Christmas photo recap & looking to the new year

We had such a wonderful Christmas. So wonderful that I didn't have time to blog. Andy's brother, Dave, his wife Amree and our adorable nephew joined us for Christmas. This is our 4th Christmas in China and it has gotten easier being away from family. Meaning that I don't spend half the day in tears. But saying that it gets easier does not mean easy. I love my family and love spending time with them. But Andy gets no time off for Christmas. And let's not talk about how expensive it is for all 5 of us to fly back to the US. So having family come to us is such a blessing. Dave and Amree live in Japan and also were not planning to make the long trip back to the US. You can tell from the pictures, we had a great time.

The 6 days they were here went by way too fast!

John is enjoying a bowl of our ayi's noodles.

The first bowl she cut them up.

But then we realized that he enjoyed eating them long. Can he be any cuter?

Christmas morning. Or maybe afternoon. Hard to tell since we have the tradition of staying in our pajamas all day long.

[Technically, this was Christmas eve day. We celebrated a day earlier and invited people to join us on Christmas day after church].

While I love having people in our house, Christmas (or when we celebrate it) is a time for just our family. We stayed in pj's, snacked the day away, and opened presents.

Our kids were the first grandchildren on each side so cousins are a relatively new thing for them. But one that they greatly enjoy.

This pretty much sums up Christmas morning. Our kids opening presents with John in the background reeking a little havoc. Here is he is taking the batteries out of the remote.

But he is just so cute.

And we loved every minute with him.

 Josh is a reader. A voracious reader. And books are so hard to find here. Well, at least ones in English.

So after much debate, we got him a Kindle touch. At first he didn't know what it was. This is when realization dawned.

(pardon my scarf that does not quite match. Becca made this for me for Christmas in my fave of all colours. . . BROWN)

This has become a common sight.

On Christmas Day (the actual one) we invited friends and I made soup. Andy referred to me as the soup diva.

Soup, games and friends. A great combo.

Holiday B. She is growing up and looking more mature with each picture we take.

Josh was thrilled to have a BOY around the house. In his words: there are too many girls in this house.

And I sit here writing on New Year's eve. The kids are playing (mostly) happily upstairs. And in a few hours, yet again friends will arrive to usher the new year in with us.

Does the new year make you contemplative? 

I was on the elliptical. Because I generally do a lot of thinking when I exercise -- maybe because it is the one time of my day when I am alone? And I was thinking of all that change that is looming on the horizon for our family. We will go from a family of 5 to 6. Our kids will have some big changes in their school situations. Friends are moving away. New friends will arrive. But in the midst of this some things will be constant. We will still be here in China. Living each day to honour and glorify God. And life will be good.

I wish each of you a joyous new year! Though we get to start it first. ;-)

sunday snapshot: {the leg of lamb}

As I mentioned in the last post, we received lamb as a gift when some people from Andy's office came to our house to eat a holiday meal.

Ok, technically we received 2 huge lamb legs.

Before going any further, I feel I should give a disclaimer. If you are squeamish and don't like the sight of raw meat, this may not be the post for you. Consider yourself warned.

Mr. Dai (pronounced dye) gave us the lamb. Fittingly enough he is the purchasing manager. I think Andy looks a little stunned. Or maybe perplexed. I know I was shocked and not just a little daunted to cook this.

He gave them to us in just a regular bag. I kept thinking, how in the world am I going to cook this?

Before storing them in the fridge, Andy wanted a picture of me with the lamb. I think probably because I was making a big deal about not wanting to touch them. Don't I just look thrilled? And I told you, the legs are huge!

Pondering how to get it to fit. My face says it all.

But I was determined. And victorious in the end. I was not to be bested by the lamb.

Huge. They are huge. Yet again thinking, how am I going to cook this?

But here is confession time. I didn't cut it up. While I routinely cut up whole chickens (head, feet, and all), this was a bit beyond me. So I called in the reinforcements (my ayi, yet another reason I am thankful for Xiao Lu).

