We originally named our blog the China Journey as it was where we chronicled our journey to bring our daughters home to us from China. Little did we know that a couple of years later, we would be going on another China journey...as Expats living in Shanghai.
Well, today is a monumental day at our house because Kate turned. It is monumental to her because 4 is BIG, of course, and it is monumental to me because there have been days this year when I didn’t think she would make it to see 4! But I am so glad to see 4 as the 3’s are not my favorite age! :) She is a beauty and can be tons of fun but boy does she ever have a strong opinion about the way things should be done (her way, of course!). I know that God is using her to grow me in SO many areas...patience and consistency to name a few...but we are so blessed to have her! I couldn’t love her anymore if I tried!
I have updated our www.onehappyhome.com website so you might want to check it out when you get time. I made it on a mac and it seems like the homemade mac websites take forever to load, so you’ll have to let me know if it does and I’ll try to figure out a different way of posting stuff. I wanted to do the website so I would have an easy way to share photo and video updates since blogger and youtube are always blocked and a hassle for me to get to sometimes. So if you have a chance, you should check out the movies page for sure. There is a video on it of Kate explaining to me today what it is to be 4! It’s pretty cute! Also, the other video is of the girls scootering through our house while singing a nice little Christmas jingle for your listening enjoyment! Yes, that’s right...they have their scooters indoors and scooter all around our first floor – it is the one great thing about hard marble floors and it gets a lot of pent up energy out on cold days!
Yesterday was a fun day so I thought I would share a picture with y'all. Once a month the girls and I go to our local homeschool meeting...a time when the different homeschool families from around Pudong come together. The kids go have a PE class for the first hour and then the 2nd hour is spent with moms and kids together doing some sort of "theme". Last month, it was book reports – this month it was Entrepreneur fair!
The girls had to work on many different aspects of running their own business. They had to think of a product (or in our case several), make them, then price them, get displays ready and be ready to sell them to the other homeschool kids and moms at the meeting today. I was really proud of them because they did all the work themselves and made all the products, with only a little help from me to tie knots when needed. Yesterday they were hard at work making the little Christmas tree to hang the ornaments on for a display and making signs for the table.
So, today was the big sale and they were thrilled because all of their items sold! When the kids would come by to look at them, they had their little marketing talk to give (i.e. This candle holder makes a nice Christmas gift for moms!). It was too funny! Then they had to make change when needed and so on. So there was lots of "educational" value to it but really they saw as just a great time! They, of course, had just as much fun going around to all the other kids tables and buying up stuff, as well!
In the end, I'm pretty sure all of us Mom's just swapped our money around...but what a great reason to do it! The kids all felt so successful and had a great time doing it!
I cannot believe it is already November 1st and it has been 2 months since I updated the blog...really where does the time go! We have been busy with school and just life, I guess! Nothing super note-worthy but wanted to share the pictures of our beauties last night at Halloween. The compound where we live has a trick or treat each year and the girls had loads of fun! It is funny though because our neighborhood is not strictly an expat compound so there are many Chinese families that live here as well and their version of “treats”...well, let’s just say it’s not quite the same as ours! The girls got a lot of just little hard candies that you suck on. We laughed because the ladies that I walked with said, “you know in the states there would be a public outcry from the kids if they received this many hard candies for treats!” :) But one Chinese house was a HUGE treat because the man was sitting out on his front patio with a machine spinning cotton candy and each kid! The girls were in heaven and so thrilled to get to have solid sugar spun into strings and wrapped on a stick! Just an fyi for those that are curious, in Australia they call cotton candy, fairy floss! I thought that was cute!
PS: Leah was Queen Guinevere, Lauren – Cleopatra and Kate was Penny from the movie Bolt. I thought it was funny that I commented last year that for the first time in 5 years I did not have a princess in my Halloween troupe so it was the end of an era...well, a new era has begun because the two big girls were all about being Queens this year. I guess we have graduated from princesses to queens! :) I know I’m biased but I do believe they were the most beautiful queens around last night! Kate was, of course, happy to being saving the world from the Green-Eyed monster and doing it while looking so adorable! :)
Lauren and I went out for a bike ride today to pick up a few things at the store and came across this man on the corner. This is so typical here in Shanghai but every time I see it, I'm still amazed. I think it might just be a new business opportunity for some of y'all in the US.
