Christmas Party

Last night we had our first Christmas party at the Scappoose location of World Champion Taekwondo. Master Eric said that he was a little nervous, but he did a great job. We started with a performance from the demo team. We did hand techniques, kicking combinations, tae guk pal jang, basic breaking, flying side kick, jumping front kick, power breaking, punching and the student creed. It was super-fun.

Next we all went across the hall to the next room for a pot luck dinner. There was a lot of food. It was all really good. Then we returned to the dojang for some games. We started with family limbo, so that if one member of the family fell, then the whole family was out. It was fun. My children cheered me on each round. Then we reversed it, so that instead of trying to scootch under the belts, we tried to jump over them. This quickly became dangerous as children enjoyed diving over the belts and they came very close to falling on top of each other.

The next game was a quiz game. This was my favorite. I got to show off. Some of the questions were:
(1) Where did taekwondo originate? (A) Seoul, South Korea
(2) When did taekwondo first appear at the Olympics? (A) 1988
(3) When did taekwondo become an official olympic sport? (A) 2000
(4) Who is the highest ranked taekwondo athlete in the United States? (A) Steven Lopez
(5) What is the name of the world taekwondo headquarters? (A) kukkiwon
(6) How many campuses does World Champion Taekwondo have in Oregon? (A) Seven
(7) Where are the seven campuses of World Champion Taekwondo? (A) West Union, Saltzman, Murray Hills, Monroe Park, Lake Oswego, Gresham and Scappoose.
(8) Who are the masters at each of the seven campuses of World Champion Taekwondo?
(9) When and where did Master B.C. Kim win each of his five world championships? (A) 1989 Taekwondo World Cup in Cairo; 1989 World Games in Karlsruhe; 1990 World University Games in Santander; 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona; 1993 World Championships in New York.

After the quiz game, we had a talent show. Monique did a cool dance. Chase and John did some self defense techniques. Dominic and Jared did some nun-chuck techniques. Samantha sang a Taylor Swift song with Jason and Jacob as backup dancers, and then a boy whose name I forget read a really cool story that he wrote for a contest. It was about a Halloween bat. The story he wrote won the contest, and the contest organizers turned it into a play.

After the talent show Tristen's mom presented Master Eric with a photo album. Then we bowed to the flag and said our good-byes. It was a great evening.