 Though she had never cut lamp before either so it was a bit of the blind leading the blind.

This a serious amount of meat. We divided the meat -- by that of course I am meaning Xiao Lu cut it up, and I put it in the bags. She cut the leg down to about what you might buy in the States so that it would actually fit in the oven. I had pushed and prodded to get it in the fridge, somehow I didn't think that was going to work so well in the oven.

One of the legs marinating. Still a little nervous because I had never cooked lamb like this before. But being me, even though it was a new recipe and I was nervous, I invited some friends over to eat it with us.

And the verdict?

It was SO good. I have the other in the freezer for Christmas eve.

Hope that you have a wonderful Christmas week!

Click for more Sunday snapshots

Week in review

I sat down today to post about a crazy experience, but as I uploaded pictures from the camera I realized that this has been quite a busy week. Which is not too surprising since we are almost to Christmas, but I had actually forgotten all that we had done!

Last Saturday some of the women in our neighborhood worked together to organize a Christmas party. We each contributed food, someone made hot mulled wine, and we had activities for the children. This is just one of the reasons that we truly enjoy our neighborhood. We are more than neighbors.

I was teaching how to make angels out of the paper doilies. The Taiwanese moms are such a sweet group of ladies and are so patient as I communicate with them in Chinese. (Because let's face it, their English is better than my Chinese will ever be. But they are so encouraging as I talk with them in Chinese.)

Such concentration. Angel making is serious stuff.

My artsy little one was in her element as she crafted the afternoon away with friends.

Of all my children, it is Josh that most enjoys baking with me. He had made a Christmas acrostic at school of what Christmas means to him and for M he chose: making cookies.

While my girls like to make cookies with me, they will start out. But after a batch or two they disappear. But my buddy will steadily work along. These are some of his favourites to make. I love holiday traditions like these. Because no matter where we are, we will always make these several kinds of Christmas cookies. 

This is what says Christmas to our children. Cookies and being in the kitchen with me.

I love how these traditions mean something to them and it is not a place that give them a sense of Christmas, but the time together and those special things we do every year.

 As we have given most of these cookies away (or eaten them), we will be baking more this week.

Tori's ride to school. As the weather has gotten colder this is not my favourite thing. I come home and my hands are freezing. One day I was so cold that I sat in the house with my coat on for almost an hour after I got home. Just imagine if this was your family's main method of transportation. [which for many Chinese is the case]

Thursday we invited all the managers from Andy's office to enjoy a Christmas dinner with us. I made yet another turkey (my final one until next Thanksgiving). When I asked them what was their favourite food that we ate, they were divided between two things: the turkey and the mashed potatoes.

As I was putting some food away, one of the ladies saw that I had a marble in one of the fridge drawers. She wondered why it was there. I tried explaining that we had a marble run that was normally on our fridge. She gave me a blank look not understanding what I was talking about. Then I showed them the Fridgits that we put away to make room for our advent calendar. Since many of them are engineers, they couldn't resist seeing how it worked. I love that there are no children in this picture, just the adults playing.

All of the managers. We had a fun evening introducing them to some of our Christmas traditions.

Part of Chinese culture is hospitality. Much like in the States, when visiting someone's house it is customary to give a gift. We got a box of chocolates, some sausages, and . . .

2 entire lamb legs.

I kid you not.

I think this one deserves a post of its own. More to come. . .

traffic

This is our 4th year in China and I must state that very few things surprise me any more on the road. Whole slaughtered pig being carted on an e-bike? Yes, I've seen it. A refrigerator on a bicycle? Yup, seen it. 6-foot ladder on an e-bike? Seen it. A roller (you know the machine that is used for smoothing out new roads) just driving down the street. Seen it. And these are not isolated occurrences. We see unique things daily. So not much shocks us. But a few weeks ago, we started seeing these buses about the city.

Wow. I wouldn't say they shocked us, but don't they look freaky? At a standstill they are not too bad, but while moving it gives the bus a slight demon-possessed look. Seriously freaky. And I am not even sure what they are advertising.