This particular gentleman had chickens, ducks, pigeons and Lauren said she saw baby chicks, but not sure about that one. The great thing is once you pay for it, he is even nice enough to slaughter it for you on the spot and then throw all the yucky stuff into the white bucket. What nice service! :) And, it should also be noted that this cage is attached to the back of his motorcycle so if business dries up in one area, he can just hop on and drive on down the road to sell to the next group of Chinese ladies that come out to greet him.
By the way, I'm not sure how he gets those chicken to stay so nicely on top of the cage. Every time (OK, the few times) I have been around chickens they scatter in every direction the moment you get close to them. I'm thinking that maybe their leg was roped to the cage...probably not what the PETA people want to hear but, alas, this is China!
Anyway, just wanted to share the fun picture. I'm certain there is a market for this type of fresh meat in the US for any of you entrepreneurs out there. Have a great week!
And PS: for those interested...we survived the typhoon with very little fanfare except a lot of rain and a bit of wind. It mainly hit way south of us but we certainly got quite a bit of rain from it.
I just had to put this picture on the blog because it is just the cutest picture I think. The girls asked me if they could sleep on the floor tonight in their room and I said I didn't care. So when I go in to check on them they were sound asleep but both on Lauren's pillow. You can't really see it in the picture but Leah's pillow is right there beside her but she is content to be snugged up next to her sista...as we call them in our house.
I know that the closeness they have now might not last forever but I just love that right now there is no one they would rather be with more. I prayed when we were adopting Lauren that God would knit their hearts together...I am certain He answered my prayer!!!
Today the girls had a fun day so I thought I would share some picture of it. This year the girls and I are studying Ancient civilizations...you know, like Egyptians, Romans, etc. but before we dive into that I have been talking to the girls about archaeology and how we know some of the things we know about the past because of archaeology digs. Of course, we saw the Terracotta Warriors earlier this year so they had a bit of an idea of how it works. I found the coolest things at Toys R Us here that I bought to help explain the concept to them a bit more and they were a huge hit. Basically they each got to do their own little "dig". I didn't tell them what was in the block of "dirt" so they had the fun of discovering what they dug up.
It was so funny to watch the two girls dig out their treasure...so indicative of their personalities. Lauren was digging as fast and as furiously as one could imagine (as you can see by all the debris on her face and everywhere) with big chunks coming off and me saying over and over, "be careful, watch out, make sure you don't break the treasure."
And Leah sitting digging very carefully, patiently, overly cautious making sure that she didn't go too fast so as not to break anything or miss anything! She would dig for a minute then carefully brush away the debris...I had to keep reminding Lauren, don't forget to use the brush! :)
It just cracks me up how completely different they are and yet they really are the best playmates and absolutely love being together. I guess the "opposites attract" thing is true of sisters, too. In the end, both found their treasure...Lauren's Terracotta horse and Leah's Terracotta warrior.
After she finished, Leah said, "wow, archaeology is really cool!" Mission accomplished! :)
I forgot to post in my last email message that the girls and I got to experience the Total Solar Eclipse on Wednesday, July 22. John was working in Xuzhou and it didn’t look even nearly the same. Evidently, Shanghai was supposed to be one of the best places in the world to view it. Unfortunately, we could not see any part of it because it was very overcast and rainy that day but what we did get to experience was very cool...total darkness at 9:35 in the morning! It was really amazing because around 9:30 it started to get dusk like and I thought that would be about it but within a couple of minutes it was just like the middle of night and then within a couple of moments, daylight again! A friend snapped this picture of the girls and I and you can see us because of the flash but you can see by the background how totally dark it was. It triggered the night time lights in our complex to come on, as well.
I have a video that really shows how dark it is that you can click here to see it on Picasa if you would like. Click here to see the video.
I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a long while but they continue to block access to blogspot and now Facebook so I have no way of updating things. The block now is such that even a few of the VPN’s I was using (thanks, Sandi) still don’t allow me to access blogger. Actually, I can access them but can’t log in to update. I can only look at the sites. So I am going to try to post this from my email account. Please forgive if the formatting comes through funny!
