Sign of the times...

Gwen (and by default, I) just finished her "Holiday Traditions Report".  A report in which she could choose to tell about a family tradition or one from a specific country.  Gwen chose the Korean New Year celebration, as it has finally sunk in that she's half Korean. ;)

Now, what was really interesting was how the project was completed.  When it was time for Gwen to research this part of her "heritage", I got her onto Wikipedia, so they could give her their best representation of the country and how they hailed their biggest annual celebration.

After she wrote down her "favorite facts" from her research, we then looked on youtube to find out how they actually pronounce "sae hae bok mani badeseayo" ("Happy New Year"; the children say this to the elders and in return get moolah-which I'm pretty sure is the real reason why Gwen chose this tradition over let's say, our family decorating our tree and watching Elf the weekend after Thanksgiving ;) and what a "deep bow" actually looked like.  It was actually pretty crazy to be able to watch and listen to someone say the phrase, pause it and then try to repeat it ourselves until we could actually say the phrase.  We then did the same thing w/ how to properly bow as a Korean.

As we were doing our research, I told Gwen how different it was for me to do research when I was a kid.  How we used things called "encyclopedias" ("like Wikipedia, but just in the form of a series of books"), but that we couldn't just look things up on videos to find out how to say or do certain things, we would just have to try to read about it and do our best to figure it out on our own.

She looked at me, with real empathy (and a little disbelief as I think I just gained about 50 years in her eyes) and said, "Woah.  That's really sad".

Sad?  To me, not really, although it would have made school sooo much easier (and probably a little more fun).  But more like crazy, as I realized exactly how much our children's world has advanced.

But, I for one, am thankful for that "progress".

As thanks to technology (and Carpatina dolls ;),

we now have a hanbok and shoes (traditional Korean garb) for Gwen's oral report.

And I was able to look up the ingredients for caprese salad (while at the grocery store)

and order our fav white elephant gift of all time...

at the push of a button.

Merry Christmas to me! ;)