Then on the way home we experienced some crazy traffic. We dropped friends off at their house. They live right next to the Darenfa (a HUGE grocery store -- think a super Wal-Mart with about a thousand people inside. And this would be one of those times where I am NOT exaggerating). We like to call this store the Fa. And Fa traffic? On a weekend? Is crazy and best avoided. This was the sight out the front window:

This should be 2 lanes of cars going in the same direction we are. In front of the yellow car, do you see the car facing it? Yes, that would be a car on the wrong side of the road. There were about 10 cars trying to turn left into the Fa and all of them were just blocking traffic. Head-on into our lane of traffic. We sat through several light cycles. In fact, can you see the green light just ahead?

Like I said, this is 2 lanes of traffic. Plus a lane that is going to turn left just ahead. Do you see all the cars angling in, trying to turn into the Fa?

To get out of this mess, Andy had to pass the blue taxi on the right (in the first picture) and drive in the bike lane. All the while he is dodging bikes, e-bikes and pedestrians.

Let me count the reasons of exactly why I don't drive in China. . .

at home with the littlest

Monday Tori came home from school not feeling well. That night all she wanted to do was lay down or snuggle with me. I knew that little T was not herself so when she woke up Tuesday morning with a fever I was not surprised. After the others left for school, she settled in on the couch for a movie and was asleep before it was over. She woke up later telling me that her brain hurt (Tori lingo for a headache). Naps, books, and movies was the course for our day.

While I was disappointed to miss out on some of the plans I had for the day, I must confess that I was glad to be forced to stay at home. For when T napped, I tackled paperwork. I finally figured out the best course of action for the silly money order. Will mail it to a friend stateside who will include a money order and then mail it to the county office. That is a lot of work for $2! I also finished our Christmas letters. And gathered the rest of the documents that need to be notarized when we go to Shanghai on Friday. Though it seems like a slow start, I feel like we are gaining momentum in tackling all of this.

In other news, the countdown is on until the end of school. The kids have their last day next Friday, 16 December. They will be off for 2 weeks, back to school for 2 weeks and then Chinese New Year begins. The next month+ is going to be a whirlwind.

paperwork hurdles

And the great paperwork chase is on. But at this point, those papers are seeming elusive.

I know that for anyone who goes through the adoption process gathering the papers is overwhelming and at times frustrating. But doing it from another country is just adding a new dimension to it.

The papers we can request online are not a big deal. But unfortunately, there are few of those. But the first hurdle is. . . any guesses?

Notarization.

Ugh. Okay, let's be fair. It is possible to get things notarized in China. BUT it means making a trek to Shanghai. What in the States would be a 5 minute trip to any post office, bank, . . . (and the list goes on), is going to be a 2+ hour drive each way. Just to get the forms notarized. So I am currently gathering everything that could possibly need notarization for a trip in to the consulate this Saturday.

But as I was filling out a form today, I came across this: We cannot accept personal checks, please send a money order or cashier's check for $2. Umm. Money order? Cashier's check? From China? Somehow I don't even think that the consulate will be able to help me with this one. I am seriously tempted to send this in with the form:

Thoughts?

feeling crafty

I don't often get to be crafty in China. While I really enjoy making and creating things, there is just not the availability of resources. No Hobby Lobby or Michael's just down the street. I think that is why I have taken up crocheting. Gives me a way to be creative and crafty.

But this week, I was thinking about making a new advent calendar. As I searched online I found this site with these really fun magnetic boxes that make a calendar on the refrigerator. I was then determined to find something that could be used in place of these boxes. I searched in the little local neighborhood shops and looked at Tesco to no avail. I then got the great idea to check on 淘宝 (www.taobao.com). It is kind of like the eBay of China. Great deals from various sellers all over China. Though I am sorry to say you can't check it, because it is not accessible unless you are in the mainland. Upon looking, I found the exact box that I was looking for. The only downside is that it is all Chinese. While I can understand most of I need, I am unable to order. One of the women at Andy's office orders it for me and amazingly it was delivered the next day.

