Chin Family Skating Day

As an annual tradition, the Chin Family gets together to go ice skating.  Traditionally, we go to the Kristy Yamaguchi ice rink at the Embarcadero Center.  We started the event many years ago when all the adult cousins were still children.  We would stay at our Auntie Mary's house for a sleep over and then she would take us to dim sum in Chinatown and then walk us to the ice rink where our other aunts and uncles would meet us.  After skating, we would walk to downtown San Francisco for Starbucks and then go to Buca Di Beppo for dinner.  As the years have passed and not all of the cousins have two week Christmas breaks anymore, it has gotten much more difficult for us to get together to do our annual ice skating day. This year we just didn't have time before Christmas to plan a skating day.  My Mom decided that we needed to keep the tradition alive for the little kids and offered for everyone to come out Walnut Creek to go to the rink there.

Nick and I walked to the rink with Emmy to watch all of the kids skate, but didn't stay long as we had to go pick up pizzas from Costco.  I'm very pleased with how well Emmy did with all of the excited children in our house and her cousin doggy, Sparky.  Sparky is a much younger dog and loves to play.  Emmy doesn't know how to play like a normal dog.  I'm pretty sure if she could stand on two paws and walk like a human, she would.  After a while, she finally started to chase him, which was about the extent of her playing.  I think she has even caught on that she's not allowed to herd the children as they run around.  She hides under the tables and watches them run around now and generally stays out of their way.  They have gotten to the size where she sees them as adults as long as they don't jump up and down too much.  I attribute her associating bigger kids with adults because I'm so short.  Now that all the kids are above eye level to her, she doesn't feel so intimidated.

Once we got back to our apartment Emmy was completely pooped out from
running around avoiding the kids and playing with Sparky.  She was probably
thinking, ahhh quiet.