Australia and New Zealand
This trip was fantastic! It would be impossible to write everything about it in the blog so I went ahead and wrote our trip memories in a word doc. If you didn't get it and would like it let me know. Just a warning, it's painfully long.
I'll give a readers digest version of the trip here on the blog. We went on this trip during Chinese New Year because Chris and the kids had a week off school and work. We decided to spend one week in Sydney and one week in New Zealand traveling around the north island in a motor home.
Australia was just awesome! We stayed on Manly beach on the Northern side of Sydney Harbor. Our apartment was right on the beach and we enjoyed every minute of it. We got to go into the city several times using a ferry which we all loved. We saw the opera house, the Sydney aquarium, took a cruise around the harbor in a tall ship, and went to Torongo Zoo. At the zoo we got to pet a kangaroo and a baby wallaby and then got to see a koala bear up close. We bought tons of T-shirts and boomerangs and even got a didgery doo. Gabe and Emily both learned how to boogie board there at Manly beach. Everyone was very friendly and we loved hearing the Aussie accent. Although, there in Australia ,WE are the ones with the AMERICAN accent.
New Zealand was quite an adventure. Chris did an awesome job driving the manual shift motor home on the left hand side of the street through extremely hilly and curvy roads. We spent one night north of Auckland in a place called Bay of Islands. There we went on a cruise through the bay and got to see and observe a pod of dolphins. The ocean was a bit rough so we couldn't get in and swim with them as was the plan if the water was calm. Nevertheless, the dolphins were spectacular as was the scenery in the bay. Next we went to Roturua in the central part of the north island. Here we got to see a Mori culture show where Chris got to be the "Chief" of our visiting tribe consisting of our family and a giant Chinese tour group. We also got to see some thermal grounds including a geyser and a boiling mud pool. Next we went to a place called Coromandel Peninsula where they filmed the second Narnia movie. The beach is called Cathedral Cove and it was absolutely the most beautiful place I have ever been. There was no one else there so we had our own private little paradise for a couple of hours. The next day we went to a beach called Hot Water Beach to spend our last day. Under the sand is a natural hot water spring and if you dig down a few inches the hot water comes up through the sand. We had our own little hot tub right there on the beach. The whole experience was amazing.
These are just the highlights of the trip. Obviously there are a lot of details I left out but all in all it was an experience of a lifetime and we feel so blessed and lucky to have been able to go. We would go back in a heart beat!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Time seems to have been put on fast forward. I can't believe it's the end of March. In the past 3 months Chris had a birthday, Gabe celebrated a belated birthday with a "mad scientist" party, China celebrated Chinese New Year, we went on a trip to Australia and New Zealand, Sara got potty trained, we celebrated our 1 year in China March 17th and Emily had her ninth birthday.
It's been a packed 3 months.
We didn't actually spend Chinese New Year in China but all the festivities leading up to it were fun. All the commotion in the weeks prior are a lot like the weeks prior to Christmas in the US. All the stores were bursting at the seams with people getting all their last minute food and celebration items. There was a general feeling of excitement in the air where ever you went. The official celebration color of China is red so everything was decked out in red decorations. One tradition among the more religious people is to put three strips of wide red paper over their doorways. People also put the Character "Fu" on their doors meaning blessings.
If you actually need to go anywhere and buy stuff it is a really frustrating time of year because of all the crowds but if not, it's a really fun and exciting time of year. It is now the year of the Tiger so there are tiger symbols everywhere. Because Shanghai is a very migrant place with people coming here from the rural areas to work, it gets really empty while everyone goes home for the actual Chinese New year holiday. The week before Chinese New Year the freeways out of the city were jam packed. Being with family is a very important tradition. The actual night of Chinese New Year families gather for a big meal of the traditional dumplings called Jiao Zi and then set off an insane amount of fireworks. Then they do the same thing 5 days later as part of another celebration within the existing celebration. It gets a bit wild with lots of booze and millions of people setting off very large fireworks at the same time. Some friends of ours that were were here and live in a big high rise said there were fireworks exploding all night right next to their window 32 floors up. Oooooooo lots of fun!