I started with the metal boxes.

And then made circles that fit inside the bottom of each one numbered from 1 to 25.

 And then joy-of-joys, I got to use tacky glue. Adhere a magnet to the lid. Fill the inside with a goodie for each day.

Voila a fun and unique advent calendar.

Ours is currently residing on our fridge.

At first I was unsure if I wanted the kids to have a sweet or special treat each day. We really try to limit the sweets they eat. But I read something that stuck with me about how advent is about counting down and anticipating. The kids look forward and anticipate that small special yummy each day in the box. Just like we each need to eagerly await the coming of Christmas. Eagerly look forward to our Saviour's birth.

Christmas carols

The kids have been loving singing/listening/groovin' to Christmas carols. Josh and Tori listen to music every night as they go to sleep. Since the day after Thanksgiving, the carols have been rocking in their room. Downstairs on the family iPod, the kids have been lobbying for Christmas music since mid-November. I must confess that since it is some of my favorite music I let them play it when Andy is not home. He is the one with the strict not-until-after-Thanksgiving-rule. And yes, he knows that I flagrantly break this rule and he loves me regardless.

Anyway, little T has been walking around singing some of her favorites. Because the lyrics are not always words that are commonly used, she sometimes gets it a little garbled. I would love to let her keep singing the garbled-ness for the sheer cuteness factor. However, Becca and Josh insist on doing it right. [sigh]

 The best rendition I have heard so far is from Angels We Have Heard on High:

Angels we have heard on high,

Sweetly singing all over the place,

And the mountain does reply

Echo in the door with string.

Then she bursts into the best: Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria

I am sure you can imagine it. It is indeed glorious.

And just in case you don't know the actual lyrics, they are:

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.

I rather enjoy her version. Doesn't it make sense that angels would sweetly sing all over the place? And the mountains replying and echoing in the door with string? Oh, she just tickles me. 

sunday snapshot: {my boy}

My girls are loud and rambunctious. Definite talkers. And sometimes in the midst of them, my boy can be overlooked. He is quieter. Slower to put his feelings into words. But he is my deep thinker and deep feeler.

As we are moving forward in the adoption, the girls are excited. But Josh has some reservations and worries. This is who he is. He thinks and thinks about things. Worries about them. Thinks about them from another angle. Possibly worries some more. He was the same way when we moved to China. Not excited and unsure of this big move. But once we were settled and some of his fears were addressed, he realized that he really likes it here. Now he would tell you that he likes BOTH China and America. Both are his homes. But in any big change, he needs time to sort it all out. When I asked him what he was worried about with a new child, he shared some of them with me. And some were what you would expect:

"I am worried that the baby will get into my legos."

I reassured him that it was understandable and that we will keep the door closed to the room with the Legos. But his next fear got me.

"I am worried that other people will see that the baby is different from us and laugh."

Oh, my sensitive, sweet boy. His heart is so big. And you know, I can't promise that this won't happen. Just to make sure he was not worried about our love for him or his place in the family, I asked him if he was worried that we would love him less. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said emphatically, "NO." Oh, okay just checking.

He recently lost another of his teeth. He lost his front two while we were back in the States this past summer. This time he lost the one right next to it. Since none of the others have started to come in, he has this adorable hole in the middle front area of his mouth. In fact he can stick his tongue out with his teeth clamped together! But he is a little self-conscious about it. I wanted to get some pictures of it and he was determined not to smile with his mouth open.

Mouth firmly closed.

But he was giggling and fighting opening his mouth.

And the battle got harder. . .

Until he couldn't stand it and his grin broke free.

I love this crazy boy of mine. He has grown so much in the last couple of years.

And as he continues to process through the adoption, I know more worries will come up. And while I can't promise that "everything will be ok." Because how can anyone promise that? I can promise him that we will love him more each day and another baby won't take away from that. I can also promise him that we will hear everyone of his concerns and will do what we can to work through them with him.

Because I just can't describe how much this little man means to me.

Click to see others' snapshots.