Our two-week long Christmas break is drawing to a close, but the celebrations and rest time have been fantastic! We started off with lots of parties. We had groups of Chinese friends over to celebrate, single teachers who were roommate-less for the holiday, a ladies' luncheon, and even a group of our high school students whose families don't do much to celebrate joined us on Christmas day for dinner and a wii American Idol singing competition. We had a great time sharing with others the meaning of the season and making some sweet memories together as a family. The gifts the kids received were much loved; but the really neat thing to see was how they've matured to the point of understanding that Christmas is more than just getting gifts. They truly delighted in blessing others by giving and trying to express love in different ways. Such a joy to see!
One of the pictures is of the kids with our ayi in front of the Christmas tree in our living room. Since we've been off from school on break, we've had a great time getting to hang out with her and just play!
Another one of our favorite days was when we went to Meijiang Lake to explore. This is our usual swimming spot, but we explored it for the first time on dry land. We managed to walk all around the lake--a good 3 mile trek--and found all sorts of treasures along the way. One of the most fun parts was seeing how it had frozen over. I was concerned that the lake would be frozen solid enough to walk on, but obviously that concern was one not shared by those willing to journey out to the middle to go ice fishing! I took a picture to capture the moment. Another one of the craziest scenes was watching a guy using a huge log on the end of a rope to break through the ice, leaving a big enough hole for a group of men to jump in and swim a distance and then return to the dock. We couldn't get over how cold they must have been! When I asked one of the spectators, she assured me that as long as they kept moving afterward it really wasn't so cold. Impressive, I thought!
This past week we were out with a group of friends wondering around the neighborhood and found a new favorite spot--one with grass! Eli climbed up a pile of dirt, then yelled out, "Mom! You'd never believe this--I see grass!!!" All the other kids came running to see, and we were aghast at how much grass was actually there. They spent the rest of the time we had (before we had to head out for lunch plans) rolling down the hills. The kids were elated when I told them that if they could wait another 7 months, they'd have their pick of grassy hills in the US to roll down. Eli added that they probably wouldn't even have to look out for dog poop so much there.
We had a surprise at the restaurant we went to with some friends after the hill rolling time. In addition to the live fish and frogs in tanks that you could pick out to have fried up and put on your dining table, they had a live alligator in a large container! Noah was convinced he was sleeping, due to his small amount of motion, and Karis was pretty upset about the inhumane treatment. She even shed a few tears before we got to the table. I was only disappointed that I failed to ask how much it would cost per pound to be served.
Yesterday we had a unique invitation--to go to another one of the single male teacher's homes to have lunch--that he cooked all by himself! We were so impressed to have a guy invite a family of 6 over for a meal in his home. Can't say that happens every day! The kids were nuts about his cooking--chicken quesadillas and cheesy rice; their favorite part was the dessert. It was basically a giant cookie monster that had ice cream and whipped cream on top. They said their favorite part was that we all grabbed spoon and ate out of the same pan together. Pretty cute! And glad none of us had any contagious sicknesses at the time! :)
The kids went to their "adopted grandparents" house last night for a slumber party. Our friends, Rob and Barb, wanted to give Kevin and me an extended date so that we could celebrate our 12th anniversary. The kids had a ball playing games, having a movie night, and getting to have a sleepover (which rarely, if ever, happens for us here!), and Kevin and I got to enjoy a leisurely dinner and sleeping in this morning. A win-win for all!Two funny stories that would probably only happen in China...The fist was told to me by a friend regarding her ayi. My friend was at home while her ayi was there ironing some laundry. My friend was perplexed as she watched her ayi take a swig of water out of a glass, then walk outside to her yang tai (like an outside balcony) with her daughter's formal choir dress. She then watched in horror as her ayi sprayed the mouthful of water all over the dress, then walked back inside to continue the ironing! My friend ran to the balcony calling the ayi's name in shock, to which the ayi responded in embarrassment that she couldn't find the spray bottle so figured she could simulate it by using her talent for spitting the water! They were able to laugh about it, but my friend did express that the dress would need to be washed again, next time using the actual spray bottle to dampen it before ironing.
The other shock had to do with my Christmas present--a new cell phone! I must admit that I've been quite content to stay somewhat in the dark ages as far technology and cell phones are concerned. But as of late, I've had a growing desire to be able to connect more easily with people, specifically with friends in the US. So my big gift was an iPhone that Kevin set up so I could connect with people both Stateside and here in China. Somehow, my sim card for my phone is not in my name (not really sure why, that just kind of happened when we first moved here 4 1/2 years ago and we've never been able to change it...guess it's just a China thing?). So Kevin had just put money on my phone (all cell phones here work like pre-paid phones in the US, where you put money on your account and then it just keeps working until you run out). But apparently, the plan I had did not include any data, so the long story short was that I burned through 230 kuai (the equivalent of about $40) in 2 days! (I usually spend about 50 kuai per month for my cell phone usage.) The biggest surprise of all was when Kevin went to the cell phone store to change my plan, which obviously was NOT the most affordable one, and was able to not only change my plan, but also to get all the money back. When I continued to press him for why they were so generous (I'm telling you, this is UNHEARD of, especially here where customer service is just not a concept that you ever see emphasized or practiced), I finally got out of him that it was most likely due to his Chinese ability! Apparently, the people at the store really like him because he's a foreigner who actually speaks enough Chinese to communicate well with them! Really glad I sent him in rather than myself to get things ironed out! :)
