Organized Chaos

Karahalis Christmas 2011

We spent another Christmas stationed far from home.  Colorado was snowy and white, which delighted the kids.  We haven't had many white Christmases.  This year Christmas was filled with lots of Legos and DS games. 

It was also filled with lots and lots of baking.  I made cookies for the 3SOPS airmen living in the dorms, cookies for the Crews working 24 Ops, and cookies for folks in the neighborhood.  Greg made homemade pizza for the 3SOPS crews working on Christmas Eve and he took ham and sandwich fixings for the crews working with him on Christmas day.

Here are some pictures of the from Christmas eve and Christmas day:

I hope your Christmas was delightful!

The Black Belt Ceremony

Today was the official Black Belt ceremony where the girls received their World Tae Kwon Do Federation belts.  The section in Korean states that the belts came from Master Chulho Kim.

The girls' names are so long that we wondered if their entire name would be on each belt.  Much to their delight the girls whole names are there!

Master Kim put on each belt and then congratulated each student.

Thanking and honoring your parents is part of the Korean tradition.  The girls performed a bow to the ground to each parent.  It was quite touching to be honored this way.

Many new belts were also awarded tonight.  Sam and I did not test tonight.  We should be ready by next month to test for red belt, which is the last belt before Jr Black Belt.

Grandma sent beautiful roses to congratulate the girls on their amazing accomplishment.  The girls were thrilled to each get their own bouquet.

Here are my brand new Black Belts!  Greg and I are so proud of them!

The Black Belt Test

On Saturday, December 10th Georgie and Thea, after almost 4 years of training, took their Black Belt test.  It consisted of writing 10 essays, fasting for three days, carrying and protecting an egg for 10 days, push ups, sit ups, jump roping, 11 Taeguek forms, 10 one step sparring combinations, 3 rounds of sparring, two board breaks (one hand and one foot technique), and 30 minutes of mediation.  There were only 8 others testing that day, 6 for their 1st Dan and 2 for their 2nd Dan. 

Thea said that I would make her nervous if I stayed and watched, so I left for the 3 hours of the test.  When I returned after several hours the test was still going on.  I quietly took a few pictures, while trying to stay out of sight.

Here are the girls doing their last test, the 30 minutes of meditation:

 

Here is a picture from Greg's phone of the girls as no belts on their very first day at Capitol Martial Arts in Virginia.  This was almost 4 years ago:

And here are the newest Black Belts at Iron Horse Tae Kwon Do Academy in  Colorado Springs!

Congratulations girls!  I am so proud of all your hard work!