A "Proper" Thanksgiving!!

Unfortunately, as much as we would have loved too, we could not spend Thanksgiving with our families due to that silly ocean seperating us! Instead, we were able to celebrate our American holiday with our extended British family! Danny and I decided to go all out and put on a "proper" spread so they could get a real sense of what we do on Thanksgiving. There were no parades or football (unless you count soccer!) on the tv, so we put all of our efforts into the food! I prepared some of my favorite family dishes and then I even tried a few new things!!

I had to order my turkey a few weeks ago so I could guarantee I would get it from Beijing. I could only get a 16 1/2 pound bird due to oven space!! That sweet bird cost me almost $65, but it was worth every penny! It was imported straight from the good ole USA! My ayi thought it was the funniest thing that I was going to cook this huge bird. Remember, most locals don't have ovens and if they do, they are more like toaster ovens, so they would only eat turkey at a restaurant and that is even very difficult to find! In the end, the bird was lovely and moist - even though Danny is trying to tell me that I cooked it upside down!!

This is the inside of my tiny oven!! Obviously, I had to plan the other dishes carefully because the bird took up the entire space!! Happily, carving the turkey!

I also attempted my first pumpkin pie, which was shockingly easy and very tasty!! The kids loved it, probably because of the whip cream on top, but they ate it all!!

The kids watched movies and played the Wii while the adults ate until we could not move and then proceeded to "teach" each other about our countries!! This was after a few bottles of wine had been consumed so you can only imagine the ideas that were being thrown around!! It must have gotten intense because I ended up with two huge British books the next day!! Hehe!!

There was tons of food, but more than that, there was tons of love and thankfulness in our house just as if we were back in the US! We have so much to be thankful for this year and many days go by when I feel I am undeserving of the many blessings in my life!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

Our Five Senses

Danny and I were delighted that we could both go to spend Thursday morning with Eensie at school! The kindergarteners were celebrating the end of their five senses unit of inquiry and boy were all of the parents in for a treat! I think I say this everytime I write about Eens's teachers, but once again they completely outdid themselves!!

We began the morning going to different stations that the students were manning. At each of the stations we had to use our different senses...Eens was at the tasting station and he had quite the giggles giving me seaweed while I was wearing a blindfold! Some of the other stations were, pin the tail on the donkey, figuring out numbers using touch with a blindfold on, using binoculars to see pictures students were holding up down the hallway, feeling inside a box to find specific items, listening to sounds with blindfolds on and trying to decipher what was making the sound, and figuring out different smells that were inside a bottle! I am positive a lot of work went into this by both teachers and students! After we went through the stations, Eens read us two books that he had completed and then we had a morning tea with the teachers while the students went and had snack. When they returned, we all went to the gym and continued using our senses!! We did an obstacle course blindfolded, climbed the rock wall, and did a bit of dancing, including the Hokey Pokey (speaking of this, I was told by our Brits that they call it the Hokey Cokey - what in the world is up with that??!!)!

This was much harder than it looked - it doesn't help that I'm afraid of heights!!I'm really only about one rock up off the floor - it's called creative photography by my dear husband!!

We had such a fun morning with Eens - it is very rare when both Danny and I can have one on one time with a child at the same time, so it is definitely time to be cherished!!

Happy 8th Birthday Sweet Ellie Bean!!

Yes, on Friday, my sweet, sweet daughter turned 8 years old! I cannot believe I am the mother to an 8 year old. Being Ellie's mom has made me a better person, she is very wise. She teaches me new things everyday and through her, I am constantly reminded of the true beauty that there is in this world. She reminds me to take time to play, even if it is just for 15 minutes - we all feel better after we have spent quality time together. She reminds me that cuddles are necessary everyday and the best cuddles are in the morning under a warm blanket!! She reminds me that being a child is exciting - the world is a playground and she loves to make new friends and soak up everything!! She reminds me to take risks, even though we may not like it, we won't know until we try! And, she reminds me to use my imagination and creativity to make everyday exciting!! The one thing she will never have to remind me to do is to love her unconditionally, with all of my heart!! I am so proud and honored to be her mommy!!

