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. . .