There is a store here in Tianjin that has been around for 19 years that sells Christmas stuff. Last week, one of the veteran westerners here took me there for some holiday shopping. I was thrilled to find several really cute things for our apartment--including a tree! We decided to make today our family decorating day after we went to a Christmas bazaar at the international school. So we had our usual Saturday morning breakfast of pancakes (with bacon, this time, as I found some at E Mart recently!) and homemade syrup (would you believe all you have to do to make syrup is add 1 c. water to 1 c. brown sugar and 1 c. white sugar and boil together?!) and then met our friend Joel at the school. We shopped (or rather, I shopped while Kevin reined in kids!) for a few hours, had lunch there (shown in the pic), then taxied home to start the decorating. We had fun putting the artificial tree together and stringing up the lights. The kids played the wii for a little while when they got bored with the decorating, then we finished the evening w
ith dinner listening to some of our favorite Christmas cd's. Our goal these last few days has been to stay really busy, which has helped us make it through our first holiday away from "home" without being too homesick. We've really missed time with friends and family, but overall have done well as we feel like we are really being lifted up right now and are truly blessed to have such a great community here that has embraced us and encouraged us in many ways!The other pic is of the Christmas tree that we put up in our living room.