Happy birthday El!! I hope you enjoyed your turkey and pumpkin pie cake!! (According to Ellie, Thanksgiving dinner is the perfect birthday food - thank goodness her birthday is always close to Thanksgiving!!)

Life without an ayi!

Oh, I can imagine you all are laughing and thinking to yourselves, "welcome back to the real world!". And I can tell you right away that I am not ready for the real world just yet!! My ayi called on Monday morning saying she had a fever and couldn't come to work. I am very considerate so I told her that she should take Tuesday off too and rest. Well, by today (Tues.) at 3:00pm I had had enough and had our office manager call her and make sure she would be coming to work on Wednesday! I was pretty much begging and pleading!! She said she was much better and hadn't had a fever for 24 hours - I am so relieved!!

This all happened at a time when I was beginning to think that I don't need an ayi all the time. I had told both mom and T last week that I was tired of someone always being in my house. I was complaining to Danny that her cleaning was not great. And I was telling my friends that she was getting a bit fiesty. Yes, I take it all back now and I have learned a very valuable lesson - don't take these luxuries for granted!! One day I will be moving back to the US and I will have to do the laundry, cleaning, and cooking - after these two days of doing it ALL again, I'm going to enjoy my ayi and stop complaining!!

One funny story did come out of this little two day saga! Yesterday (yes, day 1) I decided that I should treat myself to a massage because I was working so hard! I tried a new one and was shocked when she started doing a body scrub after the massage (I didn't remember that part in the brochure). It was okay because I probably needed my skin refreshed due to the dry weather. After I was all scrubbed up she told me to take a shower, so I went into the room and was starting to wash all of the scrub off when the water turned cold. There was no way I was taking a cold shower so I did the best I could to wash the stuff off with my hands. I thought I did a pretty good job, but about an hour later I was talking to our office manager, and she looked at me oddly. I finally asked her what was wrong and she said I was yellow - I looked at my hands and screamed a bit because they were in fact yellow!! Apparently, because I didn't get all of the scrub off, I was turning yellow all over!! So much for trying to hide my "hard" day that included a massage from Danny!! I got no sympathy whatsoever!!

So cheap!!

I just had to share this picture of the fruit platter I bought today! I have been without my ayi for two days (yes, it has been difficult and my back is beginning to hurt, but I'm soldiering through it!) so I was out buying fruits and veggies at an upscale department store. I know they are more expensive, but I also know that they are eatable! Anyway, I was passing the cut up fruit section, which I usually ignore because ayi does that for me, and I spotted this...

This only cost 10 kuai, which is about $1.20. The kids were so excited to get fruit after their pancake and egg dinner and I was excited I didn't have to cut it all up!!

Three sheets of love...

Last night Danny and I worked late into the night to finish my Grandma Kimler's homemade egg noodles for our Thanksgiving dinner! As we were mixing, kneading, waiting, rolling, and cutting the little noodles out, I couldn't help but remember my grandma and all of the memories of previous Thanksgivings with her!! Every Thanksgiving I can remember, my grandma made these noodles. There were a couple of times when I accused her of buying them and I'm pretty sure I got "the look" from her. There was one time when Aunt Kathy, without realizing it until it was too late, cooked them in Italian seasoned chicken broth - I think we all almost cried because those silly noodles tasted terrible!! Looking back, I know it wasn't the noodles that were important, it was our family being all together making memories that make us laugh and sometimes even cry!

I will miss being with my family terribly this holiday - it seems to me like I have to say that too often! But I know I'll be sharing noodle memories with my extended family in China and making memories with them too!! God bless you all and enjoy the next few days spent with family.

I miss you so much grandma - I know you are smiling down and wishing I had paid more attention in how to properly cut the nooodles!!

Happy Early Birthday Ellie!