Another and probably the most important tradition according to children, is the Hong Bao. Instead of presents the children get a red envelope full of money. Over all, this is the most meaningful and exciting time of year for the Chinese people and it was fun to see at least the weeks leading up to it.
Emily and Gabe got to join in all the festivities at school by doing some performances. All the Chinese language classes got to do their own dance at a big assembly in the auditorium. It was a blast to see all the kids doing Chinese dancing or in some cases kung fu. There were performances done by professional dancers too. Emily and Gabe got to make all sorts of New Year crafts and do New Year parties in their classrooms. Gabe's class got to make home made Jiao Zi and eat them in his class room. It was a messy, but great time.
A week before Chinese New Year we did a friends birthday party for Gabe. We figured a bunch of science experiments would keep 11 boys occupied for a couple of hours. We had them all wear ID badges and gave them Lab coats (men's white dress shirts I bought for $3) The cake we made into a volcano with smoke from dry ice coming out. Gabe had been sad about his best friend moving in December and so this party helped lift his spirits a great deal. It was a wild, messy, party but I think we managed to pull it off, despite the house being a disaster afterword.
It's been a packed 3 months.
We didn't actually spend Chinese New Year in China but all the festivities leading up to it were fun. All the commotion in the weeks prior are a lot like the weeks prior to Christmas in the US. All the stores were bursting at the seams with people getting all their last minute food and celebration items. There was a general feeling of excitement in the air where ever you went. The official celebration color of China is red so everything was decked out in red decorations. One tradition among the more religious people is to put three strips of wide red paper over their doorways. People also put the Character "Fu" on their doors meaning blessings.
If you actually need to go anywhere and buy stuff it is a really frustrating time of year because of all the crowds but if not, it's a really fun and exciting time of year. It is now the year of the Tiger so there are tiger symbols everywhere. Because Shanghai is a very migrant place with people coming here from the rural areas to work, it gets really empty while everyone goes home for the actual Chinese New year holiday. The week before Chinese New Year the freeways out of the city were jam packed. Being with family is a very important tradition. The actual night of Chinese New Year families gather for a big meal of the traditional dumplings called Jiao Zi and then set off an insane amount of fireworks. Then they do the same thing 5 days later as part of another celebration within the existing celebration. It gets a bit wild with lots of booze and millions of people setting off very large fireworks at the same time. Some friends of ours that were were here and live in a big high rise said there were fireworks exploding all night right next to their window 32 floors up. Oooooooo lots of fun!
Another and probably the most important tradition according to children, is the Hong Bao. Instead of presents the children get a red envelope full of money. Over all, this is the most meaningful and exciting time of year for the Chinese people and it was fun to see at least the weeks leading up to it.
Emily and Gabe got to join in all the festivities at school by doing some performances. All the Chinese language classes got to do their own dance at a big assembly in the auditorium. It was a blast to see all the kids doing Chinese dancing or in some cases kung fu. There were performances done by professional dancers too. Emily and Gabe got to make all sorts of New Year crafts and do New Year parties in their classrooms. Gabe's class got to make home made Jiao Zi and eat them in his class room. It was a messy, but great time.
A week before Chinese New Year we did a friends birthday party for Gabe. We figured a bunch of science experiments would keep 11 boys occupied for a couple of hours. We had them all wear ID badges and gave them Lab coats (men's white dress shirts I bought for $3) The cake we made into a volcano with smoke from dry ice coming out. Gabe had been sad about his best friend moving in December and so this party helped lift his spirits a great deal. It was a wild, messy, party but I think we managed to pull it off, despite the house being a disaster afterword.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Holidays
we had a lot of fun over the holidays. We spent Christmas here at home. Chris took a couple of weeks off and we had a lot of fun doing things around Shanghai. We went to the aquarium, the science museum, fundazzle playground, superbrand mall, and went ice skating several times.
Christmas Eve we had some friends over for dinner and then all the kids did the Nativity. Christmas morning we found out that Santa even comes to China! We opened presents and then had a huge breakfast. We hung out the rest of the day in our Pajamas playing with the kids toys and just thoroughly enjoying the day. That night we had our traditional candle light dinner. (it's just left overs made special)
The next day we celebrated Gabe's 7th birthday. We went out to lunch and then he opened his presents. That night we went to a Christmas party with several families from our church and Gabe got to have everyone sing to him and then have his birthday cake. I think he really enjoyed getting to open more presents the day after Christmas, but better yet, he was the only one who got to do that.