We have had quite a few things happening around here the last month or two. First we finally got to check out the Emergency Room services of a hospital here in Shanghai! Lauren was riding her bike very fast when she lost control and had a major wipeout. Somehow in the wipeout, her pedal punctured a small hole in her leg (literally) requiring 2 stitches to sew it up. It was, of course, at about 7:45 at night and John was in Xuzhou but fortunately, my friend down the street was still here in Shanghai so the other girls stayed with her while Leo drove Lauren and I to the ER. Lauren did really great – not even shedding one tear during the whole time of stitching up – through the shots and everything. She’s much braver than I am because she watched the whole thing being poked, prodded and sewn while I turned my head away for most of it! :)
Later that same week, Lauren and Leah got an extra special treat of going to Dubuque with John. My great friend, Jeannie, housed them all and the girls got to see all of their little friends that they miss so much while John worked. Kate and I had a great time hanging out here in Shanghai. Those of you who have just one kid – don’t read this next sentence as I don’t want to offend you – but boy, only having one kid was SOOO easy! I was amazed at how different the work load was with just the one kiddo. Granted I would never trade my crazy days spent corralling all 3 for just one but it certainly was amazing to see. By the end of the week, though, Kate and I were ready for the family to get home! Funny enough, the day they were supposed to fly home, Lauren woke up with a 102 fever. Normally this would have been fine to fly home with (a little uncomfortable, albeit) but with all the H1N1 stuff, China is very skittish and was temp checking every person on every flight rendering anyone with a temp into mandatory quarantine. John obviously didn’t want to chance that so he and the girls hung out in Chicago for an extra two days to let the fever pass and then came on home! In the midst of all of Lauren's escapades, she also turned 6 years old! It's amazing that she is so big now...by age, not height! :)
It’s very hot here now in July – reminds John and I SO much of our College Station days – so we decided to go ahead and start school. We are in the house most days anyway so we might as well get ahead a bit. By doing this we will take off several weeks this fall when the weather is great and enjoy the great outdoors. Flexibility is one of the things we love most about homeschooling! The girls are enjoying their new routines with their new subjects. This year we are going to study all the ancient civilizations over the course of the year and try to learn a ton of geography as well. It seems that we Americans as a whole seem to be quite geography illiterate (definitely me, included) so I’m going to try to expose the girls (and myself) to tons of places this year through our studies and show them where things are located. Leah is in 2nd grade and Lauren is in 1st now. Where does the time go!
Well, that is a bit of an update on what we are up to now! Nothing too exciting but we certainly are enjoying our summer here in China! Hope you all are having a blessed summer! Lauren enjoying her ice cream cake here in Shanghai!
Greetings everyone! Summer has definitely arrived in Shanghai. It was nice, hot and muggy today! I'm not complaining-I love it. My theory is you can only complain about either the hot weather or the cold weather otherwise you are just whining all the time about the weather...so I choose to complain about the cold! :)
I still cannot get on to blogger to post. I did find out that this country I call home was/is blocking it because of a certain event that happened in the late 80's in a certain large city here. Evidently, they are afraid people might get together and I don't know...do something I guess. In the mean time, it is really frustrating me!!! It is part of the joys of living here, I guess. I thought that after the anniversary passed maybe they would stop the block, but no such luck yet.
We have been busy this past month. The girls and I finished up with school so now are enjoying some time off from the regular routine. Kate actually went to preschool the last month or so and she was just starting to warm up to the idea of it when it was finished! :) She will go back there in September so at least at that point, she will know the ropes.
We went to Yangshou, near Guilin, at the end of May and it was really beautiful. John certainly needed the time off and away from the craziness of work and we loved having him all to ourselves. We did tons of fun stuff - went riding down the river on bamboo rafts while shooting at things with these water gun type things, we went for a 10 mile bike ride through the countryside and saw absolutely beautiful scenery and then rode a bigger boat down the Li River to see those sites.