On Sunday Ellie celebrated her birthday a bit early with her friends, due to our upcoming move!! She had picked out all of her Hello Kitty birthday gear in the states this summer, so we were all set!! I decided to hire two teenagers (one was our dear friend from next door!) to paint the girls' nails and do face painting (no one wanted that!). After they got their nails painted they did a jewelry box craft project! Then they made their own individual English muffin pizzas! While those were baking, we played two games - one was pin the crown on the castle and the other one Ellie made up, and it involved drawing something that you had to do out of a box (the girls favorite was hugging Eens)!! We had 13 girls at our house and you would have never known it - they were excellent!! Danny, of course, made a sweet Hello Kitty cake for El - she was quite pleased!!

I would have to say that it was a very successful, girly party!! Happy early birthday sweet El!!

Going, going,

and down to the tummy it goes!! Eens lost his first tooth on Wednesday at some point during the night!! He woke up on Thursday morning, and doing what must have been a daily ritual, started moving his tongue towards his loose tooth. He looked at me and said, "It's not loose anymore!" and right away I knew exactly what happened - he'd swallowed it! We proceeded to the bathroom to look in the mirror and sure enough there was a big gap where the tooth had once been!! He sobbed and sobbed because he had swallowed it!! I only found out about thirty minutes later, after assuring him that we could make a tooth out of clay and the tooth fairy would still come, that he was mostly upset about the possible missed opportunity for money!!

Last night before bed he proudly composed a lovely letter to the tooth fairy and made a beautiful yellow clay tooth!! You can see the tooth on the right side of the paper!!

Danny told him he needed to start watching his poop for the next couple of days and looking for the tooth. Needless to say, I am not enjoying this little endeavor of leaning over the toilet and searching! Thanks honey!

It only took 18 months!!

And yes, Nai Nai will be happy, the children are using chopsticks! They don't use them all the time, but I was very impressed at dinner tonight when I watched their technique. Ellie is a pro, she is better than me. Eens is pretty good, I noticed him tonight correcting his grip a couple of times. Coop definitely needs the "kids" chopsticks, but he was able to eat about 10 jaozi without touching his fork or using his fingers!

Little Treasures!

On Monday Karen and I made a quick (only two hours worth of shopping!) trip to Beijing. We were in search of Christmas presents and I needed to stock up on purses to bring back to the US! While out and about, we discovered this neat little shop on a side street that sold little boxes. What made these boxes so interesting is that they are made using pieces of vases that were broken and thrown away during the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976). During this time period, it was illegal to keep the antique porcelain at home. I love little treasures with a piece of history attached to them!

This is what you get...

I took El to the doctor on Tuesday because she had been battling a cough for over a week and it wasn't getting better. I talked to her teacher and she told me that 9 out of 23 kids were out with two hospitalized, so there was no way I was taking any chances of her getting worse. Due to the amount of illnesses spreading like wildfires around here, I couldn't get into the Western doctor, therefore, I had to see the Chinese doctor who practices Western medicine. She is actually very thorough, but I am beginning to wonder if her diagnosis of Coop having asthma is correct because right after I told her that El had a cough she asked if we had any history of asthma in the family. When I explained that we had some, I could tell her mind was thinking that this was asthma. I convinced her that Ellie did not have asthma and that she was sick and I thought it was time to start antibiotics. Thankfully after a thorough exam, she agreed with me and gave us all of this...

After almost two days on all these meds, Ellie is starting to feel better and is going back to school tomorrow! Thank goodness, she can't be sick for her birthday!!

Cooking with Kindergarten!

When the form came home asking if moms would like to come in and cook with kindergarteners, honestly, I hesitated! What in the world do I cook that is easy and yummy for a kindergartener. In the states, I am a pro at convenient cooking (half made from scratch, half made from a box), but here, most things have to be made from scratch. Hmmm...I really wanted to spend time with Eens, so I finally decided that I could make English muffin pizzas. All of the kids could be involved in putting on the toppings and cheese on their own pizza and I would make it easier by toasting the muffins first and then just sticking them in the microwave to melt the cheese - I was on a time limit and the kids were hungry!! An added bonus was that I still had one squeeze bottle left of pizza sauce from the states! It ended up being a very successful endeavor!! The kids topping of choice was ham - I wouldn't have guessed that!!

