Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving was, in keeping with the original celebration, three days long! It started with Thursday dinner where we went out with the Wylies, a family on the team. I guess that isn't exactly Thanksgiving-y, but it was somethin'.

Friday night, we had a big shindig with the teachers on our floor. Most of us are our team, but there are a couple of others that we are all close to, and we wanted to share the holiday together.

Saturday was the biggest gig of all. 33 people, tons of food, good music, even the Macy's Day parade and a children's corner. FUN!

  

When we got back home after the feast, I decided it was high time to put up some of the decorations. I got the tree out, pulled out some of the decoration boxes and put up MY traditional little paper tree.

My first year in China, my mother mailed me this paper tree along with some little decorations for presents. Rather than put them on presents, I decided to decorate the little tree. Every year that followed, I put up this tree by myself and kick off the Christmas season. Now, it has officially begun in my house.

Oh, and Joel is also official with his very own homemade stocking to match the rest of the family. :)

Today we partly decorated the house and tree. We will save some of the tree trimming for students who are coming over tonight. It is fun to let them add their own little touch. So, we saved some ornaments, the angel, and they will hopefully make some paper decorations to add as well. I hope they enjoy the process and we are able to share some deeper thoughts as well.

So, Merry Christmas! 圣诞节快乐！ Oh, that is pronounced, "sheng dan jie kuai le!"

Oh so much fun...

I'm not sure what to write today. It isn't that things haven't been happening; they have been busy!

Forgive my randomness this post, but maybe you will enjoy the pictures at least. :)

This month, Steve and I celebrated 7 years together. It seems like life gets sweeter the longer we are together. Can't wait to see what 50+ years will be like! This year, we went to Center Street for the day while our precious teammates watched our kids. Bless them!

This month has also been the beginning of the snow season. It was just last month that the beautiful 红叶子 (hongyezi or red leaves) were stunning in front of the library. Now, we have a small winter wonderland all around. The kids and I celebrated one day by going out and building a small snowman and getting sloshy cold. :)

Our kitchen walls are tiled, and therefore are wonderful to write on with dry erase markers. Olivia has long sense known the rules of the "yes yes" square and the "no no" squares. Joel is now learning and enjoying the thrill of writing on the wall with Mama's full approval. :)

So, those are a few family highlights. We have had amazing times with students. I think I will share more about those in the next blogpost. Stay tuned.... :)

下次见！ See ya next time!

What's in the Box?

Recently, a student of mine has been needing a little help with different things, and I have been able to serve her in small ways. To show her thanks one night, she called and said she was bringing over crabs.  I was in the middle of dinner and thought that I would be too full to enjoy this special treat, but I told her to bring them over since it would have been rude not to accept this specialty from her uncle's hometown.
   When she got to our apartment, she was carrying a box and said that the crabs were inside...alive. Um... what? So, she opened the box and we had a look.
  Maybe I don't have to say it, but we have NEVER cooked crabs before in our lives. We learned that in order to eat them safely we couldn't let them die. We had to steam them alive and then refrigerate them until we wanted to eat them the next day or so. That is what Steve and I did that night.

Man did it stink! For DAYS! The pot, steaming basket and apartment was more than my nose cared to endure. It took a lot of elbow grease to rid the place of that!

It was fun. It was also rather interesting that my lesson in class the following night was about the cultural views of gift giving. Haha. The lesson was planned before the crabs came. My student assured me that her gift and invitation to dinner were not out of line in any way. I believe her, but it was a little awkward giving that culture lesson that night just the same.

So, now I have received live crabs and steamed them alive. I'm just glad they don't scream like I have heard lobsters do. I'm not sure I could have taken it.

See ya' next time! 下次见！ (xia ci jian)