Christmas shopping {China-style}

I have mentioned how different grocery shopping is so many times that I am sure that you might be a little sick of it. But humor me for the sake of a good story.....

Saturday, Becca and I were out and about accomplishing various tasks -- post office (which was an experience in itself and probably deserves its own post), Christmas shopping, and of course, the grocery store. This week we are hosting all the managers that work at Andy's company for Christmas dinner. I have made turkey the past several years and we wondered if they were getting sick of it. He asked them and one of the managers piped up that he would like something else. But since that meeting, we have heard rumors that everyone except that person wanted turkey. Because that manager was older and respected, no one contradicted him. Andy, being the blunt-American that he is, asked everyone to vote who DID want turkey (to which most people said yes). I had thought that I would get out of making a turkey, but due to popular demand, I will be making turkey AND another meat. Ok, that was a crazy-long-digression about why I was even on the hunt for a turkey! In previous years, I have found the turkey on the other side of the city (home of all the import stores). But Izumiya, my Japanese grocery store that I love has come through for me again. They had 2 turkeys and I bought the larger of the 2. I thought this was the perfect opportunity since B and I had e-biked and I wouldn't have to lug the 15-pound bird the couple blocks home. However, we had done some other shopping which left us having to figure out where to put the bird so it would not fall or slide off the e-bike in the transit. 

Can you guess where it is? I will give you a clue.... it is NOT in either of the bags.

It took Becca and I several tries to get it in. After we did, we danced and around and rejoiced in the bike parking lot. I am sure that others were amused by the crazy foreigners.

To top off the story, our e-bike was just about out of power (which of course, I didn't discover until we were en route). Once before when this happened, I made Becca get off and run beside the bike as we went up a small incline. Another time it completely died and I had to push it home. Thankfully, this time we had enough power to get home. But I did have to Fred-Flintstone it to make it across an intersection in enough time. Then I had to explain to B who Fred Flintstone is and why I was calling it that. 

And this is why even just going to the grocery store can be an adventure.....

traditions

Traditions are important in every family. When you get married, as a couple you start creating this backdrop of what you want your life to look like. The two of you decide what from your own experiences you want to hold onto and preserve and what you are willing to let go. As the years march on, your traditions often grow and change. For us, after we had children it became important to us to be in our own home for Christmas. How this looks each year has been different. When we lived in Indianapolis, it meant that we traveled before or after, but Christmas morning we woke up in our own beds. Now, living half a world away from our families maintaining this tradition is easier, but it still looks a bit different. Since moving to China, we often invite others to spend Christmas afternoon with us. Our children are still in their pajamas, but our home is open. So this is a twist on a tradition that we started in the States. Each Christmas morning, I am never really sure who might drop by. If you ever find yourself in Suzhou (or whatever city we live in), know that I will have made several kinds of soup, we will be playing all kinds of games, and you are always welcome to join us.

As we are approaching our 5th Christmas here in China, I have been thinking about how living here has changed our traditions. And also how it has reinforced others. When we lived in Indy, we would always buy a real tree and we had so many special things that accompanied that. And while there are times when I miss the smell of a real tree, I am so thankful for our IKEA tree. So there is a tradition that we have let go and honestly don't miss.

2008 -- setting up our first fake tree.

But one of my favorite traditions is our children's ornaments. Before Becca was born, I wanted to buy her an ornament each year for her to have on our tree that was especially hers. But I was not alone in this idea. Each of the grandparents also wanted to get ornaments for the children each year. I quickly realized that if we were adding 3 new ornaments each year per child, our tree was going to be quickly overrun! So this is one where I happily bowed out and let the grandparents have their fun. But I still get to be part it because every year as we pull out the decorations, each of the children are practically giddy to open their ornament box. There are so many memories tucked away in these boxes. As they unwrap them, there are cries of: "Do you remember....?" and "I got this one when....". We debated about moving our Christmas stuff all the way here. But I am so glad that we did. Because no matter where we are, for our children these boxes have so many special memories of Christmas. It is not the tree that matters so much, but all the memories that we stash on it.

Josh opening his new ornament this year. 

For me personally, in order for it to feel like Christmas, I need to bake. I will end up baking several times during the month. But not just any baking, I need to bake/make several specific kinds of cookies: sugar cookies (no icing, we are purists here), candy cane cookies, thumbprints, buckeyes, and then I usually experiment with a new kind each year. Thankfully, I am not alone in the kitchen. Josh is my most consistent helper. In the past, I have done a lot of the baking while they were at school. But this year, I am looking forward to having all of my little helpers in the kitchen with me. This is our last week of school and then we are taking the next three weeks off. We will still do a little work, but most of it will be fun stuff that doesn't even really feel like working. I have promised B that we will not open the math book for that entire time. We might do a little writing and I plan to learn more about Swan Lake before we attend the ballet. I also have a few craft projects that we might attempt.