The decorations are up early this year!!

This past Sunday we began putting up the Christmas tree. I am well aware of the fact that we have not even made it to Thanksgiving, however we did this for a special little boy in central Illinois. I started following this little boy's story a couple of months ago from a friend's facebook status (thanks Michelle!). He lives in the same town as my brother and sister-in-law, so I continued reading his mom's updates as he was being treated for cancer at St. Jude's. The little boy, Dax, has exhausted his options for treatment now, so his mom and dad brought him home for as long as they can. He loves Christmas lights so his neighborhood decided to put up their Christmas lights early and they are calling the tribute Decorate for Dax! People all over the United States have begun to string their lights in honor of this sweet baby, so I thought we should follow suit and do the same thing here. When neighbors ask why I have my tree up, I tell them this little boy's story and ask them to pray for him and his family. I know the power of prayer, thanks to my little miracle, and I truly hope this family receives a miracle this holiday season.

Merry Christmas Dax and family! Thank you for sharing your story and reminding us how precious each and every minute of every day is. We will continue to pray for healing, comfort, and peace!

Another weekend getaway!

We just returned from a weekend getaway with some of our dearest friends here in Tianjin. We went about an hour away to Baodi, where apparently some of the best hot springs in the world are located. We stayed at a monstrous Hyatt, which I had only previously eaten at with my parents. The kids had never seen it, so they were staring in amazement as we drove up!! Here is a picture from the interstate - it goes on and on!

We all had a wonderful time eating, bowling and enjoying each others company! The guys did a bit of golfing on Saturday, which gave the girls a great excuse to use the spa later in the day because we had been so busy entertaining the kids! The kids spent all of their waking hours with some of their best friends - they couldn't ask for much more!!

Eens has decided that his true passion is bowling - hehe!! Everyone thought he was such a typical little American boy!! On the first night, and for the first time ever, he bowled like there was no tomorrow!! His grandma will be very proud!! He stood in one lane and went back and forth, back and forth rolling the bowling ball attempting to find the best possible rolling method!! He did this for about an hour until I finally made him come to bed!!

Action photos!!

Here is Eens in action! It was a very nice bowling alley - very impressive for China!

Enjoying their bottles of ...Sprite, of course!!

Coop was surrounded by 12 girls that loved on him the entire weekend!

Eens and sweet Anna!

Ellie and Coop were enthralled with the huge indoor pool! Coop and Lucy fished away while El, Sophie, and Eens played in the medium sized pool! After we swam for a bit, we all jumped into the hot tub to warm up - it was quite relaxing, even for the mommies!

On Saturday afternoon we all hung out at the lobby restaurant, while the kids were entertained. The staff did a fantastic job entertaining 15 kids in all!! They are not accustomed to children as this is primarily a "business/conferenece" hotel. They were more than accomodating and even subjected one of their dear members to dressing up as a dragon to entertain the little ones. The poor guy nearly got beat up and dragged down by his tail - I definitely did not envy him!!

The lobby is quite impressive!

We went bowling again on Satuday night and once again Eens was on a roll (quite literally!!)! I even scored quite high in the 5 frames I was allowed to play before my sweet children decided to completely melt down. So, instead of just taking my 3 loves up to bed, I also brought along one of El's good friends for a sleepover! Why not?? When you have 3 kids, what's one more - truly!!

Trying a new technique!

Sleeping beauties - not quite!! At about 11:30 I finally had to tell them to sleep!!

Unfortunately, this was our last family outing with our dear Irish friends - they will leave in the middle of December to return to Ireland for good. We wish them well, but will miss them truly!! Thanks for the "last blast" Murphy's!! (I did say this was our last family outing, we are looking forward to an adult outing later this month!)