Anna got a doll from Santa this year. I was trying to help her find a name for her doll by giving her some suggestions like Sally or Susan. When I said the name Susan she perked up and said, Oh! like Susan from Monsters Vs Aliens?" I said, "Yes, do you want to name her Susan?" She paused for a moment and the happily replied, "No..... Derek" (as in Susan's lame boyfriend from the movie) So now we have a baby doll in our house named Derek.
Sara has become quite the Character these days. The other day Gabe was saying family prayer and blessing lots of things. I leaned over and whispered to him to remember to thank also. He stuttered for a moment saying, "We thank thee for.......... we thank thee for.........we thank thee for..... and by this time Sara had had enough. She blurted out loud, "FOR DINNER!" Needless to say we ended the prayer because everyone was laughing so hard and that was that.
Another funny Sara comment was when Chris asked Sara what her favorite thing in the world was. She thought for a second and then confidently said, "ME!"
I asked her a while ago where she lived before coming to live with mommy and daddy and without hesitation she said, "at the hotel."
She has really enjoyed getting into everyone's toys and then claiming them as hers this holiday.
New Years Eve we brought in the new year with a wild game of Connect Four (the 4 player version) After a yummy dinner of home made mini pizzas, we put Sara and Anna to bed and then we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (because Emily recently finished the book) and had popcorn and cranberry slush. Chris and I both fell asleep during the movie but Emily and Gabe were having none of that, so we brought out the games. We played junior scrabble, operation, and then we played our wild game of Connect four until midnight. It was a really fun night for us and the kids. This was the first year we've let both Emily and Gabe stay up until midnight and they were really proud of that.
Gabe had a really sad night last night saying goodbye to his best friend in Shanghai. Gabe and Mac were in the same first grade class and were instant best buddies. We had their family over for dinner last night since they were leaving this morning. When it was time for them to leave last night, Gabe melted into tears and hung on to Mac saying how he wanted to hang on forever.
Gabe had such a hard time finding a really good friend when we first moved here. Gabe felt like Mac was heaven sent when they met in class on the first day of school. Saying goodbye to Mac was like saying goodbye to everything that made him happy here in China. It was heartbreaking to watch him because it was obvious he was in so much pain. He cried the rest of the night even though we did our best to comfort him. Mac is moving to Iowa and the chances of us seeing him again are slim and I think Gabe knows that. We got on Google Earth and looked up where Iowa is and Gabe, almost in desperation said, "Iowa isn't that far from Utah right?" After putting Gabe, still crying, to bed, Chris said how he wishes he could be 7 years old just so he could be Gabe's friend. Chris plays with Gabe a lot but he knows it's not the same as a friend his same age. Friends your same age don't tell you to finish your dinner and yell at you when you tease your sisters.
While Emily and Gabe were getting ready for bed Emily, extending her sympathies, said, "Gabe, I had to leave my best friends too once...........and it was really hard." Her voice was choked with emotion but it wasn't for her. I could tell she hurt for Gabe. It was a tender moment for the two of them.
Gabe is doing a lot better today and is back to begging me to go play tennis with him or get off the computer so he can play a computer game. I think Wed. when he goes back to school it will be another hard day but he'll eventually be fine. He's very tender hearted but he's also really strong so I know he'll be OK.
Hope you all had a a wonderful holiday. We miss you and think of you often.
Christmas Eve we had some friends over for dinner and then all the kids did the Nativity. Christmas morning we found out that Santa even comes to China! We opened presents and then had a huge breakfast. We hung out the rest of the day in our Pajamas playing with the kids toys and just thoroughly enjoying the day. That night we had our traditional candle light dinner. (it's just left overs made special)
The next day we celebrated Gabe's 7th birthday. We went out to lunch and then he opened his presents. That night we went to a Christmas party with several families from our church and Gabe got to have everyone sing to him and then have his birthday cake. I think he really enjoyed getting to open more presents the day after Christmas, but better yet, he was the only one who got to do that.
