Decorating the tree

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our tree and decorated the house for Christmas. The kids were so excited to get out their ornaments.... it was like seeing favorite friends. Of course, you can't decorate the tree without Christmas cookies so Tori and I made a batch of sugar cookies. Josh was still recovering from his cold, but he perked up enough to help.

My little cookie helper

Josh digging in his box of ornaments. You can tell by looking at him that he is still not feeling 100%

Getting the tree ready

Tori finding just the right spot. Notice all of the ornaments at the bottom.

Layers and layers

很多衣服! (hen dou yifu - so many clothes)

This is just the normal amount of clothes that Tori wears every day. Her school does not have heaters (and this is really normal) so each morning we pile on the clothes. On any given day she wears: 3 shirts with a sweater or fleece on top, and then tights, 2 pairs of pants and 2 pairs of socks. Now that it has gotten colder (usually just above freezing), she keeps her coat on in the school. My very own "Christmas story kid". I often feel like the mom in that movie as it takes 10-15 minutes to get her dressed each morning. :-D

The Wedding car

A wedding is a big deal. Each culture has unique traditions that surround this important day. While there is much that I am still learning about weddings and the Chinese traditions that go along with them, there are a few modern traditions that are common. When people get married in China, they often rent cars to transport the bridal party to various places on the wedding day. The cars are decorated with flowers and ribbons. The car containing the bride also usually has extra flowers on the hood. We have nothing on the Chinese when it comes to decorating cars -- they do it right! But the thing that humors us is that in the wedding entourage is a car that proceeds the whole assembly and video tapes the whole process. This car is usually one with a sunroof (or a convertible, though the sunroof is more commonly seen) and the person doing the video is standing up and sticking out the sunroof. And yes, they even do this on the highway. Can you see the man in the first car who is the video guy? (He is a little hard to see because of the trees in the background).

感冒了!

(Gan mao le!) Caught a cold!

This has been a week of sniffles and coughing. Josh stayed home from school last Thursday (yes, Thanksgiving) complaining that his head hurt. By the afternoon, he had a fever and was coughing. By Saturday he seemed to be doing better.... just in time for Tori to start feeling icky. A couple days passed and I am not feeling so great. Becca has a cough but I wonder if she will be next. Andy is traveling so he is missing out on all the virus fun. At least you can say this, we are a family who shares well.

Ironically enough, one of the lessons we are covering this week in class is "I have a cold". I can now write all kind of random characters like: snot (actually my book calls it nasal mucus) 鼻涕, cough 咳嗽, and headache 头疼. I must confess these are HARD characters!

Hopefully, next week will bring better health....