The bike ride was the best though. John was on a tandem bike with Leah behind him and then a "baby seat" behind Leah. Lauren sat in a "baby seat" behind me. I say baby seat in quotes because it was literally a little wicker chair with it's legs tied to the back storage rack thing behind our seats! You just have to love the Chinese for their ingenuity! I'm not sure how safe it was but luckily for us most of the ride the only thing passing us was water buffaloes and bikes so there was no imminent danger from cars! We rode passed so many rice fields and they were greener than anything I have ever seen before. Really the green was amazing. We got to to ride through tons of old villages with buildings that are 500 years old and yet there are people living in them. I have some great pictures that I am going to put in our Picasa web albums so you can see them if you want since I can't post too many pictures on Blogger because of the way I have to post it. We ate lunch at one of the farmer villages and all in all it was pretty good. Once again, I just try really hard not to think about what the kitchen looks like where it was prepared. I have to say, I have yet to get sick here from eating the food so really I should be a little more trusting going into it, I guess. I really felt like when we were riding the bikes through the villages that I was seeing the real China! But I guess maybe that is the real China of years gone by - it seems most young Chinese people are definitely concerned with how they can get the latest and greatest gadgets, clothes, etc. and busy trying to seperate themselves from that farming type of lifestyle.
Here's a link to the Guilin pics in case the album doesn't work: Guilin Pics
I never did get back around to posting about our trip to Malaysia back in March. Let's just say that it was one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever been too! We spent 7 nights at a resort in Langkawi, Malaysia and it was fabulous! It was filled with sunshine, swimming, fruity drinks, beach playing, relaxing and all around heavenly bliss! I uploaded some pictures to Picasa so you can see them here if you are interested.
Well, for some “unknown” (AKA – China) reason I am not able to go to any blogspot blogs for the past week or so. So I am going to just try to update it via an email and hope it works out OK. The only problem is I can’t adjust the formatting so I have no idea what the final result will actually look like!
The last few months have been very busy around our house. My parents actually came to visit for about 3 weeks and we had a great time with them! The girls loved getting to see them and show them around Shanghai! They also went with us to Xian which was fun for all of us. Dad even became a fan of Chinese food – well, at least the Chinese food that Fang makes us for lunch…noodles and fried rice! J While my parents were here we had the great pleasure of getting to watch the girls do their end of the year dance recital. Lauren was in a tap class and Leah did a ballet class; although Leah’s dance was a Hungarian folk dance or something similar that she had to learn for her ballet class. I’m posting the pictures of them in their costumes. And, of course, Kate could not be outdone so when the costumes were on and the pictures were happening she HAD to have her “costume” on too and do her dance for us! Too funny!
I was so proud of the girls. This is the first time they have ever done anything up on a big stage in front of loads of people and they both did great. Leah’s was actually a solo so I wasn’t sure how she would do on that big ‘ole stage by herself but she did great! She told me she was really nervous. And Lauren was just as cute as can be in her little Tap Dance outfit – her song was the Itsy, Bitsy, Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot bikini so we had to talk to them about her first costume that was not all together modest. They came up with what you see above which was better! It was very cute though because after she tried it on the first time (I wasn’t there) she told me after the class, “Mom, I tried on my costume today and it was not very modest at all!” I asked her what she did about it and she said, “well, I told my teacher that it wasn’t modest.” Good girl!! I had to talk with them a bit as well but they were really great in working with us and getting a costume that was more befitting of a 5 year old! J So anyway, that was one of our very fun weekends where the girls got to feel like super stars for a small time! Lauren is now done with tap and decided tennis may be more to her liking so she is trying that instead. One of the very nice things about living in Shanghai is that have tons of kids groups that have lessons for anything one wants to try. Lauren is doing pretty good with the tennis so far. One funny story about it, though…it was her first week of lessons and I was telling her some ins and outs of tennis (the very few details I know) but I mentioned to her that girls who play tennis wear skirts. She immediately said, “YES, I knew I was going to love this sport!” Said by my girly, girl that would love nothing more than to wear dresses and skirts everyday! Leah, of course, love, love, loves ballet and can’t imagine doing anything else!
Other than that, we really have not been up to much at all. We are trying to finish school up and only have about 2 weeks left. We started late this year and so are having a hard time getting it all done by the end of May (when I like to be done) but we’ll get there! The weather is beautiful here now so trying to keep them tied down and inside for any amount of time is a trick. Luckily the beauty of homeschooling allows us to go outside to do lots of our reading and such! We have a trip to Guilin coming up this next weekend. It is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in China so I will let you know how it is.