Anna got a doll from Santa this year. I was trying to help her find a name for her doll by giving her some suggestions like Sally or Susan. When I said the name Susan she perked up and said, Oh! like Susan from Monsters Vs Aliens?" I said, "Yes, do you want to name her Susan?" She paused for a moment and the happily replied, "No..... Derek" (as in Susan's lame boyfriend from the movie) So now we have a baby doll in our house named Derek.
Sara has become quite the Character these days. The other day Gabe was saying family prayer and blessing lots of things. I leaned over and whispered to him to remember to thank also. He stuttered for a moment saying, "We thank thee for.......... we thank thee for.........we thank thee for..... and by this time Sara had had enough. She blurted out loud, "FOR DINNER!" Needless to say we ended the prayer because everyone was laughing so hard and that was that.
Another funny Sara comment was when Chris asked Sara what her favorite thing in the world was. She thought for a second and then confidently said, "ME!"
I asked her a while ago where she lived before coming to live with mommy and daddy and without hesitation she said, "at the hotel."
She has really enjoyed getting into everyone's toys and then claiming them as hers this holiday.
New Years Eve we brought in the new year with a wild game of Connect Four (the 4 player version) After a yummy dinner of home made mini pizzas, we put Sara and Anna to bed and then we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (because Emily recently finished the book) and had popcorn and cranberry slush. Chris and I both fell asleep during the movie but Emily and Gabe were having none of that, so we brought out the games. We played junior scrabble, operation, and then we played our wild game of Connect four until midnight. It was a really fun night for us and the kids. This was the first year we've let both Emily and Gabe stay up until midnight and they were really proud of that.
Gabe had a really sad night last night saying goodbye to his best friend in Shanghai. Gabe and Mac were in the same first grade class and were instant best buddies. We had their family over for dinner last night since they were leaving this morning. When it was time for them to leave last night, Gabe melted into tears and hung on to Mac saying how he wanted to hang on forever.
Gabe had such a hard time finding a really good friend when we first moved here. Gabe felt like Mac was heaven sent when they met in class on the first day of school. Saying goodbye to Mac was like saying goodbye to everything that made him happy here in China. It was heartbreaking to watch him because it was obvious he was in so much pain. He cried the rest of the night even though we did our best to comfort him. Mac is moving to Iowa and the chances of us seeing him again are slim and I think Gabe knows that. We got on Google Earth and looked up where Iowa is and Gabe, almost in desperation said, "Iowa isn't that far from Utah right?" After putting Gabe, still crying, to bed, Chris said how he wishes he could be 7 years old just so he could be Gabe's friend. Chris plays with Gabe a lot but he knows it's not the same as a friend his same age. Friends your same age don't tell you to finish your dinner and yell at you when you tease your sisters.
While Emily and Gabe were getting ready for bed Emily, extending her sympathies, said, "Gabe, I had to leave my best friends too once...........and it was really hard." Her voice was choked with emotion but it wasn't for her. I could tell she hurt for Gabe. It was a tender moment for the two of them.
Gabe is doing a lot better today and is back to begging me to go play tennis with him or get off the computer so he can play a computer game. I think Wed. when he goes back to school it will be another hard day but he'll eventually be fine. He's very tender hearted but he's also really strong so I know he'll be OK.
Hope you all had a a wonderful holiday. We miss you and think of you often.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving bloopers
There were a few funny things that happened around thanksgiving.
First blooper: A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I gave a presentation to Gabe's class all about Thanksgiving. I wrote about it in an earlier post. One thing I didn't mention was my not so PC comment. The kids were getting rowdy so I folded my arms like an Indian and told all the kids to sit down and cross their arms and legs Indian style. It just came out. Apparently, Native Americans took offense at this term and it has been considered politically incorrect for several years. I think the term used now to get kids to sit down cross legged is something like "criss cross applesauce" or something to that effect. I told Chris about my blunder and he said " so I guess criss cross applesauce, please pass the peace pipe, would be out too?" nice. I think the funniest thing about it was, as I was leaving the room, the teacher's aid, who is from the Philippines, yelled out to all the rowdy kids, "come on kids let's all sit Indian style." I looked up and there she was doing her best "Indian style" crossed legs and arms. Great job Ali.
