Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (now that it is almost New Year's). Despite colds that most of the household has been fighting, it has been a wonderful Christmas with Nana and Bop here. The kids are having so much fun reading stories, going on outings, cooking, Fun Bagging and more!  It has been great to be together to celebrate this special time as a family.

 The traditional sugar cookie making time with added bonus of Nana and the super fun sprinkles she brought.

 Christmas Eve we had a special dinner and celebration at our house with two neighboring families (and grandparents) Staege and Hunemullers. Chris played music and Bop gave us a Christmas Eve message.

 Here is the gingerbread train- the finished product- before it was eaten.

 After our Christmas Eve celebration, we all watched (what else?) Charlie Brown Christmas before bed. Nana even obliged with a (little) dancing.

 Christmas morning!

 Wow, so cool!  Lucy examines a light up toy from her stocking. She really got into the stockings and present opening this year.

 Our traditional breakfast of egg-sausage bake and cinnamon rolls. Mmmmm.

 Helping Bop open a present...the boys were eager to open and give to others this year. Austin's teacher at school actually helped him pic out presents for everyone in our family. They were really thoughtful too- I think giving gifts is one of Austin's love languages. Bennett also seemed to "get" the idea of giving this year and was super excited to give Mei Mei several gifts.

 Post-morning play - new Legos from Grandpa and Nai Nai.

 On the 26th we went to a really nice (maybe my favorite here) restaurant for Christmas lunch. It was decorated really beautifully and tastefully (a rarity here) and the food was wonderful. We had a pretty day too- it has been balmy here in the low forties. A warmish winter for us up north.

 Bop and Lucy are quite the buddies now and she was enjoying some of his silliness with great delight!

Merry Christmas to you!

Nana and Bop!

Nana and Bop are here!  They arrived Wednesday night our time and everyone was counting down the days till they came.  Such a fun reunion. In the midst of some crazy Christmas schedule, we are having lots of fun.

 Thursday they each got to accompany a boy to their homeschool coop class and we ended the day with hotpot at our favorite HaiDiLao restaurant. They specialize in service...mom and I got our nails done for free (we both branched out from traditional to red with white snowflakes on it ha), kids played at the play place, got balloons and yummy food.

 Friday Nana, Bop, Lucy and I went to the pearl market (the boys had an all day field trip with school). It was lots of fun, Lucy did great with the shopping, ayis doting on her and had lots of fun with Bop. The only bummer was it took us 2.5 hours to drive home in bad traffic. We will definitely take the subway next time!

 Bop has been doing a lot of reading...Narnia and Phantom Tollbooth to the boys and the "pippies" book (poky little puppies) to Lucy.

 Nana's Fun Bag has reappeared and with it lots of fun and anticipation. Today's was a train gingerbread making kit. All three had tons of fun with Nana as they made it and she was very patient with them.

Thanksgifts

A bit late, but wanted to recap our Thanksgiving for you. One of the books I have been impacted by the most in the last year is Ann Voskamp's 1,000 Gifts. She is a gifted writer who has been transformed by practicing gratitude...day in and day out, in the midst of the mundane and tragic and everything in between. So I have been trying (but often forgetting ) to practice this more and more (she had a goal of listing her 1000 gifts or things she was thankful for) and of course the Thanksgiving holiday is a great reminder of that. The boys had a thankfulness notebook that we wrote in during the month of November (not as consistently as I hoped, but that is reality these days). The boys had lots of things they were thankful for, including things like Jupiter's red spot, friends, turkey, Mei Mei, space, Christmas, pizza and so on. It was fun to do together.  I am super thankful for especially the people God has gifted me with in family and friends and our community here.  Here are some pictures of our special day of Thanksgiving as well.

 Lucy all decked out in her favorite color- purple. She is SO girly these days and loves to wear purple, eat out of her purple bowl, drink out of her purple cup, etc.

 These cuties held hands almost the whole walk from our house to the Staeges' where we had Thanksgiving dinner.

 Mmmm, turkey. Actually, mostly she ate Therese's delicious rolls, while Chris and I enjoyed full plates of lots of delicious food.

 One of the kids' tables. Our neighborhood of four families, plus one other family from church (who have one kid) now totals 13 children!  

I printed some Thanksgiving coloring pages off in hopes of some quieter activity during the night...it worked for a short time.

We are now full into the Christmas season...we decorated last weekend (mostly) and the calendar seems to be filling up at an alarming pace. We are also happily anticipating Nana and Bop's visit. They land here on December 18!  

Double trouble

Poor Lucy this time (remember "poor Daddy" from his trip to America?). Last week she started running a fever for three days. Once or twice she did say "ear hurt" but then went on playing and did not seem too serious.  Her fever went away over last weekend (over a week ago now) but last Monday she felt warm again and fell asleep at 10 am in the middle of a loud living room. So I took her in to the last appointment of the day to find out she had a double ear infection and her left drum had perforated! (Don't worry, it sounds awful but is not uncommon for ear infections). A week on antibiotics and she finally seems back to herself. But she was rather pitiful for awhile, not sleeping well, super tired and wanting to be held a LOT of the day. I feel so bad we didn't go in earlier to the doctor...but sometimes you just don't know. Note to self- she must have a high pain tolerance and if she ever says "___ hurt" pay attention! Her last dose of medicine will be Thanksgiving Day. I am thankful for good doctors and good medicine available to me here.