Today we are in Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors. Xian is about a 2 hour flight from Shanghai and we arrived yesterday. We went to see the warriors this morning and it really was amazing. The first building which is pictured below is about 100 yards wide and probably 200 yards long. They have only excavated out and restored a portion of it but what is done is really phenomenal. Each of the warriors are life size, unique and completely handmade 2200 years ago!!! There are horses and chariots as well. This was all made by the emperor of the time. He had them made and buried around his tomb to protect him in the afterworld. I wonder how that's working out for him. :).
We are sitting waiting for church to start so I thought I would post a picture of the girls in their Easter outfits. We are having a beautiful day here in Shanghai and really enjoying the spring weather.
Well, happy Easter to you all. I am so grateful to serve the resurrected and living God. Praise God for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for each of us so that we can have the assurance of eternal life.
Well, today Leah turned 7 years old and to celebrate we are at the newly opened Barbie flagship store. It is 6 floors of pink and Barbie and all things girly. It is sparkly and filled with all kinds of fun things to do. Right now Leah and Lauren are in the design studio getting to design their very own Barbie and outfit to take home. Leah was very excited to get to spend her day here. We have a party on Saturday that I'm sure will be fun.
I'll post about our fabulous vacation to Malaysia after I survive this week of birthday celebrations.
I just had to take the time to post about what the girls did today for school. We talked all about the Native Americans and what their life was like and so they spent the rest of the day working on this...I just thought it was so creative and funny that I had to send it out for your viewing pleasure. My favorite is the deer hung upside down being prepared for dinner! :) Also, when I downloaded the pictures the following were on as well. They are Leah and Lauren's latest pieces of artwork done in their art class. Leah's is on the left and Lauren's on the right. I know I'm the Mom but I was pretty impressed with them. Leah's especially - God has obviously given her a talent for art!
Here they are with their masterpieces!
Another part of living in China that I absolutely love is meeting and visiting with people from literally all over the world who are living here in Shanghai. I have become good friends with a lady from Australia that lives down the street from me and who has a daughter Leah's age. She is such fun and I have been learning all kinds of new "English" from her. For instance, swim suits are togs, tennis shoes are sand shoes, zip ties are plastic cuffs, and the list goes on and on. But I'm always certain to tell her the proper way to say things! :)
Anyway, today while talking to her the sport of Squash came up and she said she used to love to play but doesn't know anyone now to play with so I said, "I'll play...I would love to learn how to play." So there you have it - I am going to learn to play squash while living in China. I played racquetball for many years during high school and college but she assures me it is much harder than racquetball. I think it is maybe just the Australian way of saying, "yeah, our sports are harder than your American sports!" Ha! We'll see - we go tomorrow for my first lesson with her and our first go at it.
Here I am with the girls sporting my new Squash racquet. By the way, Kate took this picture and did a pretty good job I think!
And just so she isn't left out - here is Kate the Great! I'll let you know how the Squash game goes.
(the girls doing school - art to be exact - in our little classroom)
I don't really have any earth shattering news to post but thought I better post something or people will think we have fallen off the face of the earth. Life is going good here just busy with day to day tasks. John is SUPER busy with work so we don't see a lot of him these days. The girls and I keep busy though with school and various other activities. Speaking of the girls, yesterday marked the 6th anniversary of when our beautiful first born, Leah, was placed in our arms. It was funny to be here in China to celebrate it. Leah will be turning 7 in just a couple of weeks and it doesn't seem possible.
The best news is we are about to go to Malaysia for a week of vacation. At least every other year, our family tries to go somewhere to a beach because all of us love it - and it is truly one of the easiest vacations to take when you have little ones. We've gone to Alabama, North Carolina, Florida but now we get to go see a Malaysian beach. We are going to an island called Langkawi and we are going to sit ourselves down on the beach and not do much of anything for the whole week. Everyone is looking forward to it. I will be certain to post photos of it because from all the photos I have seen, the place is ABSOLUTELY beautiful!! Can't wait to see it myself. Who would have ever thought that little ole me would get to experience so much and see so much of this great big world! I am blessed indeed!
