Potato Clock

For Christmas, my parents had gotten Becca a potato clock. Becca is really into how things work. Using this kit, you can use fruit, vegetables and even soda to make a battery that runs this clock. Andy and the kids put this together (I was studying). But before long, Becca began her own experiments to see how she could alter it and whether or not it would still work. . . "If I put both the copper and zinc into the same potato will it work? What if it is not in the potato? It doesn't work unless I am holding it. Why is that? Is the electricity flowing through me?" Hmm, a future engineer?

Family invasion

This was such a great Christmas. I don't know if I really got into it too much on the blog, but last year Christmas was really hard for me. It was the first time I had not been with family during Christmas in my life. Throughout most of December, I was in a funk. I think that a big reason we went to Hong Kong right after Christmas last year is my incredible husband knew I needed something to look forward to. This year, Andy's brother Dave and his wife Amree came and stayed with us for 10 days (they recently moved to Japan). We didn't really do anything all that special. No traveling around China and we saw just a few sights here in Suzhou. But really there was a lot of games, late nights full of laughter and talking, cooking together, and just showing them bits of our everyday life. It was so wonderful. Then on Christmas Day, we had quite the crowd join us to celebrate. We just enjoyed hanging out together, and for dinner (with Dave and Amree's help) we had 3 big pots of soup. Yes indeed, a wonderful time with (actual) family and family we have adopted here in Suzhou!

Dave modeling the coat he had made at the tailor.

My Christmas gift (not the crazy hat) - a crockpot. I put it to good use making soup later on Christmas.

Mmm, Christmas morning crepes.

Tori working the princess shoes with her pjs

Christmas kiddos -- one of the traditions that we have in our house is that on Christmas day our kids can stay in their pajamas all day long. So, even with a houseful of guests, our kids stayed in their pjs all day. :-)

End of classes

The end of the year kind of snuck up me when I wasn't looking! This has been an amazing year. While the previous year (2008) brought great change and transition in our lives. 2009 was a year of settling in and finding our place. While after any move, there is a time of transition as you make friends, find a church, and figure out your new city. I think that moving to a new country (with a different language) just intensifies that. By the end of the school year last year, I was ready for a change. All of our kids were in school and I just felt at odds. I knew that I could look for a job (teachers, especially ones who speak English, are always desperately needed), but I just didn't feel that was the right path. The thought of going to school and really pursuing learning Mandarin Chinese just kept coming to mind. Now, I have finished my first semester and have time for reflections. While none of the speaking and very few of the vocabulary was new, I was quickly overwhelmed with characters. But about a month into classes, the characters become less just sheer memorization through will, but I began to see the rhyme and reason to (some) of them. It is like I was unlocking this giant puzzle that with each step began to make a little more sense. Someone asked me the other day what my long-term plans were for learning Chinese. Honestly, I don't know. Since we have no plans to move back in the foreseeable future, I think I will be using it. :-) And how I use it beyond our time in China? Who knows? But somehow, I think knowing more of the language that is spoken by 1/5 of the world just might come in handy.

But now that I am done with classes, I am going to finally catch up on some much needed blogging. Has it really been almost a month since talking with you all? Yikes!

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....