Our family  photos, as well as  an archive of our  family letters, can always be seen at http://www.terragalleria.com/family

We resumed cross-country and international travel this year, ending a hiatus that dated from the funeral of Tuan's mother in Vietnam in 2015. During spring break, per Minh-Dan's request, we spent a week in New York City.  From a Brooklyn hotel located near a subway station, we visited most of the main attractions in pleasant weather. In May, Tuan returned to China with his friend Herby as interpreter and facilitator on the occasion of the first international exhibition of Treasured Lands in Ningbo. You probably have not heard of that city before, and neither did we. However, Ningbo has an urban population larger than any US city besides New York and Los Angeles. In his first visit to China, Tuan had toured mostly smaller cities, but on this trip, Ningo was by far the smallest of the three cities he visited, and he was impressed with their modernity. He was also struck by the increase of domestic tourists to Chinese historic villages and parks over the past decade and a half.

In July, we traveled to France for the children's first  European vacation. After half a week in an apartment right outside Paris, we went on a sea-to-summit road trip.  We tasted the famous Mere Poularde (40 Euro) omelet in Mont St Michel. In Chamonix, we comfortably surveyed Tuan's old mountain stomping grounds from the Aiguille du Midi cable car that rides high above glaciers in the Mont Blanc Range to the Italian station of Pointe Helbronner. We paid a visit to Tuan's cousins in Rouen as well as his auntie and cousin in Grenoble, but due to the tight schedule, we will have to see friends on another visit. We don't know yet when this will occur, as Vi-Van's interest in the food, museums, and fairytale-like setting of the villages and city centers wasn't shared by Minh-Dan, and after two weeks both got tired of historic buildings and longed for home and Peanut the chihuahua.

In January, Lanchi accompanied her sisters for a quick trip to North Carolina during which they spent time supporting her aunt during her surgery and visiting another aunt and uncle. In March, she went with her cousins for an even more whirlwind trip to the Netherlands to see Tulips blooming at the Keukenhof garden. At the start of the year, Lanchi had yet to see NYC, but by the end of it, she had notched two visits, the second one yet another express trip where she and Fi tagged along with Ti to the city for a Dimash Kudaibergen's concert.

Vi-Van entered 10th grade at the experimental charter school Summit Tahoma that she had been attending, maintaining a straight As record through hard work. Minh-Dan, after graduating from middle school, joined her as a 9th grader, and so far, despite his dislike of the school, is doing better than he was in middle grade - where he considered academic results to be pointless. This greatly eased their commute, since now the two of them can carpool together with Vi-Van's longtime friend Hannah.  The two girls are part of a circle of friends who regularly play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) and often meet at various eateries or tea places. Vi-Van developed a refined taste for bubble tea. Since only a few flavors such as "salted cheese" satisfy her craves, it is fortunate the tea shops are in abundance in San Jose.  While in past years she enjoyed biking with Tuan on the trail, she now views the activity primarily as a means to reach tea shops and explore the city - much to Lanchi's concerns about the safety of her wanderings.  At the beginning of the year, Bi helped her pick a new bicycle, and she chose a vintage French model, a good stylistic match for the Fuji instant film camera that she prefers to her phone. She uses the tiny prints to decorate her room. Other knickknacks include artwork she bought on the internet, potted plants, and a slew other items shopped at Ikea. To harmonize everything, she repainted her room. Besides watching slime and animal videos, she practices Spanish on the Duolingo app.

Tuan used the same app for a little while, trying to soak up a bit of Mandarin before his trip - an eventually futile task - but the most persistent user in the family is Lanchi, who is still sticking to her daily Korean lesson.  Her longtime friend, Felicia, and her sister-in-law-to-be, Ana, both speak the language.  As an experiment, she wants to finish the program on Duolingo and see how much she can understand the Korean drama series that she, her sisters, and mother often watch during the weekly family get-togethers. Like previous years, she still experiences a chronic shortage of inventory for her woodworks despite a slightly reduced show schedule, and the assistance of her brother Y.  Partly because she spends most of Mondays to gather, pack, and ship tiny plants in eye-popping number. She also needs time to care for thousand little seedlings of rare botanicals she raised from seeds.

Minh-Dan still likes to go to the mall and watch action movies as well as browse brand-name fashion items such as fancy sneakers of which he has an encyclopedic knowledge. In addition, this year, he became interested in consumer electronics, learning features of phones and computers.  To provide him much needed motivation for school, as a last resort we bribed him with a conditional $1,000 iPhone XS - no other model would do. Since then, even more so than Vi-Van, he is glued to the screen and when not on the phone, plays Minecraft on the computer, with the ambition to reach a competitive level, even though he constantly rants about the feeble performance of the Mac Mini. Since he is not able to afford an entire gaming computer, he started to research and buy components for various sophisticated manual keyboards that he enjoys assembling.

In June, both children returned to the White Stag leadership camp. Vi-Van decided to continue the program as a staff member but did not return to the more leisurely Wastahi Camp in July. Minh-Dan was looking forward to its fun atmosphere but unfortunately caught pink eye during his last days in France. Vi-Van and Tuan got infected later, which pretty much compromised the rest of the summer. Just shortly after Tuan recovered, at the end of August, he was rear-ended on the freeway, putting him out of commission for another month. The previous year, Lanchi's Subaru Forester died in Colorado and we had inherited Bi's Subaru Impreza, but it was destroyed in the accident after less than a year of use. We eventually got in with the times by replacing it with the more environment-friendly plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius Prime. Tuan drove it off-pavement in Utah with no issues, and we appreciate having to fill the tank only once a month when at home. Although Tuan's photography year was bookended by visits to the new Indiana Dunes National Park (with a stop to see a high school friend in Chicago) and White Sands National park, he shifted most of his focus to recent national monuments. See a summary of his year of travel  at https://qtl.us/37v9day

We wish  you and all your  loved ones a  lunar year 2020 (of  the rat) full of happiness,  health, prosperity, and success, and  hope to hear some news from you.

Tuan, Lanchi, Vi-Van, Minh-Dan, Peanut 
3373 Meadowlands Lane, San Jose CA 95135 (+1) 408-706-0894