 47 (in honor of 1847) Branch alumni and friends came to mingle and to have fun. Besides sampling the variety of food, some attendees chose to cool off in the pool, enjoy the nice playground, engage in a friendly game of volleyball, jump on the trampoline, or just relax on the cozy hammock. Caleb manned the grill and also welcomed all of the guests and asked me to offer a blessing on the food. The eating then commenced, and the socialization intensified. Steve and Betty Anderson hosted the Newlywed game with the four newest couples: Caleb & Sara Wertz, Dylan & Amanda Landeen, John & Emily Lim, and Emerald & Kyle Woodward. Steve acted as the eloquent host and explained the rules of the game. Betty was