So I'll post in a few weeks details of our beach vacation. Until then...
Happy New Year...no, I'm not 26 days behind. Today is Chinese New Year and we stayed in Shanghai to witness some of the fun that goes along with ringing (or should I say blasting) in the New Year in China!
Last night was probably one of the funnest nights I have ever had...truly! Ever since we adopted Leah in February of 2003 I have wanted to be in China for a New Year's celebration. Leah's adoption was right after the new year started so the decorations were still up and I could see how beautiful everything was but I just wanted to experience it for myself. Well, last night was our chance! The local cafe that we eat breakfast in every Sunday is run by an American who is also from Shanghai so the restaurant hosted a special CNY eve dinner for anyone who wanted to come, including his family. The dinner consisted of 15 courses!! OK, admittedly, we had no idea it was going to be that much food or take that long for dinner...but it's a good thing because knowing us we would have opted not to go had we known and would have missed out on a really great time! We arrived at 5:30 and everyone got to sit at their tables and make dumplings for their family. Then the food started arriving, very Chinese style, meaning that it takes forever for each course to come out but the nice thing is no one cares if the kids run around in the restaurant and play while waiting. The food was great and the restaurant did such a nice job. It was all served family style and the dishes were very similar to what a Chinese family would eat for their big New Year's Eve meal (think Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas Day dinner for us). Between courses, their were lots of activities for the kids including sparklers, then fireworks, then a bull pinata with loads of candy in it. It was really cute because their were 25 kids there and they each got their number to line up. All the kids had gone through and "beaten" on the bull and we were down to the last little girl, #25, who had waited so patiently for her turn. She was no more than 3 years old and all of 2 feet tall - she stood up to that pinata and gave it two good whacks and all the candy came gushing out! It was too funny after all these big kids had tried, a little tike comes along and shows them how it is done! The evening was such a great time and we really enjoyed it. We finished everything up at about 9:30, bundled the girls back up and started walking home. On the way home everywhere around us we could see and hear fireworks going off. Now, the fun really was starting! It is actually hard for me to even put into words what the next couple of hours were like! We got home around 10 with Kate asleep in the stroller and decided to do our big fireworks that we bought. Now, I just have to put things in perspective a bit. Pretty much every shopping complex around town has a big tent set up where you can buy fireworks. Now I'm not talking about black cats and roman candles, I'm talking about the stuff that the guys on the barges on the Mississippi River for the Dubuque show shoot off. We could buy a single box of 100 "ariel" cannons that have the huge explosion and beautiful lights that would be the staple of any city's fireworks show! And any random Joe (or Wang) in China can buy these and set them off at the base of their 30 story apartment building! AMAZING!!! Now remember that their are 20 million people in Shanghai that have access to these kinds of fireworks and feel a cultural obligation to blast in the New Year with explosives. Not to be outdone, we had to shoot off fireworks, too but we opted for the box of 50 instead. The girls and I stood on our balcony while John lit the big box then ran. It was so loud and beautiful to see huge fireworks literally right above your head! We did this at about 11pm. Then went inside and got the girls to bed and waited for the big fun at midnight to start. And, oh my goodness, at midnight did the show ever begin! First of all, we live in Pudong a pretty good distance from downtown Shanghai so I can only imagine what that must have looked like but you could hear blasts and booms coming from everywhere. It truly sounded like what a city under siege must sound like.
One other thing, we live in a villa/house in a neighborhood of houses but it is not in an "expat" community, as most of our neighbors are Chinese. So the video that I am attaching here is what our neighborhood and surrounding area sounded and looked like at midnight from the 2nd story balcony on our house! There were two houses on the street one over from us where Chinese families live and their fireworks were amazing! The best I have ever seen in my life! Plus in the distance you can see all the apartments where families were blasting off fireworks. It was so loud and remarkably, all the girls slept right through it! The full fury of fireworks went on until about 12:45 and then things settled down a bit.
Here are a couple of video clips that I took on my camera so you could maybe get a sense of what it sounded and looked like here. All that noise in the background is just tons of fireworks going off all over the city.
