Sorry for leaving such a depressing post up for so long. Thanks for all of your kind words and for listening to me whine. I'm feeling better. Although we miss home, we are enjoying the Christmas season. Last week we had to make a last minute trip to Hong Kong to fix some visa issues. We were lucky enough to be there in the middle of a cold (FREEZING) weather patch, without any of our warm clothes. Totally awesome. We just piled on all the clothes we brought....we looked homeless. :) At least we were able to get some Christmas shopping in as well as a Mexican food fix. On our way back to China we picked up our good friends the Sanders and brought them with us. They only stayed for a day but we packed in as much fun as we could. Now on to the week before Christmas. I have lots of wrapping and menu planning to do but, I'm looking forward to it. Graham is so excited....which of course rubs off on us. :) I think he's a little confused about Santa. We don't really have a Santa to go and "see". (Except for the skinny, horribly clad Santa that the International school had at their Christmas program that we attended....) We did write Santa a letter.
A week and a half ago we invited our friends the Woodruffs over to decorate gingerbread houses. Not a whole lot of decorating went on but a lot of construction was happening. I spent an hour the night before running to the different "western" markets to see if I could find molasses. No go! Then I thought I could use graham crackers. No go! So we settled for wafer cookies. The ironic thing is that I bought so much candy to decorate them with...it never got used. They spent so much time on the actual construction that everyone was too burned out to decorate them completely. Oh well. Pretty impressive houses, if I do say so myself. We had fun drinking hot cocoa and listening to Christmas music. Graham even stayed up to help decorate OJ's but, he took to long building it and so I put him to bed. Don't worry he wasn't too heartbroken. He sat and ate the candy.
I know I complain a lot about living in China. I've been choosing lately to see the absolute worst in every situation. Not good. It never leads me to a good place. Its a beautiful time of year. A time to reflect and change and choose to live a fulfilling life...wherever I am.
5 comments:
Complaining about China is normal! Trust me we all have those days/weeks/months while living here :)
It can take a while to start seeing past all that and just start embracing the craziness and going with the flow of things. It's especially hard when coming from somewhere foreign but more established (HK).
Give it some time, come up and see us :) and we'll certainly try and get down to see you guys. In the mean time just keep hanging on, you're doing great. We love you guys. We miss you but can't wait to see you next year! Feb/March??
I hear ya sister about living in China. I had a horrible two or three months where I just felt like I couldn't stand it anymore! A friend called it the "China Rage" and I think it's an appropriate name for what you feel like during culture shock.
One thing I've discovered here which has helped me actually like something about China is shopping on Taobao. Have you heard of it? I bought all my Christmas presents on it and never had to leave home. Makes life so much easier and a lot of things are so much cheaper, plus you don't waste time traveling or haggling. Shipping is usually 5-10 yuan on almost everything. I'd be glad send you an email and give you the 411 on how to use it. It's awesome. You'd love it!
HI . .I have followed your blog for a little bit. I used to live in Taiwan about 38 years ago when my dad was a pilot in the Navy. For me it was an adventure. I have two sites that I will send you that will help make your little ones Christmas more American. I sent the two links to my son and DIL in Arizona. I will try to figure out how to add tem in another posting. Might need my sons help.
Ok Google . . Portable North Pole. . this is so cute you can actually have Santa talk to your child. Still looking for the other site. . sorry don't know how to get you the link.
Capture The Magic . . Google this . .you take a picture of your tree and then put it on this site and add Santa into the picture . . print it off and your child has proof that Santa actually came to your house. . enjoy.
Post a Comment