Dave's walking again!

On January 27th, Dave's birthday, Dave was looking at something in our little hallway and I joined him, and we were talking. Then he said, "hey, you didn't notice that I don't have my crutch--I walked over here!" His first crutchless steps! What an exciting birthday present. Since then he has been taking it slow and incorporating walking little by little, but around the apartment now he never uses his crutch. We went to the doctor yesterday (crutchless) and they said that he needs to wait another month for running, jumping, etc, so Ping Pong will have to wait a little longer, but we are just really thankful and thankful for all that we learned through this process. So far we have been out three times, again, crutchless. The first was the day after Dave's birthday (originally planned for his birthday, but it was raining, so that's a little risky)- a book store. A big, beautiful East Asian book store. Fillled with books. We really had fun exploring and buying some kid's books and movies that are American but have East Asian dubbing. Enchanted and Shrek are just as good in another language! It's great listening practice, so over our break we've really been enjoying doing that. Our other two trips were both to the Hot Pot restaurant across the street. Hot Pot is a table with a big...hot...pot (specifically, a pot of boiling hot water) that you put veggies and meats into and then the hot water cooks them and you take them out and dip in yummy (ps: East Asia has no word for yummy, I asked) sauce and then eat! This has become quite a favorite this week... It is very popular in East Asia because it is very communal, and very warm.
Oh, I mentioned our break! In case you don't know, we're on a month long break from class for the Spring Festival/New Year. All the students go back to their hometowns and every thing is a bustling excitement around town. We will keep you posted about the New Year, New Year's Eve is February 13th and we have the honor of going to our tutor's house to celebrate with her family, so we will definitely have a lot to share! We've heard that for a week or so there are none stop fireworks and firecrackers (and I mean non stop-- 8 am. 2 am. 4 pm. All the time). But very safe fireworks, of course, for our moms who might be reading :)
Let's see...any other updates...recently got a chicken and egg delivery man... so we have been pretty excited about that. The price is comparable but he brings it right to us! We also found a milk delivery woman! And since there aren't cars and we don't have an elevator, every little bit helps on grocery store day. We'll keep you updated, things are pretty calm around here these days, appendix recovering, Christmas tree down but Christmas tree LIGHTS still up :), enjoying Him, enjoying studying. Thanks for your love!