Fireworks at the apartments a couple of blocks away:
This is probably my favorite video clip though: Fireworks that the restaurant set off. What I love most is that all of the people AND children are standing only about 15 feet from this large box of explosives! :) But as you can hear from the squeals of delight - everyone is enjoying them!
So there you have it - our family's first Chinese New Year celebration and all it entailed! We hope you have a blessed Year of the Bull!
I just wanted to post some pictures to show you what real mandarin oranges look like...they actually don't come from a can! :) And, boy, are they DELICIOUS! I mean really, really yummy and super sweet. These little oranges alone are enough of a reason to make a trip to Shanghai in December or January...yes, they are that good. We buy about 50 of these little oranges for around $3 and in 2, maybe 3, days they are all gone! Then it is off to the street vendor to buy more.
I had to add this picture to give you some perspective on how small these little oranges are. They are super easy to peel and then you can pop the whole thing in your mouth. Delicious! Don't you want to come visit Shanghai!
By the way, for you folks in Iowa - it was about 50 degrees here today. This is my kind of winter - another really good reason to visit Shanghai in winter!
Yes, you are seeing it right...today Fang made homemade tortillas!!!! What a beautiful thing! The only tortillas I can get in Shanghai are not very good...they come from the US and are old and yucky by the time we get them. And you know I am a tortilla connoisseur! So I found a recipe for them in Chinese and English and asked Fang if she thought she could make them. "Mei wenti," she said. No problem.
They are actually quite tasty! So just thought i would share my good fortune with y'all.
Well, I haven't blogged in a long time so you would think I would have lots of interesting stories to relate but honestly, I don't know where the last3 weeks have gone since we got home. The jet lag was a joy to get over as you can imagine. And it took a week or two to get back into the swing of China life.
We had Christmas Eve and Christmas day in South Texas and it was absolutely beautiful! The weather was warm enough that the girls swam both days. That is my kind of Christmas!!
We flew back to Chicago on the 26th then onto Shanghai on the 27th. The girls did great on the flight. Kate slept for very little of it and actually was quite the card, as usual. We were about 2 hours from Shanghai (been on the plane for 11 hours) and the pilot came over the system and was telling us a number of things and from out of no where, Kate stands up on the arms of her chair and yells so most everyone could hear her, "EVERYONE, BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS". Needless to say, most everyone around us thought it was quite funny! So it's good to know that she entertains countless strangers as well as us! The last 30 minutes of the flight she was "racing" up and down the aisle as Leah and Lauren slept. She's a funny girl, that one!
We got home and much to Leah and Lauren's pleasure, Santa had indeed found our house in Shanghai and left gifts. He delivered stocking gifts to Texas but left a note saying the "big" gifts would be waiting for them at home. The girls were happy to tear into a few more gifts before crashing!
We spent the next week just getting over the jetlag and trying to get unpacked. On New Year's Eve, we went to a fun dinner at a restaurant that has a huge sand pit right in the middle of it. The girls loved it and we got to celebrate the coming in of the Australian New Year since it was an Australian restaurant and they are 2 hours ahead of Shanghai time. On New Year's day we actually rung in the US New Year at 1 in the afternoon here. Honestly, I think it is the first US New Year I've seen in several years since usually I fall asleep by 11! I think this picture is so funny even though the quality isn't great...check out John's face...but somehow he felt it safe enough to give to a 5 & 6 year old to blast off! :)
The next week was spent getting back into the regular routine of things. We started school again and John was gone to Xuzhou for most of the week. We are now gearing up for Chinese New Year here in Shanghai. CNY is actually Jan. 26th but the big parties and fireworks are on CNY Eve, the 25th. And then there are celebrations for the whole week. Leo has told us that at midnight on CNY Eve every family pops firecrackers and some families will shoot off actual fireworks. Evidently, for the whole week we will be hearing and seeing a lot of fireworks! That should be fun - but Leo warned us, by the 3rd day, all the noise is "just kind of annoying" - his words! I thought that was funny! So in fact, the Chinese people really do start their year off with a bang.
I'll definitely post pictures of any festivities that we witness. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas. And I hope your New Year is filled with all the things you love!
For those who want to see a few pictures from our Disney trip, click here...