2008 -- making buckeyes

J started the dough for the sugar cookies

And Becca joined in to help cut them out.

What about you? What traditions are important to your family? If you packed your family and moved to another state or even further away, what traditions would you be certain to keep?

homeschool mother's journal: [november.30.2012]

In my life this week. . .

This has been one of those weeks. Andy was traveling. The outlet for the refrigerator broke. The washing machine overflowed. One day they were doing work on the electricity in our neighborhood and so we had no power all day. Wow, that was a lot of things for one week. But honestly, other than the one grumpy day, we had a great week.

In our homeschool this week. . .

Even with all of the disruptions, we have persevered and got a lot accomplished. We finally found a Chinese teacher. He started this week and I think that it is going to work out. He teaches Tori individually for an hour and then Josh and Becca together for an hour. This works out as J and B are more on the same level. T is going to be learning characters and she is quite excited about it. In fact after her teacher left, she asked if she could practice writing. Um.... clearly you know the answer to that question!

Working on homework

Helpful homeschooling tips to share. . .

While I new to this journey, already I am seeing that you really need to let your homeschool adapt to your life, not the other way around. This was a week with all kinds of disruptions and unplanned events, but we let our school flow around those disruptions. No power... no problem.

My favorite thing this week. . .

Our math (Saxon) has money that you can use as teaching aides. Because we live abroad, our children are not as familiar with American money. So that we would be able to use the money multiple times, I cut them out and laminated them (love my laminator!). Since then we have only used the money a couple of times but mostly it has been sitting in a bag in our math manipulative bin. The kids asked if they could use the money because they wanted to set up a store upstairs. Each child has a store set up on the floor beside their desk with tags depicting how much things cost.They have been buying and selling like crazy, all the while using the American money. I love when learning happens and they don't even know it.

What's working/not working for us. . .

History is finally starting to work for us. We are listening to Story of the World and then the older two are compiling a fact sheet on each country that we study. They are adding various things that they each find interesting and that they believe are worth remembering. I am so relieved to find a structure for our history.

I have great hopes for Chinese.  I have a plan to maximize the time and ways for the kids to practice even without the teacher being here. Now the only test is to see those plans to fruition. But this week was a great start.

Places we're going and people we're seeing. . .

Tuesday night we received a note stating that due to some work going on in our neighborhood, we would have no power from 8:30AM- 4:30PM the following day. It has gotten cold enough that while schooling would be possible with no heat, we decided to get out of the house and break the day up. And in the meantime, find someplace a bit warmer. We worked until about 10 and then headed up to Starbucks. The kids and I had talked about which of the work they needed to accomplish that day would be the easiest to cart with them. They all agreed that the math books would be a pain to lug around, so we finished up our math before we left. At Starbucks, we set up camp. T and I wrote a journal entry from the point of view of an everyday object. She chose a spatula. I think that I will never be able to predict what is going to come out that wonderful brain of hers!

We spent the rest of our morning at Starbucks, then ate lunch at a Thai restaurant, and picked a few things at the grocery store. We were all humored because as we did all of this we ran into SO MANY people that we knew. At every stop along the way, there was at least one familiar face. When we got home shortly after 1, our power was still off. But to our surprise, the power was turned back on a little before 2.

Friday our homeschool coop got together for a potluck and some holiday crafting. Thank you, Christine, for opening up your home! While there, B got talking to one of her good friends and they were hoping to spend the night together. This came as a surprise to both me and the other mom, but we rolled with it. While B does not have even a toothbrush, I am sure that she is having a great time with Beth.

I'm cooking. . .

BUCKEYES! Hooray for holiday food! B invited some friends over to teach them to make buckeyes. The girls had never even heard of them, but were excited to learn. There were girls from Australia, the Netherlands, and Denmark. We love sharing some of our traditions. As well as learning the traditions of other countries  -- especially if it involves food!

I'm thankful. . .

For the amazing support system we have here. A friend had a scary situation yesterday and asked us to pray. I sent texts out to all my ladies. Thankfully, the situation was resolved. But all yesterday evening and today, both the friend and I have been receiving texts to make sure she is ok. I think there is something special about the bond that happens among expats. We don't have family here (or even on remotely the same time zone). We each arrive not knowing anyone. We all struggle with the same issues (getting around, shopping, language/cultural stuff, ...). I know that I could not make it here with our friends who support and love us.