Chris had a busy weekend putting on our fifth year of The Gift- charity bazaar (with live music performances all day he was in charge of). The kids had a great time dancing while Daddy performed. Pictures of that to come hopefully from a friend in a few days. Meanwhile this week is still full of a little homeschool, Chinese school (except Thursday of course), cooking and baking and oh- please do pray. Saturday night Chris was using his computer, closed it, remembered one more email he needed to send, opened it...and it was black. Fully charged and it will chime when he turns it on but nothing more. Only a year a half old Macbook Air and it is very central to work and life. We will take it to the Apple store here tomorrow (again, thankful we live in a place with one) but afraid it could be a really bad problem. Pray he won't lose any data either- he had not backed up files very recently. Sigh- such is life but not what we wanted to see right now. However I do feel like this week I am looking, sometimes straining and sometimes it is so easy to see- how blessed we are and how gratitude to our Heavenly Father changes almost any situation. I pray I will be able to keep gratitude in my perspective.

Seven!

Happy Birthday to our biggest buddy Austin!  Wow how can seven years come and go so quickly?  We are so proud of our big boy, who loves to learn, is so considerate of others, who always wants to do the right thing regardless of what others' think, who can memorize things in either language in no time, who still has an awesome belly laugh...we are so thankful for him.

I feel like we have entered another era of how to celebrate a birthday. He chose to do a party with a few friends at the science museum instead of a bigger party at home. Boy do I like this kind of party! It was right up his alley...we saw an IMAX film about space (at the largest IMAX theater in the world at that. WE happen to live in a city that likes to have a lot of the ______est in the world), saw a neat space exhibit and ended with lunch and cake at the Big Pizza in the museum basement. Very convenient and lots of fun. 

 So I tried fondant for the first time for the planets. Do not look closely!  They were not exactly a work of art and would not get smooth, but they got the job done. My most scientifically accurate cake I suppose- Austin drew what he wanted in it for me, including the asteroid belt and Jupiter's red spot.

 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...blast off! In a rocket with Bree.

 Inside a model of the International Space station (i think). This was his favorite part. It was pretty cool I thought.

 Austin's good buddy Ian- they do Chinese class and coop together (and a stowaway peeking behind them). This was in the space bathroom :)

 Austin and Clark on a moon rover.

 Astronaut Austin and his friends.

 This was perhaps the most impressive thing at the exhibit- the machine that makes you feel like you do in space with no gravity. Sadly, none of the kids were tall enough to do it so Chris volunteered to try. They all said they want to come back when they are 1.4 meters tall.

 Blowing out the candles.

 The big seven. Wow.

 The party was Tuesday morning (there was no Chinese school so it worked out well and the other homeschooling mommas were kind to flex). Thursday the 14th was the actual day and we had a nice family celebration, starting with his choice of breakfast (waffles, bacon and eggs).

He was so excited (and I was so excited to give it to him) to get a real telescope. And oddly enough we have actually had quite a few clear nights recently. A full moon is only days away so hoping he can get a good view soon. He also got a microscope (are you seeing this is my science kid?), a magic set, some great books and something else still on the way.  Happy Birthday Austin!

Little of this and that

 Jason and Angie had to go out of town one weekend. Bree stayed with the girls at my neighbor's and Jesh and Clark came to our house for a boys' sleepover.

 Pumpkin season- this is a Chinese pumpkin shape. Cut it up, clean it out roast it and freeze the pulp...lots of pumpkin soup, bread and so on for the winter. (I confess, my helper did most of the work).

 End of soccer for the fall- here is the great little group that participated, with JJ, the coach.

Our proud and tenacious soccer player.

Dressing up

We had a lot of dressing up this past week- and not just Halloween. We had a busy weekend, as you can see for yourselves.

 We had a big Halloween party with both locals and fellow American friends...we played a "wrap a mummy" game. Guess whose nose is poking through? you guessed it...Superclown.

 Unknowingly, Lucy and Molly showed up in matching outfits!  These two are becoming good friends and are so funny when they play together. They have actual conversations and fits of laughter, though no one else knows what they are talking about.

 Snow White and six of her dwarves...

 A lady bug, Superman, Superclown (he thought this up all by himself. A super hero who saves the world by making bad guys laugh and forget the bad stuff they were doing), Snow White and ...any guesses as to who Chris is?

 Lucy's warmer ladybug outfit, thanks to Nai Nai!

 So switching gears, Saturday we had another wedding with two adorable ring bearers (actually flower boys...more on that later). So cute running in their little suits!

 Lucy was so excited to wear "pretty dress"...she insisted on wearing it Sunday too.

 So the kids' Chinese teacher got married Saturday. Seven of the foreign kids were in her wedding. At least she only had one bridesmaid or it would have been really crowded up there. She is a dear teacher, has been there since Austin started at this school 4 years ago and marrying a great guy. We were so happy for her.

 Handsome!

 So traditional wedding roles don't always look the same at a Chinese-western style wedding. So Bree and Noah (tallest boy) lit candles, Ellie was the ring-bearer and the rest of the boys threw flowers...ie flower boys. They were not too excited at first, but then the idea grew on them. Originally Austin and Ian were holding their teacher's wedding dress, but she wisely decided that maybe wasn't such a good idea to have two seven year old boys hold the back of her beautiful dress.

 The flower boys about to walk down the aisle.

 Bennett and Jesh heading down the aisle...papparazzi cameras flashing like crazy.

 After they walked the aisle, Lucy took the basket and kept putting petals into it.

 So happy for Zhou Laoshi!

 And then..Saturday night Chris and I were invited to a Murder Mystery party. I had never been to one before but it was so much fun. Lots of our friends were there...roles were pre-assigned, the theme was the Wild West and guess who the murderer was? Yep Slick O'hare...otherwise known as my husband. Lots of fun, laughs and delicious food.

The two con men together...and fun friend who moved here from our old city a couple of years ago.