First Day of Holiday Break

We survived our first day of the 2 1/2 weeks the kids have off from school. It was not easy, but we made it through and we are actually packed to leave for Hong Kong bright and early in the morning. This was the first day the kids have had off of school since they started that we haven't been travelling! We had a fun day preparing for Christmas...

One of the first things we did was to make reindeer dust. This is a tradition my sister started a few years ago and my kids love it. We simply mixed oatmeal, red and green colored sugar, and glitter and then put it into seperate bags for each of the munchkins. On Christmas Eve the kids will sprinkle it outside so that the reindeer can find their way to our house!!

After that we made some simple Christmas M&M cookies with El's friend Minori. We decided to invite our neighbors over for coffee and cookies later in the afternoon. Plus it will be nice to have some Christmas treats when we get back home - one less thing I will have to do on Christmas Eve!

Next, Eens has been begging me for quite some time to build one of those foam Christmas kits that I had packed from Michael's! We pulled it out and the kids did about 1/4 of it and I ended up doing the rest! It was relaxing and I appreciated having something to do!!

Our two very dear neighbors came over later in the afternoon, so we had a wonderfully full house of kids and three very tired mom's!! I am so happy to have found these mom's right in our compound - we are all from very different backgrounds, but living in China has provided us with common ground. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Naoko and Karen here - they are lifesavers!!

Cooper as usual provided some entertainment for us in his heels...Danny is so proud!!

On a very sad note, we said good-bye to my grandma today. She was one of the fiestiest women I have ever met and she fought a very good fight against Alzheimer's Disease. I will miss her dearly. Everywhere I have looked in my house today I have found reminders of her. I have some of her crystal pieaces that I use for coffee, I have an apron of hers that I use when I bake cookies, I was planning on making her homemade egg noodles (without the italian chicken broth Aunt Kath!!) for Christmas dinner so I've been looking at her handwriting, and then as I was packing I found a postcard from her when I was in junior high. It was perfect, I can actually hear her say these words, "You better practice for track because I want to see you win!". I'm thankful for the beautiful memories I have with grandma and I'm thankful for such a wonderful family that I can laugh and cry with during the good times and the bad. We all have funny, loving stories of grandma that will keep her memory alive! It is difficult to say good-bye, but I can see grandma in Heaven now with grandpa and I know she is happy and no longer in any pain. I love you grandma...

We will be flying back to the US the day after Christmas to be with my family. As much as I would like to leave tomorrow, we have been planning this trip to Hong Kong since we got here and the kids are so excited. I also think it is best if we stick to our original plans for Christmas for the kids sake. I'm hoping that us coming a little bit later will give my mom something to look forward to after the funeral and then Christmas.

God bless you all!