Second blooper: The mother of one of Emily's friends invited our family over on Thanksgiving Thursday evening to have dessert. She knew we weren't celebrating Thanksgiving that day but wanted us to come over for a pre-Thanksgiving desert get together. I was excited to go and offered to bring a Chocolate silk pie. The night of the get together came and we walked over promptly at 7:00.
I walked in and immediately realized I hadn't received the, "wear your little black dress"memo. Everyone was dressed in really nice evening attire. I of course, was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. (the T-shirt had a cute little chocolate stain on it from making the pie earlier in the day) All of the sudden I was also keenly aware that my children were not only severely under dressed, but rather dirty looking. About 2 min before we left, Sara had found a marker and written all over herself. I washed off as much as I could but I had forgotten to wash Anna's face before we left which now had fuzzies stuck to the residue syrup from our pancake dinner. I almost laughed out loud at the scene. Chris was not with us because he was traveling home from a business trip. He ended up making it to the end of the party. He redeemed our family somewhat, looking unshaven but at least nicer dressed. All of my pie got eaten........maybe out of sheer pity. Rest assured next time I get invited to a "get together" I will inquire about the dress code.
Third blooper: We were going to have about 20 people over for Thanksgiving dinner so I bought two turkeys just in case we needed more food. Knowing I wouldn't have enough time to cook two turkeys on that day, I decided to cook one the day before. I timed it just right so I would take the turkey out of the oven before going to pick up the kid's friends who were going to sleep over. They live about an hour away. On our way HOME from picking them up, I realized I had forgotten to take the Turkey out of the oven before we left. I called the Ayi and asked her to take it out of the oven but it was too late. It had already cooked 2 hours longer than it should have. When I got home I opened the foil that was covering the turkey and then tried to carve it. If you've ever seen the movie "Christmas Vacation" you'll be able to picture what happened to the turkey the minute I cut into it. It didn't have the same dramatic split open as in the movie, but it totally fell apart. It was like turkey bones you boil for broth except these turkey bones still had all the meat on them. Once again I had to laugh at myself. Thank heavens it was just a trial run and I still had another turkey for the next day. I figured we could feed the really well done turkey to the kids if we needed to.
So those were my funny Thanksgiving experiences. Next year I'm aiming to watch my mouth, watch my attire, and watch my Turkey!
First blooper: A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I gave a presentation to Gabe's class all about Thanksgiving. I wrote about it in an earlier post. One thing I didn't mention was my not so PC comment. The kids were getting rowdy so I folded my arms like an Indian and told all the kids to sit down and cross their arms and legs Indian style. It just came out. Apparently, Native Americans took offense at this term and it has been considered politically incorrect for several years. I think the term used now to get kids to sit down cross legged is something like "criss cross applesauce" or something to that effect. I told Chris about my blunder and he said " so I guess criss cross applesauce, please pass the peace pipe, would be out too?" nice. I think the funniest thing about it was, as I was leaving the room, the teacher's aid, who is from the Philippines, yelled out to all the rowdy kids, "come on kids let's all sit Indian style." I looked up and there she was doing her best "Indian style" crossed legs and arms. Great job Ali.
Second blooper: The mother of one of Emily's friends invited our family over on Thanksgiving Thursday evening to have dessert. She knew we weren't celebrating Thanksgiving that day but wanted us to come over for a pre-Thanksgiving desert get together. I was excited to go and offered to bring a Chocolate silk pie. The night of the get together came and we walked over promptly at 7:00.
I walked in and immediately realized I hadn't received the, "wear your little black dress"memo. Everyone was dressed in really nice evening attire. I of course, was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. (the T-shirt had a cute little chocolate stain on it from making the pie earlier in the day) All of the sudden I was also keenly aware that my children were not only severely under dressed, but rather dirty looking. About 2 min before we left, Sara had found a marker and written all over herself. I washed off as much as I could but I had forgotten to wash Anna's face before we left which now had fuzzies stuck to the residue syrup from our pancake dinner. I almost laughed out loud at the scene. Chris was not with us because he was traveling home from a business trip. He ended up making it to the end of the party. He redeemed our family somewhat, looking unshaven but at least nicer dressed. All of my pie got eaten........maybe out of sheer pity. Rest assured next time I get invited to a "get together" I will inquire about the dress code.
Third blooper: We were going to have about 20 people over for Thanksgiving dinner so I bought two turkeys just in case we needed more food. Knowing I wouldn't have enough time to cook two turkeys on that day, I decided to cook one the day before. I timed it just right so I would take the turkey out of the oven before going to pick up the kid's friends who were going to sleep over. They live about an hour away. On our way HOME from picking them up, I realized I had forgotten to take the Turkey out of the oven before we left. I called the Ayi and asked her to take it out of the oven but it was too late. It had already cooked 2 hours longer than it should have. When I got home I opened the foil that was covering the turkey and then tried to carve it. If you've ever seen the movie "Christmas Vacation" you'll be able to picture what happened to the turkey the minute I cut into it. It didn't have the same dramatic split open as in the movie, but it totally fell apart. It was like turkey bones you boil for broth except these turkey bones still had all the meat on them. Once again I had to laugh at myself. Thank heavens it was just a trial run and I still had another turkey for the next day. I figured we could feed the really well done turkey to the kids if we needed to.
So those were my funny Thanksgiving experiences. Next year I'm aiming to watch my mouth, watch my attire, and watch my Turkey!
We had a great Thanksgiving here in China. It wasn't on the traditional Thursday, but rather Saturday because neither the kids nor Chris had time off for the holiday. It worked out just fine though and it turned out to be an awesome day.
The day started out pretty early trying to get 6 kids under the age of 8 out the door by 7:00 a.m. to a baptism (two friends slept over) The place was an hour away so we needed an early start. The baptism service was for two Chinese women, one from Taiwan, and the other from China but married to an American. Chris is the branch mission leader so we attend all the branch baptisms. These women have been investigating the church for a long time and the branch has grown to really love them. Seeing them baptized was a great way to start our Thanksgiving celebration.
We got home at about 11:00 because the traffic coming home was pretty bad. I threw the turkey in the oven and started cooking up a storm. We didn't have any rice (yeah) for our meal, but we did use our rice cooker to keep the yams warm. In my preparations, I had to make some things from scratch, scratch. I usually do homemade sausage stuffing but I couldn't find any sausage. Determined to have my sausage stuffing, I decided to make my own sausage. That's what I call scratch, scratch. I also prepared the traditional Wood family crangrape slush which was a big hit. I couldn't find any ready made crangrape, but mixing cranberry juice and grape juice did the trick.
We invited a few families from our church to come and spend the day with us. In the afternoon the dads took the kids over to the American school to play ball. The day was so fun. We cooked, talked, laughed and ate and ate. We could hardly eat the many pies we prepared.........but we managed to stuff it in.
The memory of that day is something to be very thankful for. We indeed missed our family and our thoughts were with them all day. We feel grateful to have good friends here that help fill that void.
The day started out pretty early trying to get 6 kids under the age of 8 out the door by 7:00 a.m. to a baptism (two friends slept over) The place was an hour away so we needed an early start. The baptism service was for two Chinese women, one from Taiwan, and the other from China but married to an American. Chris is the branch mission leader so we attend all the branch baptisms. These women have been investigating the church for a long time and the branch has grown to really love them. Seeing them baptized was a great way to start our Thanksgiving celebration.
We got home at about 11:00 because the traffic coming home was pretty bad. I threw the turkey in the oven and started cooking up a storm. We didn't have any rice (yeah) for our meal, but we did use our rice cooker to keep the yams warm. In my preparations, I had to make some things from scratch, scratch. I usually do homemade sausage stuffing but I couldn't find any sausage. Determined to have my sausage stuffing, I decided to make my own sausage. That's what I call scratch, scratch. I also prepared the traditional Wood family crangrape slush which was a big hit. I couldn't find any ready made crangrape, but mixing cranberry juice and grape juice did the trick.
We invited a few families from our church to come and spend the day with us. In the afternoon the dads took the kids over to the American school to play ball. The day was so fun. We cooked, talked, laughed and ate and ate. We could hardly eat the many pies we prepared.........but we managed to stuff it in.
The memory of that day is something to be very thankful for. We indeed missed our family and our thoughts were with them all day. We feel grateful to have good friends here that help fill that void.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
holidays
It's been a while since we last posted because our little nifty plan to go around the Internet block didn't work so well. We're trying it again and we'll see how that goes.
Halloween was really fun. After a little costume contest at the clubhouse, everyone set out for some trick-or-treating. The funnest part was having the Chinese people in the neighborhood actually invite the children inside the house to give them candy. They would have them come inside to their kitchen area and show off the costumes to their guests. I think they got a real kick out of this weird holiday. The other funny thing was having people give handfuls of candy to the kids. We had to empty their candy carriers in the bottom of the stroller several times in only one hour. Emily was a cowgirl, Gabe was Harry Potter, Anna a princess, and Sara a fairy. We should have made Anna a track star for Halloween because she was bookin it from house to house. Sara enjoyed her self thoroughly as well. Whenever we approached a house she would squeal with delight and yell out "more candy!" All the kids really enjoyed themselves.
Now we're getting ready for thanksgiving. Chris doesn't get any time off of work and the kids only get Friday off so we're having our big Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with a few families from our church. Holidays in a foreign country are always memorable because you have to adapt to what's available. We'll be making several things using rice cookers and crock pots to supplement my tiny oven. Luckily the local Carrefour store where I buy imported food has frozen turkeys so we feel blessed to get that at least. The other foods and spices are hard to find and very expensive so I think all of us will savor this Thanksgiving dinner very much.
On our way home from church today Gabe came up with another wacky comment. He said, "mom, Dad, I know why Chinese people are so stubborn; it's because they try to throw up without drinking any water!" I think he's seen one too many people hauk their spit on the ground. People tend to spit just about anywhere, indoors or outdoors and I guess it's made an impression on Gabe.
Take care everyone.
Halloween was really fun. After a little costume contest at the clubhouse, everyone set out for some trick-or-treating. The funnest part was having the Chinese people in the neighborhood actually invite the children inside the house to give them candy. They would have them come inside to their kitchen area and show off the costumes to their guests. I think they got a real kick out of this weird holiday. The other funny thing was having people give handfuls of candy to the kids. We had to empty their candy carriers in the bottom of the stroller several times in only one hour. Emily was a cowgirl, Gabe was Harry Potter, Anna a princess, and Sara a fairy. We should have made Anna a track star for Halloween because she was bookin it from house to house. Sara enjoyed her self thoroughly as well. Whenever we approached a house she would squeal with delight and yell out "more candy!" All the kids really enjoyed themselves.
Now we're getting ready for thanksgiving. Chris doesn't get any time off of work and the kids only get Friday off so we're having our big Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with a few families from our church. Holidays in a foreign country are always memorable because you have to adapt to what's available. We'll be making several things using rice cookers and crock pots to supplement my tiny oven. Luckily the local Carrefour store where I buy imported food has frozen turkeys so we feel blessed to get that at least. The other foods and spices are hard to find and very expensive so I think all of us will savor this Thanksgiving dinner very much.
On our way home from church today Gabe came up with another wacky comment. He said, "mom, Dad, I know why Chinese people are so stubborn; it's because they try to throw up without drinking any water!" I think he's seen one too many people hauk their spit on the ground. People tend to spit just about anywhere, indoors or outdoors and I guess it's made an impression on Gabe.
Take care everyone.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
We're back in the blogging world again! We figured out a way to get blogspot again. Not sure we should say how.....
Anyway, how exciting! We feel so social now. I thought I would post a couple of pictures from our trip to YangShuo.
We are off to the primary Halloween party tonight (Friday night) Had a blast today at school helping with the classroom parties and watching the kids parade.
I somehow got suckered into organizing our neighborhood party and trick-or-treating for tomorrow night. This lady from Singapore caught me out on our street a few weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in a neighborhood party and trick-or-treating. She got my info and then said I was in charge of it because I was American and I know how it's supposed to go. What do you say to that? Needless to say, I'm doing that tomorrow.
Have a great Halloween everyone!
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